Paul's heart was bigger than he was.

This is so cool watching this interview seeing the real man. He plays a cruel and sadistic alien in Midnight Express as the head guard and/or warden that doesn’t speak English, a person so horrible and beyond redemption, yet this is a very warm and personable man in real life.

What a superb actor and a real gentleman.Much missed.Thanks for posting this wonderful interview.

What a nice man! Shows how great an actor he was in playing Hamidou. RIP

THE BEAST RABBAN😁👍 RIP PAUL SMITH😩

Can't believe this sweet ,smart person played the Evil Hamidou in Midnight Express

Hey... That's Bluto!!

So scary in Midnight Express...

thanks for posting this. He was a very talented and interesting man as well as a good actor.

I loved this guy. He deserved more mainstream stuff, he was a real screen presence.

He was my great great great uncle by blood I look quite a bit like him when I grow a beard out, I miss him quite a bit, I was lucky enough to have spent time with him before he moved to Israel and got to sit down and talk to him and take pictures before he left for Israel and then lost all contact after that, I was sad to have found out that he passed, thanks for uploading this video, I want to try and find the woman who did this interview to get an official copy of it so I have it.

Cool, great actor, great man, thanks for the upload, Cheers 🇦🇺 from Australia ✌️

He was always fantastic! He was born to play Bluto in ”Popeye”. He was so underrated!

A very talented actor and sadly missed.

what a great storyteller this guy was ... his Hamidou is engrane in my memory since I saw Midnight Express being a kid

Will-Yem Hayes.... Great actor and sadly missed, thanks very much for posting this interview.

Paul Smith was such a nice man. What an ordeal it must have been for him to play the role of a mean and cruel warden.

How the hell was this charming amusing fella Hamidou? There is not even a hint of that character in there.....I met Paul at a health club around 1982, he was sitting there having juice and of course I had to talk some Midnight Express with him. He was so nice and I shook his hand and his hand was enormous. I cannot imagine any other actor playing a more realistic Hamidou.

Thanks so much for posting this. I really enjoyed it. Loved his films and had no idea he was such a lovely guy. Just shows what a good actor he was and he was way more in demand than I realised. RIP Paul.

Charming man. Wish I had met him. Thanks for sharing!

I Love the movies with michael coby! They are amazing. Thank you Paul.

In Midnight Express, Brad Davis played Billy Hayes. Brad Davis died from AIDS in 1991.

Just finished watching the classic robin williams popeye! Now I gotta see midnight express I was curious about Paul smith because I had recognized him in Dune! He plays an incredible heavy in these older classic films, thanks for this interview!!

Blewto my mind when I found out he was the Russian Duke in Maverick, too.

Paul L Smith rest in peace

This is how good "Midnight Express", really was. Each actor played their part to the maximum and Paul Smith was no different when he played Hamidou. This is why it is actually shocking to think that this is the man who played Hamidou. How is it possible? He didn't have to do much or say much in that film just to make his presence known. I don't know much about him but what I have seen, such a brilliant actor that you just think he is Hamidou in real life.

This interview with Paul Smith is better than any ASMR out there 😴

for calumny midnight express, ignorant people had debated hamıdou as a, novice armanian man called paul smith had starred against turkish nations. Now after you reaearched all of these figments, I was convinced Paul smith was skilled actor and authentic american man who raiseed up there and immigrated to İsrael

GREATEST CHARACTER ACTOR EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! POPEYE>>MIDNIGHT EXPRESS>DUNE..RABBAN!!!!! RABBAN!!!!! WE ARE VERY LUCK TO HAVE HIM - THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS- YOU ARE A FU**ING GENIUS.

Tutto l'opposto dell'uomo cattivo di "Fuga di mezzanotte"! Un gigante buono, proprio come Bud Spencer! R.I.P. Paul! 🙏♥️😍

Amazing! I always thought this guy was a bad guy! and he seemed very smart and friendly!! Great actor, and cool guy!

30:20 amen, sir. And you need a lot of strength to say that today when anyone seem easily dismissive of all violence presented in movies and tv series. Kudos, sir! and RIP.

amazing the scariest bad guy ever in movies,is actually a regular/nice guy......RIP,awesome actor.still scary.fantastic actor.

Great actor

Paul L. Smith died in 2012. Before he died, it said his date of birth was February 5, 1939 but that was false information. After he died it was revealed that his actual date of birth was June 24, 1936. Paul L. Smith died before his 76th birthday.

First time I saw Paul Smith was in "Return Of The Tiger" and he was excellent. The same with "Midnight Express". Although "Popeye" wasn't a great movie, he was a great Blutto. After that Hollywood didn't know what to do with him. He would had been a great action star. Rest In Peace Mr. Smith, you were awesome.

I love him in dune and Popeye a great actor

It just goes to show you that the people who play the meanest, most vicious "bad guys" in films are usually the nicest people in real life.

Paul smith was truly frightening in Midnight Express.

Paul L. Smith was also in Ten Little Indians.

I think I like this guy,he seemed like a kind.Thoughtful man who loved his art he was a real that guy actor plus’s anyones who is a Kurosawa fan gets an A in my book. I only found out about him after he passed. I first saw him in Crime Wave

Era muy buen actor y mas allá de sus papeles de malvado (que eran solo actuaciones, obviamente) era un muy buen tipo en la vida real, muy querido.

He needs no encouraging - just tells a great, long story...no questions...excellent.

I like him he is great actor..

yes, they cut too much of him in 'dune'.'

When he talks he sounds like Dom deluise Looks like him a bit to

What a nice guy from Mass..

First time i ever saw him was on Maverick ,Popeye which i love....Midnight is also one of my fave,never knew he spoke English so well

Nice guy, perfectly cast as Bluto and was great as Hamidou in Midnight Express always wondered what the real Hamidou was like I’ve seen interviews with the real Billy Hayes he doesn’t really say much about him other than ‘he was a sadist’

Rest in peace, Paul L Smith.

Mi recuerdo no me hace verlo un abuelo bueno. 🦍

Darn I hated him on midnight express!, what a good actor!

I never travelled to Turkey because of this guy

I saw him in an episode of Have Gun Will Travel where he played a Swedish servant. I think it was his second role and he was awful so I had to find out about him. He clearly improved

He played a great Bluto in the Popeye movie. R.I.P.

That was quite an act for a very nice man like Paul L Smith to play the part of a mean and cruel warden in the movie Midnight Express.

GREAT SMILE

I wanted to write a Paul Smith biography, or ghostwrite a Paul Smith autobiography. I was intrigued with the arc of his life story, first trying to make a double dream come true by pursuing an international career while based in Israel-- there are actors with international careers who are based in Paris, Rome, so why not Israel?-- but eventually returning to the USA where the work was, making movies with some of the most fascinating directors and fellow actors, and then at retirement age coming back to Israel again, where unfortunately he found himself a bit of a Rip Van Winkle. Nobody seemed to have a job for him, even as a volunteer acting teacher. You could see him outside a modest cafe in Raanana, sipping coffee and shooting the breeze with the other old men. In Hebrew. At first he seemed interested in my proposal, but on second thought he turned it down, saying he'd met a lot of nice people over the years but a lot of bastards too and he couldn't tell the truth about his life without saying bad things about several people who were still alive.

@41.59 original take on raimi then 42.20 UPDATED take on raimi ( a big , BIG, BIG director by this time w/ his spiderman franchise- here the update is a bit more "COMPLIMENTARY" heh heh heh

i came here to see real Hamido.

Hey do you have an interview with Jack Taylor the other Pieces actor

11:56 But you did though, that one guy just made a rude comment to his friend but you put 28 people in a hospital.

🤔Me hubiera gustado la traducion en castellano😢😭sufri al ver la pelicula expreso de medianoche

Paul L. Smith was also in Jungle Warriors.

What was Paul's born ethnicity and religion? I know he converted to Judaism later on in life, but was never sure what his actual religion was.

Remember the end of Midnight Express when Billy tried to con him with money to take him to the sanitarium so he could escape and he took him to a dressing room? Vilyum High-yes? You’ve been here too long Vilyum High-yes! *racks him in the crotch, throws him around; then slaps him across the place*. Blank your family and I will blank you Vilyum High-yes! He unbuttons his pants and Billy actually shoved him forward impaling his head on a blunt wooden hook and he gets out. In reality, the real Billy Hayes was on a prison island and escaped on a dinghy in a storm in the middle of the night, went to the mainland, and ran to Greece. This was in the movie for budget reasons.

attore eccellente

Bluto from popeye

he looks like an SHW oly lifter

17:40 if he did that to me I’d run too and I’m not a kid lol

He's a clone of Bud Spencer (Carlo Pedersoli)

did he say abything about brad davis?

How did he die? It is quite a mystery, isn't it?

yo lo odie en expresó de media noche, gran actor

Hamidou in Midnight Express is the worst villain in cinema history

Hamidou...

sweet giant

Grat, understimated actor...

Hey the gay jail warden!

Fine...good....man to man - we fight now, and when finished I bring HAMIDOU, and he kick your fockin' ass!