Kurtwood Smith remains grateful for 'Dead Poets Society'

When it comes to playing dads, there's no question that acclaimed actor Kurtwood Smith has a great paternal instinct, especially when it comes to the extremes of fatherhood.

Of course, he played Red Foreman, the quick-witted dad of Eric (Topher Grace) on the hit sitcom "That '70s Show" on Fox for eight seasons from 1998 to 2006; and in 1989 he commanded the screen in the Oscar Best Picture nominee "Dead Poets Society" as Mr. Perry -- the authoritative father of prep school student Neil (Robert Sean Leonard), who has no patience for behavior or activities that derail the plans he has for his son.

"Perry is a guy that didn't connect with his kid -- he loved his son, but he was also determined that his son was also going to do the right things," Smith told me in a recent interview. "Peter Weir and I decided that my character had come from an odd family background. He didn't understand the mistakes he was making. He worked hard all his life and was giving a lot of advantages to his son, and was insistent that he used all those advantages."

Directed by Peter Weir, "Dead Poets Society" makes its debut on Blu-ray (Touchstone Home Entertainment) Tuesday. The film, which won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar (for Tom Schulman) and was also nominated for Best Director and Best Actor (Robin Williams), stars Williams as John Keating, a graduate of the Welton Academy prep school who returns to his alma mater as an adult to teach English.

Thanks to his enthusiasm and unorthodox teaching methods, Keating, through the romantic world of poetry, immediately inspires his group of impressionable students, which includes Neil, Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke), Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles), Charlie Dalton (Gale Hansen) and Richard Cameron (Dylan Kussman). But Keating's mantra to his students to "seize the day" also raises the ire of Walton's administration and Mr. Perry, whose intolerance for his son's dreaming contributes to the elements of a family tragedy just waiting to happen.

There's no question that Smith has an incredible handle on playing a bad guy on several different levels. As the quintessential villain Clarence Boddicker in "RoboCop" he was ruthless and sadistic, while in "Dead Poets Society," he was, despite his character's good intentions, a killer of emotions. As it turned out, the two roles together added up to career thereafter that allowed him to play much more than just the "heavy."

"It's worked out OK for me," Smith said with a laugh. "I had done 'Robocop' before 'Dead Poets Society,' where I was a very different type of nasty. I got to play a funny, yet awful kind of guy. So the combination of two roles has allowed me to have a rather long career."

"Right away, I was sort of seen as an actor who had pretty good range," Smith added. "So I've been fortunate enough to do 'That '70s Show' as well as several other films, and people know and are willing to accept me doing several other things."

Smith, 68, has amassed dozens of credits since the release of "Dead Poets Society," including roles in such hits as "Broken Arrow," "Girl, Interrupted" and "Deep Impact"; and guest stints on several shows as "The X-Files," "24" and "Medium."

But perhaps more importantly, Smith has put his commanding voice to work in several animated projects, and he's particularly excited about his new role as the voice Lt. Gordon in the Warner Bros. series "Beware the Batman," scheduled to debut on Cartoon Network in 2013.

"They were comic books when I was a kid, so its great fun to be involved in the furthering of the series," Smith said.