Winston Smith - in Other Media

In Other Media

The character of Smith has appeared on radio, television and film in adaptations of the novel. The first actor to play the role was David Niven in an 27 August 1949 radio adaptation for NBC's NBC University Theater; the next radio Winston Smith was played by Richard Widmark on a 26 April 1953 broadcast of The United States Steel Hour on ABC. In BBC One's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954) Smith was played by Peter Cushing, and in a 1965 BBC adaptation by David Buck. In the 1956 film, Edmond O'Brien performed the role. In a 1965 dramatisation broadcast on BBC Home Service, Patrick Troughton voiced the part. John Hurt played Smith in the 1984 film adaptation, 1984. (Hurt also played a Big Brother-style figure named Adam Sutler in the 2005 film V for Vendetta.)

Winston Smith is also the name of a cat owned by a pro-choice activist in Stephen King's Insomnia.