1. Russ Tamblyn appeared in the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
46 Facts About Russ Tamblyn
1. 2.
Russ Tamblyn subsequently portrayed Norman Page in the drama Peyton Place, for which he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
3.
Russ Tamblyn was born December 30,1934, in Los Angeles, California, to actors Sally Aileen and Edward Francis "Eddie" Russ Tamblyn.
4.
Russ Tamblyn was a hyperactive child with a penchant for gymnastics and performing.
5.
Russ Tamblyn took the stage during intermissions at the local movie theater and gave tumbling performances.
6.
When he was 13, Russ Tamblyn lived in North Hollywood, studied dramatics under Grace Bowman and dancing at the North Hollywood Academy, owned and operated by his parents.
7.
Russ Tamblyn wanted to be a circus performer and was skilled in acrobatics and dancing as a child.
8.
Russ Tamblyn developed a musical act that involved singing, dancing, juggling and comedy.
9.
Russ Tamblyn appeared as young Saul in Cecil B DeMille's 1949 version of Samson and Delilah.
10.
Russ Tamblyn played the younger Bart Tare in the film noir Gun Crazy and Elizabeth Taylor's younger brother in Father of the Bride and its sequel, Father's Little Dividend at MGM.
11.
Russ Tamblyn called this "the second big break" of his career.
12.
Russ Tamblyn says the director wanted to cast a Broadway dancer but MGM insisted the filmmakers use some contract talent, leading to him and Jeff Richards being used.
13.
Russ Tamblyn was not a trained dancer and always considered himself an actor who danced rather than the other way around, but the film was a big success and established him at MGM.
14.
Russ Tamblyn said "my career really took off" after the film.
15.
Russ Tamblyn was one of many studio contract players in the musical Deep in My Heart.
16.
Russ Tamblyn played Eleanor Parker's brother in the Western Many Rivers to Cross, and was one of several young MGM actors in the musical Hit the Deck.
17.
Russ Tamblyn supported older actors in two Westerns: Robert Taylor and Stewart Granger in The Last Hunt, a flop; and Glenn Ford and Broderick Crawford in The Fastest Gun Alive, a big hit, where he performed an extraordinary "shovel" dance at a hoe-down early in the film.
18.
Russ Tamblyn served as a choreographer for Elvis Presley in 1957's Jailhouse Rock.
19.
MGM loaned Russ Tamblyn to Allied Artists for his first star role, The Young Guns.
20.
Immediately after filming that, Russ Tamblyn went to England to play the title role in the musical Tom Thumb, made for George Pal.
21.
Russ Tamblyn then appeared in two MGM Cinerama movies, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, again for Pal, and How the West Was Won.
22.
Russ Tamblyn played Luke Sannerson in The Haunting for Robert Wise, who had made West Side Story.
23.
Russ Tamblyn said he originally turned down the role as he disliked the part but agreed to do it when MGM threatened to put him on suspension.
24.
Russ Tamblyn then played "Smitty" Smith in MGM's Follow the Boys.
25.
Russ Tamblyn was unable to consolidate his position as a leading man, and later said he "dropped out" after his West Side Story success and devoted himself to art, refusing movie roles, as well as the role of Gilligan in the TV series Gilligan's Island.
26.
Russ Tamblyn played a Viking alongside Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier in The Long Ships.
27.
Russ Tamblyn had the starring role in the low-budget MGM Western Son of a Gunfighter and starred in the 1966 Japanese kaiju film War of the Gargantuas.
28.
Russ Tamblyn guest starred on Tarzan, and Iron Horse.
29.
Russ Tamblyn later said he became "bored" with acting around this time and more interested in art.
30.
Russ Tamblyn starred in the notorious biker movie Satan's Sadists for Al Adamson.
31.
Russ Tamblyn appeared on TV in Cade's County, Win, Place or Steal, The World Through the Eyes of Children, The Quest, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, and Nero Wolfe.
32.
Russ Tamblyn played the supporting role in Neil Young's 1982 Human Highway while credited for screenplay and choreography.
33.
Russ Tamblyn is credited as director, choreographer and actor for Young's Greendale concert tour.
34.
Russ Tamblyn choreographed a play, Man with Bags, in 1983.
35.
Russ Tamblyn was in Aftershock and Wizards of the Demon Sword for Fred Olen Ray.
36.
Russ Tamblyn appeared in Running Mates, Little Devils: The Birth, Cabin Boy, Desert Steel, and Babylon 5.
37.
Russ Tamblyn appeared on stage in Los Angeles in Zastrozzi.
38.
Russ Tamblyn's work drifted back to straight to video: Starstruck, Rebellious, Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfold and Invisible Mom for Fred Olen Ray, Johnny Mysto: Boy Wizard, My Ghost Dog, and Little Miss Magic for Ray.
39.
Russ Tamblyn appeared on another soap opera, General Hospital, alongside his daughter Amber in 1997 and 2000.
40.
Russ Tamblyn had supporting roles in Drive, Django Unchained, and Hits.
41.
Russ Tamblyn appeared several times in The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, and in the revival of Twin Peaks.
42.
Russ Tamblyn married actress Venetia Stevenson in 1956, but they divorced the next year.
43.
In later years, Russ Tamblyn discovered he had a daughter from a 1960s relationship with artist and spiritual practitioner Elizabeth Anne Vigil.
44.
That daughter, China Faye Russ Tamblyn, is an artist and heavy metal welder who lives in California.
45.
Russ Tamblyn did not meet her until she was a teenager and only after the birth of his second child, actress and author Amber Russ Tamblyn, who was born in 1983 to his third wife, Bonnie Murray.
46.
In 2012, it was announced that Russ Tamblyn was working on an autobiography, Dancing On The Edge.