By Christine Dolen

South Florida’s theater community lost one of its pioneering figures when producer-director Brian C. Smith died at his Fort Lauderdale home just before midnight Tuesday.

Smith, 70, was an actor, director and theatrical entrepreneur who started three for-profit Broward County theater companies: the Sea Ranch Dinner Theatre in 1972, the Oakland West Dinner Theatre in 1977 and the Off-Broadway on East 26th Street Theatre in Wilton Manors in 1988. He also served for several years as producer-director of the Carbonell Awards, which honor the best work in South Florida theater, and in 1992 received the Carbonells’ George Abbott Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts.

At his theaters, Smith presented everything from light comedies to heavyweight dramas and world premieres. He starred in some of his productions with impressive results, playing Brick opposite longtime friend Darcy Shean in Cat on a hot Tin Roof at the Oakland West, and turning in captivating performances in A Walk in the Woods in 1989 and M. Butterfly in 1993 at the Off-Broadway.

Tall, handsome and charismatic, Smith was an ambitious businessman and a personality. He delighted in cultivating an air of mystery about his life and in being the life of the party. As a producer-director, he gave work and Equity cards to countless actors.

Jan McArt, director of development for Lynn University Bachelor’s, master’s & online degrees’s theater arts program, ran Boca Raton’s Royal Palm Dinner Theatre during the years Smith was producing. He was her friend, a sometime costar in Royal Palm productions and, once, her director.

“He was charismatic and so fresh, a free spirit who was just out there, full of beans and so much fun,” McArt said Wednesday. “He was very, very good in everything I did with him. He had loads of personality. He was bright, quick-witted and as charming a friend as you can imagine.”

Smith lost the Off-Broadway in 1999 after falling behind in rent payments and, except for a role in the 2003 movie Cheerleader Autopsy, worked little as he battled health problems. He suffered another blow in 2009 when Jay Tompkins, for 45 years his partner in life and the theater business, passed away.

Smith, the third of six siblings, is survived by brothers Barry Smith of Port St. Lucie; Kevin Smith of Atlanta; Steven Smith of Lawrenceville, Ga., and sister Maura Tully of Greenwich, Conn. No funeral is planned, but a memorial service will take place in Fort Lauderdale at a location and time to be determined.