What happened to Russ Tamblyn West Side Story?

Answer 1

Tucker Smith joined the Broadway production of West Side Story in 1958 and went on its national tour in 1959. He was one of the few cast members from the stage production picked to appeared in the movie version of West Side Story. After the movie, Smith would continue his association with West Side Story, playing the part of "Riff" in the Los Angeles production (1962) and in Tokyo, Japan (1964). 1964 was a particularly busy year for Smith, aparting from touring in Japan, he was in the Broadway musical "Anyone Can Whistle", which however, lasted only 9 performances because of bad reviews. He would also performed at the Dupont Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair in the musical "The Wonderful World of Chemistry". Smith would go on to perform at nightclubs, Las Vegas shows, stage productions in the US and overseas, cabarets and has even toured internationally with his own nightclub act. He would continued to appear in films such as "Hello Dolly", "The Producers", "At Long Last Love", but often as an uncredited dancer. Later on he would appear as an extra and do walk-on parts on TV shows such as "Private Benjamin", "The A-Team", and "Police Squad!". For a time in the 1970s, Smith would own and operated a bar in North Hollywood called "Tucker's Turf". Tucker Smith died of cancer on December 22nd 1988 at the age of 52 at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. Author David Ehrenstein said that the cancer was AIDS-related. He also said that Smith was openly gay, which was one reason why Smith didn't prusue a Hollywood career.