# Rex Smith
**Rex Smith** (born 1955) is an American actor and singer who rose to fame in the late 1970s as a rock frontman, a Top 10 hitmaker with "You Take My Breath Away," and a teen idol, then sustained a Broadway career across three decades in musicals including *[Grease](https://www.edgepedia.org/grease-musical)*, *The Pirates of Penzance*, *Grand Hotel*, *Sunset Boulevard*, *The Scarlet Pimpernel*, *Annie Get Your Gun*, and *Kiss Me, Kate*.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809688/bio/) • [2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/rex-smith/) On television he starred as Officer Jesse Mach in the 1985 series *Street Hawk* and was the first actor to play the [Marvel Comics](https://www.edgepedia.org/marvel-comics) superhero Daredevil in live action, in the 1989 TV movie *The Trial of the Incredible Hulk*.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809688/bio/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | Jacksonville, Florida; most sources give the year as 1955,[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809688/bio/) while IBDB lists 1956[3](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/rex-smith-60441) |
| Occupation | Actor, singer, Broadway performer[2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/rex-smith/) |
| Signature song | "You Take My Breath Away" (1979), which reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent 16 weeks on the chart[4](https://musicchartsarchive.com/singles/rex-smith/you-take-my-breath-away) |
| Breakthrough role | Michael Skye in the NBC TV movie *Sooner or Later* (1979), which made him an overnight teen idol[5](https://parade.com/entertainment/1979-pop-smash-sooner-or-later-rex-smith) |
| Broadway debut | As Danny Zuko in *Grease* in 1978[6](https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Rex-Smith/) |
| Theater award | Theater World Award, 1981, for Frederic in *The Pirates of Penzance*[3](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/rex-smith-60441) |
| TV milestones | Jesse Mach in *Street Hawk* (1985); Daredevil/Matt Murdock in *The Trial of the Incredible Hulk* (1989)[7](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809688/) |
## Rock years and the band Rex
Smith began his career fronting a hard rock band named Rex, which secured a deal with [Columbia Records](https://www.edgepedia.org/columbia-records) and released a heavy metal album with tracks such as "Violent Playground" and "Call Her 'Easy'."[2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/rex-smith/) In the mid-to-late 1970s the band toured as an opening act, primarily for [Ted Nugent](https://www.edgepedia.org/ted-nugent), and also shared bills with Foreigner, Boston, AC/DC, and [Tom Petty](https://www.edgepedia.org/tom-petty) in 1977 and 1978.[2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/rex-smith/) • [8](https://www.talkinbroadway.com/page/regional/seattle/se70.html)
In interviews he has described the turning point in that touring life. His band was on the road with Ted Nugent and [Lynyrd Skynyrd](https://www.edgepedia.org/lynyrd-skynyrd) as co-headliners; after the [Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash](https://www.edgepedia.org/lynyrd-skynyrd-plane-crash) three days before a scheduled concert at [Madison Square Garden](https://www.edgepedia.org/madison-square-garden), Rex became the special guest of the show instead of the opening act, and people who saw him at that concert helped lead to his casting in the TV movie *Sooner or Later*.[9](https://www.theatermania.com/news/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-rex_1576/)
## Sooner or Later and teen idol fame
The NBC television movie *Sooner or Later*, which aired in 1979, cast Smith as Michael Skye, a seventeen-year-old musician who becomes involved with his fourteen-year-old guitar pupil, played by Denise Miller. The film functioned as a long-form music video woven into a love story, and it introduced Smith to a mass young audience.[5](https://parade.com/entertainment/1979-pop-smash-sooner-or-later-rex-smith) • [2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/rex-smith/)
The soundtrack produced his defining hit. "You Take My Breath Away" entered the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1979 at number 84 and climbed to a peak of number 10 in late June, remaining on the chart for 16 weeks.[4](https://musicchartsarchive.com/singles/rex-smith/you-take-my-breath-away) On the Cash Box singles chart the song reached number 7 in the week ending June 30, 1979.[10](https://hitsofalldecades.com/chart_hits/index2.php?do_pdf=1&id=374&option=com_content) The single and the album *Sooner or Later* earned gold and platinum certifications respectively, and Smith's face appeared for years on the covers of teen magazines such as 16 and Teen Beat.[11](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/rex-smith-mn0000467543) • [1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809688/bio/) In his own account, the fame arrived abruptly: the day after the movie aired, he was mobbed while shopping in a department store.[12](https://patch.com/california/los-angeles/conversation-rex-smith)
## Broadway career
He made his acting debut in the Broadway musical in 1978, taking the role of Danny Zuko; IBDB credits him as a Danny Zuko replacement in the original production circa 1979, as a performer in the 1979 company, and later as Danny Zuko original in the 1994 revival.[6](https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Rex-Smith/) • [3](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/rex-smith-60441)
His star-making stage role came as Frederic in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of *The Pirates of Penzance*, first in [Central Park](https://www.edgepedia.org/central-park) and then on Broadway from January 1981, opposite [Linda Ronstadt](https://www.edgepedia.org/linda-ronstadt).[2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/rex-smith/) • [3](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/rex-smith-60441) The production brought him the Theater World Award in 1981, and he went on to star in the 1983 film adaptation alongside [Kevin Kline](https://www.edgepedia.org/kevin-kline).[3](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/rex-smith-60441) • [13](https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/new-again-rex-smith)
A sequence of leading roles followed. He appeared as Spangler in *The Human Comedy* (1984), as Tony in a 1985 *West Side Story*, as Billy Crocker in *Anything Goes* (1988), as a replacement Felix von Gaigern in *Grand Hotel* (1990, substituting for the ailing David Carroll), as Joe Gillis in *Sunset Boulevard* opposite [Diahann Carroll](https://www.edgepedia.org/diahann-carroll) in Canada in 1995, as Chauvelin in *The Scarlet Pimpernel* (replacing [Terrence Mann](https://www.edgepedia.org/terrence-mann) from October 1998 to May 1999), as Frank Butler in *Annie Get Your Gun* (2000), and as Fred Graham/Petruchio in the tour and Broadway revival of *Kiss Me, Kate* (2001 to 2002).[3](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/rex-smith-60441) • [2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/rex-smith/) In a 2002 interview he described the transition from the tenor parts of his youth, such as Frederic and Joe Gillis, to the baritone roles of his later career.[8](https://www.talkinbroadway.com/page/regional/seattle/se70.html) He returned to his hit musical in 2007, playing the Pirate King in *The Pirates of Penzance* 25 years after originating Frederic, and earned a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle nomination.[7](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809688/)
## Television and the Daredevil milestone
From 1982 to 1983 Smith hosted the pop music weekly countdown program *Solid Gold*, replacing [Andy Gibb](https://www.edgepedia.org/andy-gibb); IMDb lists three episodes as host.[2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/rex-smith/) • [11](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/rex-smith-mn0000467543) • [1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809688/bio/) In 1985 he starred as Officer Jesse Mach in the short-lived ABC science-fiction crime series *Street Hawk*, a role he has said let him leave the film studio on the title motorcycle and ride around town.[14](https://www.visordown.com/features/interviews/first-person-rex-smith)
His 1989 appearance in *The Trial of the Incredible Hulk* carries a particular distinction: he was the first actor to play Marvel Comics' character Matt Murdock/Daredevil in live action.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809688/bio/) Beginning in 1990 he spent two years on the CBS daytime drama *As the World Turns*, and through the 1990s he took guest roles on series including *Murder, She Wrote*, *Baywatch*, *JAG*, *Caroline in the City*, and *The Sentinel*.[2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/rex-smith/)
## Later career
In 2018, Smith played Billy Mack, an aging rock star staging a comeback, in the world-premiere stage production *Love Actually Live* at The Wallis in Beverly Hills, performed with an all-star cast and a 15-piece orchestra; the role had been played on film by [Bill Nighy](https://www.edgepedia.org/bill-nighy), and Smith summarized the casting as "an aging rock star playing an actor."[7](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809688/) • [15](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-12-12/rex-smith-love-actually-live-wallis) In 2018 also he brought his autobiographical concert *Confessions of a Teen Idol* to New York's 54 Below.[16](https://www.theatermania.com/news/for-former-teen-idol-rex-smith-this-is-the-moment_69622/) Beyond performing, AllMusic records that in the early 2000s he launched his own website and issued a new album titled after his lone hit single, 2002's *You Take My Breath Away*.[11](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/rex-smith-mn0000467543)
## Notes on sources
Published references disagree on Smith's birth year: IMDb, TV Insider, AllMusic, and NNDB state 1955,[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809688/bio/) • [2](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/rex-smith/) • [11](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/rex-smith-mn0000467543) while IBDB and BroadwayWorld list 1956.[3](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/rex-smith-60441) • [6](https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Rex-Smith/) This article reports the disagreement rather than resolving it.
## References
1. [Rex Smith – Biography, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809688/bio/)
2. [Rex Smith – Actor, Singer, TV Insider](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/rex-smith/)
3. [Rex Smith – Broadway Cast & Staff, IBDB](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/rex-smith-60441)
4. ["You Take My Breath Away" by Rex Smith – Chart History, Music Charts Archive](https://musicchartsarchive.com/singles/rex-smith/you-take-my-breath-away)
5. [1979 Pop Smash Hailed From a Coming-of-Age TV Movie, Parade](https://parade.com/entertainment/1979-pop-smash-sooner-or-later-rex-smith)
6. [Rex Smith (Actor) – Broadway & Theatre Credits, BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Rex-Smith/)
7. [Rex Smith, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809688/)
8. [Interview with Rex Smith, Talkin' Broadway (2002)](https://www.talkinbroadway.com/page/regional/seattle/se70.html)
9. [Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Rex, TheaterMania (2001)](https://www.theatermania.com/news/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-rex_1576/)
10. [Cash Box Magazine's Top Singles, Hits of All Decades](https://hitsofalldecades.com/chart_hits/index2.php?do_pdf=1&id=374&option=com_content)
11. [Rex Smith – Biography, Discography & Reviews, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/rex-smith-mn0000467543)
12. [A Conversation with Rex Smith, Patch (2023)](https://patch.com/california/los-angeles/conversation-rex-smith)
13. [New Again: Rex Smith, Interview Magazine (1981 interview, republished 2015)](https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/new-again-rex-smith)
14. [First Person: Rex Smith, Visordown](https://www.visordown.com/features/interviews/first-person-rex-smith)
15. ['Love Actually Live' brings Rex Smith back into the spotlight, Los Angeles Times (2019)](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-12-12/rex-smith-love-actually-live-wallis)
16. [For Former Teen Idol Rex Smith, This Is the Moment, TheaterMania](https://www.theatermania.com/news/for-former-teen-idol-rex-smith-this-is-the-moment_69622/)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › American actors: 1970s to 1990s › Surnames Sm to Su*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license