Tucker Smith

Tucker Smith, born Thomas William Smith on April 24, 1936, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was an American actor, dancer, and singer whose Broadway career spanned from 1955 to 1964. A recipient of an American Theatre Wing scholarship, Smith relocated from Philadelphia to New York City in September 1955 and shortly thereafter joined the national tour of Damn Yankees.

In 1958, Smith entered the original Broadway production of West Side Story as a replacement cast member, taking on the roles of Big Deal, Diesel, and Snowboy. He also understudied the role of Riff and performed it on multiple occasions. When the production launched a national tour running from June 14, 1959, to April 23, 1960, Smith traveled with the company. His association with the musical extended well beyond Broadway: he played Riff in the 1962 Los Angeles production and again in the 1963 Sacramento production, the latter featuring Sylvia Lewis as Anita. In 1964, he reprised the role once more when West Side Story toured Tokyo, Japan.

Smith was among the Broadway cast members selected to appear in the film adaptation of West Side Story, where he was contracted to play Ice, a role created specifically for the movie. In the film, he served as the lead singer and central performer of the song "Cool," a number originally associated with the character of Riff in the stage version. He also dubbed portions of Russ Tamblyn's vocals in "Jet Song."

His Broadway credits included two additional productions. In 1964, the same year as the Tokyo tour, Smith appeared in Anyone Can Whistle. The show had a pre-Broadway run in Philadelphia before closing after nine performances following a single week on Broadway. That same year, he also performed at the 1964 New York World's Fair at the DuPont Pavilion in the musical The Wonderful World of Chemistry.

Beyond Broadway and film, Smith worked extensively in stage productions, Las Vegas shows, nightclubs, and cabarets both domestically and abroad. His stage work included Parade with Carole Cook and Michele Lee, Vintage '60 with Michele Lee and Sylvia Lewis, the San Francisco production of Half a Sixpence with Anne Rogers and Roger C. Carmel, and the 1973 musical version of Gone With the Wind, choreographed by Joe Layton. He also toured with Carol Channing in her 1970 revue Carol Channing with Her 10 Stout-Hearted Men, likewise choreographed by Layton, and later toured internationally with his own nightclub act.

His film and television work after West Side Story consisted largely of smaller roles and walk-on parts, sometimes as a dancer in productions including To Be or Not to Be, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Hello, Dolly!, Hearts of the West, and At Long Last Love, and often uncredited, as in Police Squad. Among his more prominent television appearances were roles in the series Surfside Six and 87th Precinct. David Ehrenstein, author of Open Secret: Gay Hollywood, 1928–2000, noted that Smith was openly gay and that this contributed to his not pursuing a more prominent Hollywood career.

During the 1970s, Smith owned and operated a bar called Tucker's Turf in North Hollywood. Comedian Gilda Radner, in her autobiography It's Always Something, written shortly before her own death from cancer, wrote of her excitement at having Smith in her cancer support group, citing her admiration for his performance in West Side Story. Smith was diagnosed with cancer of the throat, neck, and/or jaw in late 1986 and died on December 22, 1988, at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 52. He was survived by three sisters and was laid to rest in his hometown of Philadelphia.