- Mike Smith (actor)
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For other people named Michael Smith, see Michael Smith (disambiguation).
Mike Smith 
Mike Smith as Bubbles, April 2009.Born August 27, 1972
New Glasgow, Nova ScotiaOccupation Actor Years active 1995–present Mike Smith (born August 27, 1972)[1] is a Canadian actor and musician, most famous for playing Bubbles on Trailer Park Boys.
Contents
Personal life
Smith was born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, and grew up in Thorburn, Nova Scotia. He earned a degree in English from St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.[1] He played hockey for the Pictou County Weeks of the Nova Scotia Midget AAA Hockey League when he was in high school. For a short time in 2006, he was engaged to actress Nichole Hiltz. Smith is now with Lisa Melanson with whom he has two children, daughter Vella and son Vox.[2][3]
Musical Interest
Smith showed early signs of musical talent, after learning how to play the guitar at age seven. Before becoming involved in Trailer Park Boys, he was a guitarist in the rock band Sandbox,[1] and signed a record deal with EMI in Canada, and Nettwerk in the United States. Sandbox released two albums with EMI and Nettwerk, entitled Bionic and A Murder in the Glee Club. Sandbox was nominated for a Juno Award, East Coast Music Awards, and a CASBY Award.
Smith has worked on such films as The Weight of Water and Serendipity.[4]
Later, Smith performed as part of Bubbles & the Shit Rockers, a band featuring himself, founding Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, and Tom Wilson for the original song "Liquor & Whores" featured on Trailer Park Boys: The Movie Soundtrack. A Trailer Park Boys episode also features Smith's character Bubbles playing the 1977 Rush track "Closer to the Heart" with Alex Lifeson.
Smith has performed "Liquor & Whores" with Guns N' Roses on multiple occasions on their Chinese Democracy Tour Series, in 2006 and 2010.[5]
Smith has also recorded with Emm Gryner in "Get Brave" released in 2010.
Introduction to acting
Smith had been a long-time friend of Trailer Park Boys director Mike Clattenburg, and met Robb Wells (Ricky) and John Paul Tremblay (Julian) while sound mixing on the original TPB feature. Smith was "messing" around on the set one day and slipped into his Cart Boy character from the Mike Clattenburg short "The Cart Boy".[1] Clattenburg apparently realized the depth this character held, and the Cart Boy, now known as Bubbles, was written into the show. Bubbles was never intended to be a main character, but the more outrageously he behaved, the more audiences loved him. Bubbles then became one of the three main protagonists, having established that he knew Julian and Ricky from school back in the late 70s to high school in the late 80s.
Smith made a cameo appearance as Bubbles in Snow's (to whom he is related) 2002 music video Legal, but his swearing remains censored.[6] He was also featured in Country Star George Canyon's video for "Drinkin Thinkin", which showed Bubbles going after his real life girl friend Joanne. Mike and the rest of the Trailer park boys appeared in The Tragically Hip video, "The Darkest One". He has appeared in character as Bubbles at several Guns N' Roses 2006 Canadian tour dates and dates in Australia and Japan in 2007. Bubbles, along with Ricky and Julian, hosted the 2006 and the 2007 East Coast Music Awards, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and Halifax, Nova Scotia respectively.
In March 2008 Smith, along with three others, opened a sports bar in Halifax called "Bubba Ray's".[7]
Smith has opened his own bar "Bubbles' Mansion", located in Downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia. The bar, partly owned by Smith, closed its doors on Wednesday, March 24, 2010 after 4 years of operation.[8]
In 2010, Smith reunited with many of his former Trailer Park Boys castmates in the new series The Drunk and On Drugs Happy Fun Time Hour.[9]
He also performed a live version of "Closer to the Heart" with classic rock band Rush.
References
- ^ a b c d http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1034266/bio
- ^ Winnipeg Sun, Entertainment Section, 4 April 2006
- ^ SEE Magazine: Issue #671: October 5, 2006
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1034266/
- ^ http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Review+Guns+Roses+Scotiabank+Place/2509190/story.html
- ^ You Tube - SNOW "Legal"
- ^ http://www.thecoast.ca/Articles-i-2008-03-13-151808.114125_Bubba_Rays.html
- ^ http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2010/03/24/ns-bubbles-mansion-closed.html
- ^ "The Boys are back and on drugs". The Globe and Mail, July 12, 2010.
External links
Categories:- 1972 births
- Canadian film actors
- Canadian television actors
- Living people
- Musicians from Nova Scotia
- People from Pictou County, Nova Scotia
- Actors from Nova Scotia
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