He appeared in the early sequences of Love Child playing Amy Madigan's hitch-hiking boyfriend. Smith starred as Bobby Fontana in 1985's The Heavenly Kid. In 1987, he played the title role in the failed television pilot The Man Who Fell to Earth which was based on the David Bowie film from the 1970s. Smith landed a starring role in the short-lived Fox comedy television series Karen's Song. He also co-starred with Sharon Stone and Miguel Ferrer in Badlands 2005, an unsold TV pilot-movie directed by Scottish-born George Miller (not to be confused with the other George Miller who directed the Mad Max movies). He appeared as Jinglebells Cody, a slave fight trainer, in Quentin Tarantino's 2012 film Django Unchained.