Born in Pennsylvania's second-largest city, Pittsburgh, Arthur Paul Smith moved to Los Angeles and, by the time of his 22nd birthday in 1951, began a 31-year acting career which lasted until his retirement, at age 53, in 1982.

During the 1950s, he was seen in twenty-four theatrical features, from 1951's I Want You to 1959's The FBI Story, with his work in thirteen of those being uncredited and the remainder providing him with mostly small parts which were credited near the bottom of the cast list.

Smith was also in 24 television episodes encompassing eighteen series, from 1955's The Halls of Ivy, Navy Log and The 20th Century Fox Hour to 1959's Dinah Shore Show, in addition to a regular role on the 1959 sitcom Fibber McGee and Molly.

In the first of his five sitcoms, Smith plays the McGees' next-door neighbor Roy Norris, a family man with a wife (Elisabeth Fraser) and 11-year-old daughter (Barbara Beaird).

The plot centers around Sarah Green, a widow in her early sixties, who decides to acquire higher education, matriculates in her hometown college and interacts with, among others, her Cambridge University exchange professor (Cedric Hardwicke) and next-door neighbor George Howell, a character analogous to Smith's Roy Norris from Fibber McGee and Molly, replete with a no-nonsense wife (Aneta Corsaut).

As with Fibber McGee, the new series could not come even close to the success of the original and, after thirteen episodes, a midseason move from Tuesday to Wednesday night, along a title change designed to emphasize Berg's name, The Gertrude Berg Show, was unable to improve the ratings for the remaining thirteen episodes and abruptly ended its run in April 1962, without showing any repeats.

Although the show did receive two Emmy nominations, Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Series (Lead) for Gertrude Berg and Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role by an Actress for Mary Wickes, co-star Cedric Hardwicke, in a 1962 TV Guide article which focuses on his work in the series, and references him as "Sir Cedric", is quoted as commenting, "if you're going to work in rubbish, you might as well get paid for it".

Smith's character, Captain Martin, sometimes called Captain Martinson, was unnamed and barely noticeable in the earlier productions and his primary function in the TV series, as the immediate superior of the sergeant and his recruits, was to react in a series of surprised, uncomprehending, confused or bemused expressions upon hearing Will Stockdale's explanations delivered in his patented southern drawl and observing his ability to easily overcome any adversity.

The show completed a full season set of 34 episodes and 17 repeats in its Monday night at 8:30 time slot, but in a programming coincidence, was scheduled directly opposite Andy Griffith's sitcom on CBS and could not overcome the top-rated competition from the original Will Stockdale.

It was also immediately followed, at 8:30 on NBC, by another superhero spoof, Captain Nice which, in similar fashion, bestowed, through ingestion of pills or chemical concoction, superhuman powers upon a diffident, milquetoast protagonist.

[2] Playing Harley Trent, an agent for the Bureau, Smith, whose rounded-face, stretched-mouth caricature overemphasizes his trademark goofy, bemused smile, is shown third, following Strimpell and Dick Gautier as Hal, Beamish's best friend.

Universal Television, which produced the series, subsequently edited three of the episodes into a feature film, The Pill Caper, which was put into TV syndication.

During the second season, the opening credits showed, at the office, Doris' co-workers "McLean Stevenson as Mr. Nicholson and Rose Marie as Myrna", playing the editor and the wisecracking secretary.

After departing Doris Day in 1971, in his last eleven years in front of the cameras, Smith had small roles in a couple of made-for-TV movies and one theatrical feature (1972's Now You See Him, Now You Don't).

His final on-screen billing as Paul Smith was in "Mr. Mephisto", the second episode (broadcast September 18, 1976) of the Saturday morning live action children's series Monster Squad, playing a character named Officer McMacMac.