Appearances

Title	Role	Year	Approx. Age
Invisible Dad	Doug	1997	63
Johnny Mysto: Boy Wizard	Blackmoor	1996	62
The Kid From Cleveland	Johnny Barrows	1949	15
The Boy with Green Hair	Classmate	1948	14

Russell Irving Tamblyn, Russ Tamblyn was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actors Sally Triplett and Eddie Tamblyn. He is the older brother of Larry Tamblyn, organist for the 1960s band The Standells.

Discovered at age ten by actor Lloyd Bridges for the play "Stone Jungle", Russ was soon performing on radio and in L.A.-based musical revues. Billed as "Rusty Tamblyn" then, the tousle-haired scrapper played a student extra in his first film The Boy with Green Hair (1948) starring another child actor, Dean Stockwell.

Having taken up dancing and acrobatics from the age of 6, Tamblyn marked his abilities with his very first TV appearance on the "The Ed Sullivan Show." Eventually handed a starring role in the "B" film The Kid from Cleveland (1949), he was signed by an eager MGM who saw his potential as a juvenile actor. Featured in the popular family-oriented comedy Father of the Bride (1950), and its sequel Father's Little Dividend (1951), Tamblyn also had a prime role in the war drama Take the High Ground! (1953) before taking off in musical films. Russ was one of the sailors in the 1955 film version of Hit the Deck.

Demonstrating exceptional athleticism in one of MGM's best Musicals, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), Tamblyn's timing was regrettably off as musicals were quickly on the wane. He adjusted, however. A starring role in the low-budget The Young Guns (1956) led to excellent reviews in the ensemble box-office soaper Peyton Place (1957). Tamblyn, along with Lana Turner, Arthur Kennedy, Hope Lange and Diane Varsi, all received Oscar nominations for Peyton Place. Russ scored quite well in the title role of Tom Thumb (1958), which became a large stepping stone for his most memorable role as Riff in West Side Story (1961).

Russ was actually 27 when he portrayed the teenage troublemaker who became the '50s equivalent of the Mercutio character in the Romeo and Juliet-inspired adaptation. Following this achievement, however, the offers started dwindling.

In 1960, he portrayed The Cherokee Kid alongside Glenn Ford in Cimarron. He appeared in two 1962 MGM-Cinerama movies, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm and How the West Was Won with a cast that included Henry Fonda, Karl Malden, Gregory Peck, Debbie Reynolds, James Stewart and John Wayne.

Tamblyn's last co-starring roles in quality films were shot overseas with the British-produced chiller The Haunting (1963) with Julie Harris and Claire Bloom, and the British-Yugoslavian Viking costumer The Long Ships (1964) starring Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier. After that, his career grew quite dismal. Titles such as The Female Bunch (1971), Satan's Sadists (1969), Scream Free! (1969), Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971) and The Bloody Monks (1988) pretty much tells the story.

Russ all but disappeared from the viewing audience. When he finally nabbed the role of the overtly weird (and who wasn't on that show?) psychiatrist Dr. Lawrence Jacoby in the popular TV cult series Twin Peaks (1990), it was the first time Tamblyn had generated interest in over two decades. Barely recognizable with his wild-eyed look, mangy hair and frizzy beard, he has since gained employment off this eccentric image.

Tamblyn played the supporting role in Neil Young's 1982 Human Highway while also credited for screenplay and choreography. Tamblyn is self-credited as director, choreographer and actor for Neil Young's Greendale concert tour.

In 2011, he portrayed Doc in the action-thriller film Drive.

Russ was married three times, and is the son of Eddie Tamblyn, brother of Larry Tamblyn of the rock band The Standells and the father of Amber Tamblyn.