Film Producer, Film Director, Screenwriter. He was best known for making quick money-making low-budget comedies which led him to become one of the most prolific and popular Australian filmmakers of the silent era earning him such nicknames as "One Shot Beau," and "That'll Do Beau." He usually adapted his films from the works of the likes of the bush poet, journalist, and author, Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson (1864-1941), and the writer and bush poet Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson (1867-1922). He will be best remembered for his producing, directing, and writing, of the action-adventure film drama, "The Man From Snowy River" (1920). The film which was also directed by John Wells, which was based on the poem of the same name, "The Man From Snowy River," by Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, and which also starred Cyril Mackay, Stella Southern, Tal Ordell, Hedda Barr, John Cosgrove, Robert MacKinnon, John Faulkner, Charles Beetham, Dunstan Webb, Nan Taylor, James Coleman, and Con Berthal, tells the story of a country boy, Jim Conroy, who is living a dissolute life in the city, running around with vamp Helen Ross. When his father cuts him off, he is dumped by Helen Ross and returns to the bush. He is also best remembered for his series of films including, "Our Friends The Hayseeds" (1917), "The Hayseeds' Backblocks Show" (1917), "The Hayseeds Come To Sydney" (1917), "The Hayseeds' Melbourne Cup" (1918), "Townies And Hayseeds" (1923), "Prehistoric Hayseeds" (1923), and "The Hayseeds" (1933). He was born one of five children as Frank Beaumont Smith in Hallett, Australia, to Francis Trainger Smith (1854-1936), and his wife Mary Julia Blott Smith (1858-1929), on August 15, 1885. He was named after a popular single at the time, "Armes Beaumont." He was educated locally and attended the prestigious East Adelaide Public School and began writing as a child with many of his written works winning competitions by the time he was a teenager. Following his education, he found a job as a journalist with such newspaper publications as The Critic and The Register. He then founded his own small newspaper publication, the Seaside Topics in Victor Harbor, South Australia, which only ran for a short time, before he helped the poet and journalist Clarence Michael James Stanislaus "C.J." Dennis (1876-1938), to start the publication, The Gadfly, which was a weekly magazine which featured social gossip, and news and comments on stage and sport. Its contributors included Edward Dyson, George Henry Cochrane (also known as Grant Hervey), and artists including Ambrose Dyson, Will Dyson, Hal Gye, Ruby Lindsay, and H. Septimus Power, and it was produced in Adelaide, South Australia, from February 1906 to February 1909. During that time, he also lived in Sydney, Australia, where he worked for the publications of The Bulletin and Lone Hand, and was also secretary to Fordyce Wheeler who worked as an advertising manager for the publication of The Bulletin, as well as writing for the publication. Following his work in journalism, he turned to the theater. He first became the secretary for the theatrical entrepreneur William Anderson and then worked as press secretary for William Anderson's representative. He then toured Europe in 1909 and 1911, and while there he arranged for a European troupe of midgets called, "Tiny Town," to tour his native Australia where it was enormously successful, making him a profit of 425%. He later toured the "Tiny Town," show in South Africa, where it was a success, and Canada, where it flopped due to opposition from existing circuses. He also toured a show by the suffragette Muriel Matters which was not a success because the main market, suffragettes, could see her at women's clubs for free and he tried playwriting, working on an adaptation of "On Our Selection," by Steele Rudd. He wrote the first act on his own and then collaborated with Steel Rudd. The play was eventually rewritten by Bert Bailey to great success and he went into theatre management in 1914. He also toured in the stage productions of the plays "Mr Wu" (1914), "The Barrier" by Rex Beach, "No Mother To Guide Her," "A Girl's Cross Roads," "The Glad Eye," "Seven Little Australians" (1916), "While The Billy Boils" (1916), and "Joe Wilson And His Mates" (1916). During this time he made the transition to working in film. Besides, producing, directing, and writing, the action-adventure film drama, "The Man From Snowy River" (1920), and his series of films including, "Our Friends The Hayseeds" (1917), "The Hayseeds' Backblocks Show" (1917), "The Hayseeds Come To Sydney" (1917), "The Hayseeds' Melbourne Cup" (1918), "Townies And Hayseeds" (1923), "Prehistoric Hayseeds" (1923), and "The Hayseeds" (1933), his many other film credits as a film producer, film director, and a screenwriter include, "The Betrayer" (1921), "Desert Gold" (1919), "The Betrayer" (1921), "While The Billy Boils" (1921), "The Gentleman Bushranger" (1921), "The Digger Earl" (1924), "Joe" (1924), "Hullo Marmaduke" (1924), and "The Adventures Of Algy" (1925). During his filmmaking career, he worked in Australia, New Zealand, in Hollywood, California, and with the likes of Barry Lupino, Arthur Tauchert, Cecil Kellaway, and Claude Dampier, among many others. He also worked with J.C. Williamson and became the managing director of Williamson Films Ltd in Wellington, New Zealand, until he retired in 1925. He returned to films during the 1930s and did two more films. His last credited film as a film producer, film director, and screenwriter, was the adventure film, "Splendid Fellows" (1934). The film which was also produced by J.C. Williamson, which was also written for the screen by Kenneth Brampton, also starred Frank Leighton, Leo Franklyn, Frank Bradley, Eric Colman, Isabelle Mahon, Peggy Ross, Andrew Higginson, Charles Zoli, and Charles Kingsford Smith. He also continued to work for film producer J.C. Williamson until he sold out his interests for £15,000 with an additional £7,000. He then retired again, this time for good, to Killara, Sydney, Australia, in 1938. He passed away at the Royal North Shore Hospital in St Leonards, Australia, on January 2, 1950, at the age of 64. Following his death, his funeral service and cremation were held at Ernest Andrews Chapel in chatswood, Australia, and at the Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens and Crematorium in North Ryde, Australia. He was married to Elsie Fleming Smith (1882-1979), in Victoria, Australia, from March 11, 1911, until his death on January 2, 1950, at the age of 64. The couple had no children. On an interesting, his wife Elsie would comment on his scripts and his brother Gordon looked after company finances during his career, and also the National Library of Australia tracked down a collection of 300 reels of his films, including all his features. However, when the researchers arrived to collect it they were told that the entire collection had been burnt within the previous weeks, on the advice of an insurance company because of the film's inflammable nature.