Actor regularly appeared in playwright Mamet’s works

Lionel Mark Smith, a character actor who was one of David Mamet’s stock film and stage players and whose casting in the play “Oleanna” created controversy in Los Angeles theater, died of cancer Feb. 13 at his Inglewood home, said his friend Paula Fins. He was 62.

Smith appeared in seven Mamet films, including “Edmond” (2005) and “Homicide” (1991), and many of his plays.

One of them was “Oleanna,” which was set to debut at the Mark Taper Forum in 1994 when playwright Mamet insisted on casting Smith as a professor in his two-character drama about sexual harassment on a college campus.

Taper officials reportedly contended that Smith, who was black, would inject a confusing racial angle into the play -- and refused to stage it. Smith charged the Taper with behaving in a racist manner, but theater officials denied it, citing other considerations for the decision, including being unfamiliar with Smith’s work.

Another production of “Oleanna,” with Smith appearing opposite Kyra Sedgwick, was soon staged at the 99-seat Tiffany Theater in West Hollywood. The review in The Times praised the pair’s near mastery “of Mamet’s rapid-fire exchanges” but concluded that the casting of Smith diluted the play’s feminist message.

In a remembrance of Smith sent to The Times, Mamet wrote: “He never made anything up, he always told the truth, and every scene and every project was better for his presence.”

Mamet gave his friend a memorable line in the 2000 film “State and Main,” a sendup of Hollywood. When asked, “What’s an associate producer credit?” Smith’s character replies: “It’s what you give your secretary instead of a raise.”

Two production assistants on “State and Main” reveled in the charismatic Smith’s tales of acting in Los Angeles and made a short film based on his life. Called “Larry” and starring Smith, it has yet to be released.

Born in Chicago in 1946, Smith was one of two children of Charles and Eva Mae Smith. His nickname was Lonnie.

“My father was a heroin dealer and my mother died of alcoholism. . . . I had to think my way out of the ghetto,” Smith told The Times in 1994.

During the Vietnam War, Smith served in the Army in Germany.

Like many regular Mamet players, Smith connected with the writer-director in Chicago theater. Smith appeared in the off-Broadway production of “Edmond” and later directed a Santa Monica revival of it. He remained proud of touring in the Athol Fugard play “Sizwe Banzi Is Dead” with Meshach Taylor, Fins said.

Over three decades, Smith appeared in more than 45 films and television shows, including “Hill Street Blues” and “NYPD Blue.” His final film performance was as a homeless man in the 2007 farce “Stuck.”

The twice-divorced Smith had no immediate survivors.

A memorial service is being planned.

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valerie.nelson@latimes.com