Paul Rothwell-Smith

Paul was born on 1st September 1961 in Nottingham, England. His mother Susan Smith was a ballet dancer. Paul showed a gift in drawing and painting from an early age and in his teens he was a talented long-distance runner, winning many competitions in the mid 1970's. After leaving school in 1978 his parents divorced and he went to join a local theatre company appearing in many dramas and musical comedies, while he was there he appeared in the film 'Silver Dream Racer' starring David Essex in 1980. In 1981 he studied Media at Trent Polytechnic and later studied Art & Design. Paul married in 1984 but divorced after only Two years, leaving him bringing his daughter up on his own, during that time he had many art exhibitions in England and Wales and also began a gardener business. Since 2000 he as given most of his time helping homeless people, first as a catering manager and then a support worker and also did some teaching for people with mental health problems in drawing and painting. He published two books 'British Silent Film Performers (2006) and American Silent Performers (2006). In 2010 he left his job as a support worker to concentrate full time on his third book 'Silent Films! the Performers' published in 2011, which is an historical reference of 3712 silent film performers from all over the world, for this he got a two page spread about the book in the local newspapers. In 2012 Paul started a mobile cinema business showing mostly musical comedies from the 1930's to the 1950's.