Early life and career in films

Tamblyn was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actors Sally Aileen (Triplett) (1912-1995) and Eddie Tamblyn (Edward Francis Tamblyn) (1908-1957). He is the older brother of Larry Tamblyn, organist for the 1960s band The Standells.

Discovered at the age of ten by actor Lloyd Bridges after acting in a play, Tamblyn's first film appearance was a small non-speaking role in 1948's The Boy With Green Hair. He also appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show as a child.

Tamblyn then portrayed the young Saul in Cecil B. DeMille's 1949 version of Samson and Delilah. He played the younger version of John Dall's character in the 1950 film noir Gun Crazy. Later the same year, he had a minor role as Elizabeth Taylor's younger brother in Father of the Bride, as well as in the sequel, released the following year, Father's Little Dividend. He also played a young soldier in boot camp in 1953's Take the High Ground!.

His training as a gymnast in high school and abilities as an acrobat prepared him for his breakout role as Gideon, the youngest brother, in 1954's Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

He appeared with Glenn Ford and Broderick Crawford in The Fastest Gun Alive (1956), where he performed an extraordinary "shovel" dance at a hoe-down early in the film. Though uncredited, he served as a choreographer for Elvis Presley in 1957's Jailhouse Rock. Tamblyn portrayed Norman Page in the 1957 film of Peyton Place, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Tamblyn then played Tony Baker in 1958's High School Confidential prior to his being drafted into the United States Army. His performances in film musicals have included the title role in 1958's Tom Thumb and Danny, one of the sailors in the 1955 film version of Hit the Deck. His most famous musical role was Riff, the leader of the Jets in West Side Story (1961).

In 1960, he portrayed The Cherokee Kid in Cimarron. He appeared in two 1962 MGM-Cinerama movies, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm and How the West Was Won. He was seen the next year as Orm in The Long Ships, as Luke Sanderson in The Haunting, and as Lt. "Smitty" Smith in Follow the Boys. Tamblyn starred in the 1966 Japanese kaiju film War of the Gargantuas. He appeared in the horror film Necromancer in 1988.

Tamblyn played the supporting role in Neil Young's 1982 Human Highway while also credited for screenplay and choreography. Tamblyn is credited as director, choreographer and actor for Neil Young's Greendale concert tour. In 2011, he portrayed "Doc" in the action-thriller film Drive.

Television roles

From 1990-91, Tamblyn starred as Dr. Lawrence Jacoby on the David Lynch-created series Twin Peaks (alongside his "West Side Story" co-star Richard Beymer who played Ben Horne), though his scenes in the 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me were cut.

In 1999, he portrayed Dr. Hayden on the soap opera Days of Our Lives, and in 2000, he appeared with his daughter Amber on another soap opera, General Hospital, as the character he portrayed ten years earlier on Twin Peaks. He also appeared on General Hospital in 1997 dancing with his daughter Amber during the Nurses Ball. In 2004 he appeared with Amber again, playing the "Dog Walker God" manifestation of God encountered by her in three episodes of Joan of Arcadia.

Tamblyn has also appeared in television series such as Tarzan, Fame (the 1980s television spin-off of the film of the same name), Quantum Leap, Nash Bridges and in Babylon 5 (episode "A Distant Star"). Russ Tamblyn also played Chuck Margaret on The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret.

Tamblyn will reprise his role as Dr. Lawrence Jacoby in the upcoming Twin Peaks revival that will be released in 2017.

Personal life

He has been married three times and has two children from his first and third marriages.

He is the father of actress Amber Tamblyn, who played the starring role in the CBS television series Joan of Arcadia and Two and a Half Men from 2013 to the series finale episode. Tamblyn acted opposite his daughter in several episodes of the former as God in the form of a man walking dogs. The two have also worked together in Rebellious, Johnny Mysto: Boy Wizard, and in The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret. Russ and Amber also both have cameos in Quentin Tarantino's film Django Unchained, billed as "Son of a Gunfighter" and "Daughter of a Son of a Gunfighter" respectively, an allusion to Russ's leading role in the 1965 western Son of a Gunfighter.

Currently he is working on his autobiography, titled Dancing On The Edge. According to his official website, he is half way done with the book and just completed the chapter on his experiences making West Side Story.

Tamblyn underwent open heart surgery in October 2014. There were complications following the surgery and during the rehabilitation, although his health had reportedly improved as of February 2015.

Filmography

Feature films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1948	The Boy with Green Hair	Classmate	Uncredited
1949	Reign of Terror	Pierre's Oldest Son
	The Kid from Cleveland	Johnny Barrows
	Samson and Delilah	Saul
1950	Gun Crazy	Bart Tare at 14
	Captain Carey, U.S.A.	Pietro	Credited as Rusty Tamblyn
	The Vicious Years	Tino
	Father of the Bride	Tommy Banks
1951	Father's Little Dividend
	As Young as You Feel	Willie McKinley	Credited as Rusty Tamblyn
	Cave of Outlaws	Young Peter	Uncredited
1952	Retreat, Hell!	Private
	The Winning Team	Willie Alexander	Credited as Rusty Tamblyn
1953	Take the High Ground!	Paul Jamison
1954	Seven Brides for Seven Brothers	Gideon Pontipee
	Deep in My Heart	Lazar Berrison, Jr.	Uncredited
1955	Many Rivers to Cross	Shields
	Hit the Deck	Danny Xavier Smith
1956	The Last Hunt	Jimmy
	The Fastest Gun Alive	Eric Doolittle
	The Young Guns	Tully Rice
1957	Don't Go Near the Water	Ensign Tyson
	Peyton Place	Norman Page
1958	High School Confidential!	Tony Baker/Mike Wilson
	Tom Thumb	Tom Thumb
1960	Cimarron	The Cherokee Kid
1961	West Side Story	Riff
1962	The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm	The Woodsman ('The Dancing Princess') / Tom Thumb
	How the West Was Won	Confederate deserter
1963	Follow the Boys	Lt (JG) "Smitty" Smith
	The Haunting	Luke Sanderson
1964	The Long Ships	Orm
1965	Son of a Gunfighter	Johnny Ketchum
1966	War of the Gargantuas	Dr. Paul Stewart
1969	The Female Bunch	Bill
	Satan's Sadists	Anchor
	Scream Free!	Link
1971	Dracula vs. Frankenstein	Rico
	The Last Movie	Member of Billy's Gang
1975	Win, Place or Steal	Raymond
1976	Black Heat	Ziggy
1982	Neil Young: Human Highway	Fred Kelly
1985	The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal	Himself	Documentary
1987	Cyclone
	Commando Squad	Anchor
1988	Necromancer	Charles DeLonge
	B.O.R.N.	Hugh
1989	Desert Steel
	The Phantom Empire	Bill
1990	Aftershock	Hank Franklin
	Blood Screams	Frank
1991	Wizards of the Demon Sword	Ulric
1992	Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me	Dr. Lawrence Jacoby	Scenes deleted
1993	Little Devils: The Birth
1994	Cabin Boy	Chocki
1995	Starstruck	Wheeler / Homeless Man
	Rebellious
	Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfold	Gas Attendant
1996	Invisible Mom	Dr. Woorter
1997	Little Miss Magic	Brenden Moran
	Johnny Mysto: Boy Wizard	Blackmoor
1998	My Magic Dog	Vito
2000	Special Envoys
2002	Cinerama Adventure	Himself
2010	The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret	Chuck Margaret
2011	Drive	Doc
2012	Django Unchained	Son of a Gunfighter
2014	Hits	Russ

Awards and nominations

Awards and nominations

Award	Category	Year	Title of work	Result
Academy Award	Best Actor in a Supporting Role	1957	Peyton Place	Nominated
Golden Globe Award	Most Promising Newcomer - Male	1956	Hit the Deck	Won (shared with Ray Danton)
Golden Laurel Award	Top Male Musical Performance	1959	Tom Thumb	Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]