J. Smith-Cameron

Gifted stage, film and TV actress J. Smith-Cameron was born Jeanie Smith in Louisville, Kentucky, and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, the daughter of an architect. Known simply as J. Smith by us students of the Florida State University School of Theatre program in the mid-1970s, I was privileged to work with and witness firsthand the extent of J.'s talent early in the game. A slender figure with tight, curly hair and intent, hooded eyes, she showed amazing talent and potential back then. Despite her age, she made a dazzling young "Anne Frank" in "The Diary of Anne Frank" and an equally touching and memorable "Helen Keller" in "The Miracle Worker". She was a wonderfully bizarre "Honey" in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and showed off her skill and versatility in an all-female version of William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew". J.'s older sister, JoAnn, also attended FSU at the time and performed with me in a production of the classic Iranian allegory, "The Butterfly" (Shaparak Khanoom), by Bijan Mofid, directed by his actor/brother Ardavan Mofid. JoAnn later became a teacher.