Smithee is Hollywood’s most mysterious director (Picture: Getty)

There is no anagram in the history of the world more apropo than the conversion of Alan Smithee to The Alias Men.

As a director Alan Smithee has 88 credits, according to IMDB. But as a man he’s non-existent.

Because, quite simply, he doesn’t exist.

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Since 1969 Alan Smithee has been a pseudonym used by Hollywood directors that no longer want to be associated with a film.


Actor Richard Widmark is figuratively the father of Alan Smithee, as it was his dispute with director Robert Totten on Death Of A Gunfighter that lead to his ‘birth’.

Don Siegel was brought in as Totten’s replacement on the film, but since Totten and Siegel had split the shoot, and the final edit consisted of an equal amount of their footage, neither felt right about taking the credit.



Stuck in a bit of a quandary, the Directors Guild Of America agreed and decided to insist the mysterious Alan Smithee had overseen the film instead.

It was a name that was unique enough not to already be taken, yet dull enough to avoid attention.

Dennis Hopper has used the Alan Smithee pseudonym (Picture: Charley Gallay/Getty Images for CineVegas)

It was also one of the greatest creations in Tinseltown history, and the use of Alan Smithee (or sometime Allen Smithee) soon became a hearty inside Hollywood joke.

It was a slow start for good ol’ Smithee, though.

Alan Smithee’s next film came in 1980 when Jud Taylor was displeased with City In Fear.

Taylor clearly felt the love as he also went back and insisted that 1968’s Fade In was directed by Smithee, too.

City In Fear kickstarted a trend, though, and through the ‘80s and ‘90s Smithee had become Hollywood’s most elusive workaholic.

Stuart Rosenberg turned to him for 1986’s Let’s Get Garry, Dennis Hopper used him for 1990’s Catchfire, as did Rick Rosenthal with 1994’s The Birds II: Land’s End, while Smithee had his biggest success with 1996’s Hellraiser: Bloodline, which grossed $9.3 million.

Smithee’s biggest hit was Hellraiser: Bloodline (Picture: Dimension Films)

By this point even Hollywood heavyweights David Lynch (Dune), Michael Mann (Heat, The Insider), William Friedkin (The Guardian), and Martin Brest (Scent Of A Woman) were utilising Smithee’s name for unsatisfactory television and in-flight edits of their output.

But, like so many other people in Hollywood, fame ultimately brought on Alan Smithee’s downfall.

The inside joke became too popular with the release of 1998’s An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, which told the story of a director (Eric Idle) that was unfortunately named Alan Smithee.

This ever so slight popularisation – the film only grossed $52,850 – of the Alan Smithee name ruined the joke, especially after it won five Golden Raspberry Awards.

By the year 2000 the Directors Guild Of America had disowned Alan Smithee, and while he has since popped up for scraps across a variety of different mediums, the days when he was being described by the DGA magazine as “the most well known nobody in Hollywood” have long gone, and are never coming back.

RIP Alan Smithee.

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