Interesting Gilligan's Island Story

[silverscreenselect]

[Roman Gabriel] also played a headhunter on an episode of Gilligan's Island.

I didn't want to hijack the Roman Gabriel thread, but Krox's mention of Gilligan's Island reminded me of something I just read. I did a review of Russ Tamblyn's newly published memoir about his life. Tamblyn is best known for playing Riff in West Side Story, but he had a series of popular movies in the late 50s and early 60s. Then he decided to drop out of the Hollywood studio system and moved up into Topanga Canyon where he's basically done decent but not great artwork and hung around with Dean Stockwell, Dennis Hopper (when both were alive), and Neil Young ever since. FWIW, he's now 90. He and Rita Moreno are the only WSS cast members still around.

Anyway, in the mid 60s he was still getting offers for decent projects and one of the roles he turned down was the lead in Gilligan's Island. I can't imagine Riff as Gilligan.

[mrkelley23]

[Roman Gabriel] also played a headhunter on an episode of Gilligan's Island.

I didn't want to hijack the Roman Gabriel thread, but Krox's mention of Gilligan's Island reminded me of something I just read. I did a review of Russ Tamblyn's newly published memoir about his life. Tamblyn is best known for playing Riff in West Side Story, but he had a series of popular movies in the late 50s and early 60s. Then he decided to drop out of the Hollywood studio system and moved up into Topanga Canyon where he's basically done decent but not great artwork and hung around with Dean Stockwell, Dennis Hopper (when both were alive), and Neil Young ever since. FWIW, he's now 90. He and Rita Moreno are the only WSS cast members still around.

Anyway, in the mid 60s he was still getting offers for decent projects and one of the roles he turned down was the lead in Gilligan's Island. I can't imagine Riff as Gilligan.

I dunno, I could see the guy from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Tom Thumb doing it easier than Maynard G. Krebs.

[SportsFan68]

[Roman Gabriel] also played a headhunter on an episode of Gilligan's Island.

I didn't want to hijack the Roman Gabriel thread, but Krox's mention of Gilligan's Island reminded me of something I just read. I did a review of Russ Tamblyn's newly published memoir about his life. Tamblyn is best known for playing Riff in West Side Story, but he had a series of popular movies in the late 50s and early 60s. Then he decided to drop out of the Hollywood studio system and moved up into Topanga Canyon where he's basically done decent but not great artwork and hung around with Dean Stockwell, Dennis Hopper (when both were alive), and Neil Young ever since. FWIW, he's now 90. He and Rita Moreno are the only WSS cast members still around.

Anyway, in the mid 60s he was still getting offers for decent projects and one of the roles he turned down was the lead in Gilligan's Island. I can't imagine Riff as Gilligan.

Maybe it's because I saw it first, but I always thought of Seven Brides as Russ's definitive role. Maybe because of the gymnastics in the barn dance and other dances, I don't know. Apparently he thought of himself as an actor who danced rather than the other way around, but I was delighted by his performance in a "shovel" dance at a hoe-down in the Fastest Gun Alive. I saw that fairly recently in one of those MGM retrospectives on TCM. I think he would have done just fine as Gilligan, maybe not as good as Bob Denver, maybe better -- just different.

[silverscreenselect]

Apparently he thought of himself as an actor who danced rather than the other way around, but I was delighted by his performance in a "shovel" dance at a hoe-down in the Fastest Gun Alive.

A couple of other details. Tamblyn's parents were in vaudeville and his dad was a dancer, but Russ got his early roles based on acting ability alone even though he was quite athletic and energetic. When it came time to cast Seven Brides, the studio clashed with choreographer Michael Kidd. He wanted trained dancers to play the roles of Howard Keel's six brothers while the studio wanted some actors who would handle the lines better. So they compromised and hired Tamblyn and Jeff Richards as "actors" and four other professional dancers. When Tamblyn starting working with Kidd, he showed him his dancing moves and his role in the dance numbers increased.

As for the shovel dance, they cheated a bit. They made a pair of boots that were permanently attached to the shovel, so that when it came time for Tamblyn to perform that part of his dance number, he put the stunt boots on so he wouldn't fall off the shovel as he jumped around.

[Bob Juch]

Russ wasn't discovered, he discovered show business at the age of 5 when, with other youngsters at Inglewood, California, he went to Saturday matinees at the Granada Theatre. One afternoon while waiting for the show to start he got on the stage and did an impromptu dance which the kids loved. He repeated it the following week and became so popular that when he didn't appear there was almost a riot. The theater manager spoke to his parents and his mother let him take dancing lessons. Once started on a career he expanded his talents to take in singing and acrobatics performing his first back flip at 10. He later added juggling, a magic act, piano, and drums to his talents which made him a regular performer at local clubs. He made his stage debut with a small theater group directed by Lloyd Bridges which in turn led to his film debut in 'The Boy With Green Hair' followed by a part in 'Samson and Delilah' and the title role in 'The Kid From Cleveland.' He earned an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor for 'Peyton Place' receiving high praise from both director Mark Robson and choreographer Michael Kidd, who was a close friend of Jerome Robbins, and who'd worked with Russ on 'Seven Brides For Seven Brothers.' Summoned for both a dancing and acting screen test with Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins he was cast as Riff the leader of the Jets in the Oscar winning film 'West Side Story.' In his films up to 1952 he was credited as Rusty Tamblyn and Russ Tamblyn after that.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tonyman 5

And he's known as the father of David Cross's wife, Amber.

[thguy65]

He was also Dr. Jacoby on Twin Peaks!

https://www.lostinthemovies.com/2017/04 ... r.html?m=0

- Tim H.