The American actor Russ Tamblyn played his best roles, perhaps, back in the fifties and sixties. He is known to the American audience primarily for the 1961 film musical "West Side Story". However, even after that, he still sometimes delighted the general public with vivid images. So, for example, in 1990, he appeared in the David Lynch TV series "Twin Peaks" as an eccentric psychiatrist Lawrence Jacoby.
Early biography and first film roles
Russ Tamblyn (full name - Russell Irving Tamblyn) was born in 1934 in an acting family in Los Angeles. He spent his childhood in this wonderful city.
From the age of six, Russ was engaged in dance and gymnastics. Moreover, from an early age he performed in one of the local cinemas during intermissions - he showed the audience his acrobatic performances.
in 1948 Russ took part in a color film from the RKO studio "The Boy with Green Hair". Interestingly, his character had no words here, and Russ was not listed in the credits either. But a year later, he starred in the movie "The Boy from Cleveland", and here he played one of the key roles - a difficult teenager Johnny, who is gradually drawn into the world of street crime. At the same time, Johnny is an ardent fan of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. And in the end, it is this fact that will help the teenager to escape from the bad influence of the street …
After that, Russ had quite large roles in a number of popular films of those years - "Samson and Delilah" (1949) "Father of the Bride" (1950), "The Vicious Years" (1950) and "You Can't Feel Younger" (1951) etc.
Tamblyn's career from 1952 to 1964
In 1952, he played the role of Private Jimmy McDermid in the military drama Back Down, Hell! And his performance in this film was very impressed by the representatives of the studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). They offered Russ a long-term contract, and the actor put his signature under it.
Russ's first role under this contract was as a soldier in a boot camp in Richard Brooks's Take the High (1953). And the next year, 1954, he starred in Stanley Donen's musical "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." In this film, he played a character named Gideon. For this role, the skills of a gymnast and an acrobat were very useful to him. And in general, this role brought great success to Russ and brought his career to a new level.
After that, Tamblyn (who, by the way, was not only an acrobat, but also a good dancer) began to receive offers for filming in musicals quite often. One of these musicals is Avral on Deck (1955). In it, Russ Tamblyn played the sailor Danny Xavier Smith. For this work, Tamblyn received a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer Actor.
A year later, Tamblyn became an Oscar nominee for the role of the shy guy Norman Page in the drama Payton Place (as the best supporting actor).
However, the greatest popularity was brought to him by his participation in the musical film "West Side Story". The script for this film is based on Shakespeare's story of Romeo and Juliet, transported into the 20th century, in the slums of New York, dominated by youth gangs. Russ Tamblyn played here the leader of one of these gangs - Riff.
In 1963, Tamblyn starred in the classic horror film The Devil's Lair (also known as The Ghost of the Hill House). A year later, in 1964, the movie "Long Ships" was released. This film tells about the incredible adventures of the Vikings, who went in search of a mysterious artifact - the Golden Bell. Here Tamblyn appeared in the form of one of the Vikings - Orm.
Further work of the actor
In the mid-sixties, Tamblyn's career began to decline sharply. He began to appear only in independent films, in films that were practically unknown to the wide audience. Here are just a few of the titles of these paintings - "The Monsters of Frankenstein: Sanda vs. Gaira" (1966), "Sadists of Satan" (1969), "Shout!" (1969) Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971), Black Mayhem (1976).
It was the same in the eighties. In addition, it is known that during this time Russ worked as a choreographer.
Only in 1989 he again managed to light up in a major project - in the television series "Quantum Leap". More specifically, he can be seen in episode 7 of season 2 - here he plays the writer Bert Glaserman.
And in 1990, David Lynch entrusted him with the role of the strange psychiatrist Lawrence Jacoby in his cult TV series Twin Peaks. Tamblyn also took part in the filming of the feature film Twin Peaks: Through the Fire (1992), which is, in fact, a prequel to the series. However, all the scenes with his hero were cut during editing.
Until the end of the nineties, Tamblyn managed to star in several more films - "Young" (1994), "Rebellious" (1995), "Ghost Dog" (1997), "Reap the Storm" (1999). Also during this period, he appeared as a guest on TV series such as "Babylon 5" and "Detective Nash Bridges"
In the new century, Russ Tamblyn also had several interesting (though usually secondary) roles. For example, in the 2010 television series Todd Margaret's Fatal Mistakes, he played Chuck Margaret, the protagonist's father. In 2011, he starred in Nicholas Winding Röfn's stylish thriller Drive, and in 2012, in one of Tarantino's best films, Django Unchained.
In 2017, Tamblyn returned to the role of Lawrence Jacoby in the revival of Twin Peaks. And, for example, in 2018, he played in the Netflix series "The Haunting of the Hill House" (in the episode "The Woman with the Broken Neck").
Personal information
In 1956, Russ Tamblyn married the film actress Venice Stevenson, but this relationship was short-lived - a year later, the couple filed for divorce.
In 1960, in Las Vegas, Russ married dancer Sheila Elizabeth Kempton. This marriage lasted almost twenty years, until 1979. It is also worth noting that from this marriage, Tamblyn has a daughter named Chyna.
For the third time Russ married in 1981 - to Bonnie Murray (by occupation she is a singer and composer). Two years later, on May 14, 1983, they had a daughter, Amber. By the way, Amber is also a film actress at the moment. And she repeatedly played with her father in various projects (for example, in the same "Django Unchained").
It is known that in the fall of 2014, Tamblyn underwent heart surgery. After surgery and during rehabilitation, the actor had complications, but eventually he was able to bounce back and return to work.
