His father was an Air Force officer, and his childhood was spent in various places including Waco, McQueenie, and La Porte, Texas; Salina, Kansas; Sacramento, California; and Gifford, Illinois (all before he completed fifth grade) and then St. John's, Newfoundland and Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, where he graduated from high school.
All three feature con-artist, associate of Han Solo and previous owner of the Millennium Falcon, Lando Calrissian, first introduced in the film The Empire Strikes Back.
He served on the Platform Committee in 1977 and 1979, and in 1978 ran for the state legislature in Colorado, losing to Ronald Strahle by 10,895 votes to 1,925.
He next tried an abortive run for the Libertarian Party nomination, which ended almost as quickly when, in the California primary, Harry Browne overwhelmingly defeated him, 71% to 9%.
Smith is the founder of, and regularly contributed essays to, The Libertarian Enterprise, an anarcho-capitalist and paleolibertarian journal.