Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 27, 1902 and his family later moved to Buffalo, New York,[1] where he was a 1922 graduate of Lafayette High School.

[2] Smart told a reporter that before entering show business, he held thirty jobs in three years, including selling shoe polish, heaving coal on a boat, being a fire chief in a factory, drawing cartoons for a newspaper, and designing ads for an advertising agency.

[3] Smart is best known for his lead as Brad Runyon in the detective show The Fat Man, which aired on ABC Radio from 1946 to 1951.

[5] He was also an accomplished stage actor and played roles in major productions of A Bell For Adano and Waiting for Godot.

He was also a member of the casts of The Family Hour[4] and The Teen-Timers Club[4]: 327  and was heard frequently on Grand Central Station and Inner Sanctum Mystery.