Speaker 1: Hello, it's Alec Baldwin. We're going to rebroadcast an episode
Speaker 1: from our archives. This week you'll hear my conversation with
Speaker 1: Russ Tamblin, one of the stars of the original West
Speaker 1: Side Story. We'll have new episodes of Here's the Thing
Speaker 1: beginning March fifteenth. Until then, enjoy my talk with Russ Tamblin.
Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing.
Speaker 1: My guest today is Russ Tamblin. In a long and
Speaker 1: varied career, he's been a child actor and acrobat and
Speaker 1: MGM studio star who ditched the whole scene to become
Speaker 1: a painter. After that, he was a successful choreographer and
Speaker 1: then one of the stars of Twin Peaks. But you
Speaker 1: probably know him as Riff, hard bitten, vulnerable and leader
Speaker 1: of the Jets. When you're a jan, you're agin all
Speaker 1: the way from your first single rent to your last
Speaker 1: West Side Stories. Riff in nineteen sixty one was the
Speaker 1: culmination of a long string of classic teen roles. He
Speaker 1: was Elizabeth Taylor's little brother and father of the bride,
Speaker 1: and the younger version of King Saul in cecil b
Speaker 1: de Mills Sampson and Delilah. His breakthrough role for MGM
Speaker 1: was the youngest of the namesake brothers in Seven Brides
Speaker 1: for Seven Brothers, directed by the legendary Stanley Donnin, fresh
Speaker 1: off Singing in the Rain, and you can't recount Russ
Speaker 1: Tamblin's career without mentioning the long string of young Tufts
Speaker 1: before Riff, the young gun slingers, the future criminals, and
Speaker 1: the good for nothing Tony Baker, who's really an undercover
Speaker 1: cop in the now classic anti marijuana b movie High
Speaker 1: School Confidential. Hey up, look, don't be a dry kitten.
Speaker 1: We don't want to get caught with a reefer again.
Speaker 1: Had enough of the okay and all of that jazz.
Speaker 1: I'll get my kicks out of you these days. However,
Speaker 1: he keeps it classy. You got your martini. This is
Speaker 1: like so old Hollywood said, as they come to my
Speaker 1: podcast and I get here and they're like, he's in there.
Speaker 1: He's having a martini. Yeah, well that'll help me to
Speaker 1: yak and yak a little. Tamblin spent his earliest years
Speaker 1: in the middle class Inglewood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Son
Speaker 1: of a chorus girl and what he calls a Broadway
Speaker 1: song and dance man who came West to seek fame
Speaker 1: and fortune. The family arrived just in time for the Depression.
Speaker 1: Eddie Tamblin made a few movies, though, a good thing
Speaker 1: for his son's future and for American cinema. That's where
Speaker 1: I really got turned on. I think when I was
Speaker 1: living in Englewood, one of his old movies was playing
Speaker 1: a theater there. So I went to see him and
Speaker 1: I saw him up on the screen and he was
Speaker 1: just like, you do you know that? Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I want to be there. And my father said no,
Speaker 1: oh no. Um, my father did not want me to
Speaker 1: be in show business. So what did he want you
Speaker 1: to do? Well? He didn't care if he was not
Speaker 1: doing that well at that point it was in the thirties.
Speaker 1: He didn't wanted to end up like him. He had
Speaker 1: a hot dog stand. He sold hot dogs. We had
Speaker 1: dinner that we used to go and eat hot dogs
Speaker 1: and his hot dog stand. And why didn't you stay away?
Speaker 1: Meaning when he said I don't want you to do this,
Speaker 1: why did you persist? Um? There was a theater in Englewood.
Speaker 1: I was about ten years old, and I used to
Speaker 1: go to the Saturday morning matinees with all the other
Speaker 1: little kids, and it was filled with kids yelling and
Speaker 1: screaming because of seeing my father. I would get so
Speaker 1: excited and run up on the stage and I would
Speaker 1: just like jump around and go into a and I
Speaker 1: wasn't really dancing, but I would jump around and make
Speaker 1: all the kids laugh, and they were roaring, and I'd
Speaker 1: see that the owner of the theater come running down
Speaker 1: the island. I had leap off the theater and I
Speaker 1: was very very fast, so I could all into the
Speaker 1: seats and disappear, and he couldn't find me. And I
Speaker 1: came again. It was maybe like the second or third
Speaker 1: time Saturday morning. He was waiting for me backstage, and
Speaker 1: I got up on the stage and he came out
Speaker 1: and he grabbed me by the arm, took me back
Speaker 1: in his office and called my mother. And my mother
Speaker 1: knew that, uh, my father did not want me to
Speaker 1: be in show business, so she secretly started me in
Speaker 1: tap dancing lessons. At How old were you? I was
Speaker 1: about nine. You're a little kid, nine or ten. What
Speaker 1: was it about your mom? Was your mom in the business, Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: she was a show girl. That's where my mother and
Speaker 1: father on Broadway. That's where they met at the road show,
Speaker 1: one of the shows, and she was in the line
Speaker 1: and she um, she was only like sixteen or seventeen.
Speaker 1: She lied to because she wanted to be in the show.
Speaker 1: I think my mother had my older brother when she
Speaker 1: was seventeen and had me when she was eighteen. How
Speaker 1: many kids in your family? Two brothers, an older brother
Speaker 1: who passed away and a younger brother who has a
Speaker 1: group called the Standals and rock and roll group. And
Speaker 1: he's still around and still doing concerts. And uh, he
Speaker 1: deaf now, but he goes out, doesn't anything, and he
Speaker 1: yells all over. But when you come and you start
Speaker 1: making films, your first film as the Boy with the
Speaker 1: Green Hair, isn't that Dean Stockwell? Yeah, that was Dean.
Speaker 1: We became friends, and I think that's when I was
Speaker 1: like nine or nine or ten. How do they find
Speaker 1: you then to be in a film? Oh? I did
Speaker 1: a play at the corn at theater. The first thing
Speaker 1: I did was a play directed by Lloyd Bridges called
Speaker 1: The Stone Jungle, and I had a great part in
Speaker 1: it and a end up getting killed in it, and
Speaker 1: and it was killed a nine year old boy in
Speaker 1: this play. Oh yeah. It was at Kids that go
Speaker 1: to a rock quarry and uh, there were good actors
Speaker 1: in it. A talent scout came and then he brought
Speaker 1: me over to audition for a couple of parts. And
Speaker 1: the boy with green hair, Joseph Flosi, I think, directed it,
Speaker 1: and uh introduced me to him, and Uh, I tried
Speaker 1: out for a couple of parts and didn't get anything,
Speaker 1: And finally they just said, would you like to be
Speaker 1: one of the kids in it? So I said yeah,
Speaker 1: and so I became one of the background and kids
Speaker 1: in it. And that was my first movie. You know,
Speaker 1: I always think of young people working in films, and
Speaker 1: we have all kinds of protections now when we have
Speaker 1: all kinds of laws and rules with the Union to
Speaker 1: protect young people and tutors and how many hours they
Speaker 1: can work. But when you were a kid, what was
Speaker 1: that like? How did they treat you? Were they affectionate?
Speaker 1: And well? It was okay except for for Cecil b
Speaker 1: the mill. Working for the mill was Samson and Delilah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: How old are you then? About ten? I think I
Speaker 1: was ten years old. I played King Saul as a boy.
Speaker 1: You did four movies and this you do boy with
Speaker 1: the green hair, Rain of Terror, Kid from Cleveland. Your
Speaker 1: fourth movie is Samson and Delilah. I mean, I'm a
Speaker 1: sap for those epic movies. And it's de Mill obviously,
Speaker 1: so you see the other directors, they might have been
Speaker 1: a little more coddling and a little warmer to you.
Speaker 1: What was the mill like? The Mill was like like
Speaker 1: you would expect. He wore short pants, I guess, with
Speaker 1: high socks. He had a stick the voice of God.
Speaker 1: Samson and Delilah, Um was the Mill? So that was?
Speaker 1: That was what was general? Yeah, And when I went
Speaker 1: in for the audition, I auditioned with a paramount actor
Speaker 1: and it was this room. Um, I remember it was
Speaker 1: a room and there was like a big window, one
Speaker 1: way mirror. And when I finished the scene, the doors
Speaker 1: came bursting open and out came the Mill with his
Speaker 1: entourage and he said, you got the part, my boy,
Speaker 1: And uh that was That was a big one for him.
Speaker 1: You get to spend any time with Victor maturege. You
Speaker 1: get to meet the adults much. What was he like?
Speaker 1: He was funnier than hell. Oh, my guard, he was wild.
Speaker 1: People told me some I wouldn't even repeat the stories
Speaker 1: I've been told about him. I've heard some pretty He
Speaker 1: came in with a black eye one time, and you know,
Speaker 1: and they had to put makeup on his eye. And
Speaker 1: I asked him, I said, Jesus, like, how the hell
Speaker 1: did you get that? He says, I went home last
Speaker 1: night and my wife punched me in the eye. And
Speaker 1: I said, what's that for? You said, that's for what
Speaker 1: you're gonna do. He was very mischievous. He moved signs
Speaker 1: so that people would drive the wrong way, and you know,
Speaker 1: he was crazy. Oh yeah. And then one of the
Speaker 1: things was was Hetty Lamar, and I thought she was
Speaker 1: gorgeous in it. I remember sitting in her dressing room
Speaker 1: one time and mature. I never forget this. His dog
Speaker 1: was with him, and the dog came into the dressing
Speaker 1: room and he went over and started to lick Hetty
Speaker 1: Lamar's legs and he says, get away from there. If
Speaker 1: I can't do that, you can't do it. Hetty Lamar,
Speaker 1: Oh my god. She took me to lunch one time.
Speaker 1: At on the lunch you would like to go to lunch?
Speaker 1: He said, yeah, you know, so I went to lunch
Speaker 1: with Hetty and she said, oh, let's stop by this stage.
Speaker 1: I want you to see something you'll you'll like. So
Speaker 1: we go into the stage and it was Dean Martin
Speaker 1: and Jerry Lewis's first movie, My Friend Irma, and everybody
Speaker 1: was just in hysterics. Jerry was smoking a cigarette and
Speaker 1: he got a bunch of ashes under the end of
Speaker 1: the cigarette, and at one moment he reached down an
Speaker 1: unzipped pants and flashes and everybody was just cracking up.
Speaker 1: He was like that constantly, I'm gonna steal that. I love.
Speaker 1: That is then a good one. Now you know, you
Speaker 1: know these movies Boy with the Green Hair, Sampson and
Speaker 1: the Live these are straight dramas. But then you get
Speaker 1: to do Seven Brides, And had you done much you know,
Speaker 1: your mother wanted you to learn how to tap dance.
Speaker 1: Had you done much hoofing, and you were much into
Speaker 1: the musical world on stage. Well, let me explain to
Speaker 1: you how I got it. To tell me, Okay, I
Speaker 1: did a movie at Warner Brothers called Retreat Hell. Joseph H.
Speaker 1: Lewis directed it and I played a young marine in it.
Speaker 1: And I had worked for him before in uh one
Speaker 1: of his classic film, The Wall Movies. Um, it was
Speaker 1: a class crazy. I think we're on a game show here,
Speaker 1: and it was. It had one of the classic bank
Speaker 1: robbery scenes in it. I don't know if you ever
Speaker 1: saw it, but it was. It was the best. The
Speaker 1: King brothers came and said, hey, I'm sorry, Joe, you
Speaker 1: gotta shoot this in like a couple of hours. We
Speaker 1: don't have the time. We have the money broke, so
Speaker 1: he didn't know what to do, so he just stuck
Speaker 1: a camera in the back seat of the car and
Speaker 1: shot over the back of their heads and they actually
Speaker 1: drove to the bank all in one take, and he
Speaker 1: parked the car that kept the camera in there and
Speaker 1: showed him going in and then finally he came out
Speaker 1: and there was like a policeman that they kept joked
Speaker 1: in the car and they drove. It was all one shot,
Speaker 1: and they said that was one of the best bankrupt
Speaker 1: It was by accident. So he took the film that
Speaker 1: I did, Retreat Hell, which was a Korean war film,
Speaker 1: and he showed it to MGM, and I guess MGM
Speaker 1: was looking for actors to sign at the time, so
Speaker 1: they signed me under contract and the first movie I
Speaker 1: did there was Take the high Ground. I played a
Speaker 1: comedy character in it. And it was a basic training
Speaker 1: movie where Richard Woodmark teaches us all how to and
Speaker 1: Carl mull and teach us how to become good soldiers,
Speaker 1: which was great, and uh simn Brides came up. It
Speaker 1: was like the next film there, and Michael Kidd told
Speaker 1: the studio that he wanted all the six brothers to
Speaker 1: be great dancers. And the studio said, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: we have actors under contract here. So I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1: You can have four great dancers and two actors that
Speaker 1: are under contract. And I was one of the actors
Speaker 1: that was under contract. And the other actor was Jeff
Speaker 1: Richards who was a base ball player before he became
Speaker 1: an actor who hated dancers. He's one of the brothers.
Speaker 1: I said, let's go visit our brothers with the rehearsing.
Speaker 1: And he says, oh Jesus, do I have to go
Speaker 1: over there and talk to all those fags. Oh God, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's how we felt. Yeah, So we go over there
Speaker 1: and Michael Kidd came up to me and he said,
Speaker 1: somebody told me you're a tumbler, that you're an acrobat.
Speaker 1: I did a backflip for him right on the spot.
Speaker 1: He says, oh my god, we'll use it in the number.
Speaker 1: And I said, no, wait a minute. I'm not dancing
Speaker 1: with Jack dem Woss from New York City Ballet and
Speaker 1: Mathematics and Mark Platt. And I've never had any dance
Speaker 1: traging except for the tap dancing. I said, I can't dance.
Speaker 1: He said, look, this is just square dancing. All you
Speaker 1: gotta do is lift your legs. So we do this
Speaker 1: number called Going Courting Jennie Powell trying to make gentleman
Speaker 1: out of us, teaching everybody how to dance, and uh
Speaker 1: to get a really professional dancer to look awkward, it's
Speaker 1: hard to do because they automatically stand up in the
Speaker 1: fifth position. So Michael had had the choice of either
Speaker 1: putting me way in back of these great dancers. I
Speaker 1: ended up in front of all the dancers, looking awkward,
Speaker 1: just going crazy, jumping around and then flipping up and
Speaker 1: falling down on the floor and saying keep your dancing,
Speaker 1: you know. That was the end of the number. That
Speaker 1: number was just made for me because I was learning
Speaker 1: how to go in Courton. Going Courton was the number.
Speaker 1: And then of course the other big number was the
Speaker 1: Barn Dance number. We were dancing on planks and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. That was up my alley because I could
Speaker 1: do flips. I always get the impression that those films
Speaker 1: it was a lot of work. Yes, it was all
Speaker 1: one take. There were no cuts in it. How was Donna?
Speaker 1: I'm a big admirer of his film, you are I
Speaker 1: thought he was overrated? Yeah, well we had to shoot
Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff over again that he did. In
Speaker 1: that they put snow on everybody's faces and it just
Speaker 1: looked like they forgot to put makeup on in certain places.
Speaker 1: And I know he's done some good films, but it
Speaker 1: was really Michael films. Other people you think made him
Speaker 1: look good. Yeah, other people made him again. And Gene Kelly,
Speaker 1: you know, he was a friend of Gene Kelly's. When
Speaker 1: we had finished the Barn Dance number and it was
Speaker 1: pretty well choreographed and everything, we came back from lunch
Speaker 1: and Stanley came on the stage with Gene Kelly and said,
Speaker 1: I want you all to run through the whole number
Speaker 1: from top to bottom for Gene. So we we did.
Speaker 1: He was wonderful. He just said, hey, guys, all I
Speaker 1: can tell you is there's nothing else for you to do,
Speaker 1: but cut yourself in bleed. We'll be back in a minute.
Speaker 1: Let me just say this, beyond the music, beyond Bernstein,
Speaker 1: who I worship. When I think of West Side Story,
Speaker 1: I think of a young Natalie Wood. And the other
Speaker 1: thing I remember is that you're not the male lead
Speaker 1: in the show. And yet, and I'm not guessing you
Speaker 1: pop off that screen man like ten million dollars end
Speaker 1: to end, you kind of Sergeant Krupkey. You gotta understand,
Speaker 1: it's just not bring an up that gets us out
Speaker 1: of hand. Our mother's all a junkies, Our father's all
Speaker 1: a drunks. Golly naturally, un j officer, you got old swagger.
Speaker 1: You become one of the stars of the film. Was
Speaker 1: that Robert Wise's intention? Or did that just happen in
Speaker 1: the cut of the film? It um, it was weird.
Speaker 1: I was in the Army when um uh and on
Speaker 1: tour for Tom Thumb when I went to New York
Speaker 1: and I saw West Side Story and I said, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I want to do this. I bought the album,
Speaker 1: took it back to UH to Oklahoma where I was
Speaker 1: at fort So how long are you in the army?
Speaker 1: For two years? You didn't have to go overseas on
Speaker 1: Oklahoma the whole time, and I fucked up what yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a good question, shooting blanks at a sign that
Speaker 1: said I am the enemy, you know, I mean the
Speaker 1: last thirty days, I took leave and did a simmer
Speaker 1: Roun in Arizona with Glenn Ford, and then I had
Speaker 1: to go back to the Army finish it up. And
Speaker 1: I drove back and what happened was is I went
Speaker 1: over to United Artists where they were shooting, and I
Speaker 1: auditioned as Tony. And I even auditioned with with Mickey Callan,
Speaker 1: who played Riff on Broadway. He played by part on Broadway.
Speaker 1: I auditioned with several girls, Anna Murrial Baghetti, Uh, with
Speaker 1: several actresses that were they were up for the part
Speaker 1: of Maria. And and I had the same agent as
Speaker 1: as Robert Wise, so I had a really close connection,
Speaker 1: you know, and I kept checking, well, how's it going.
Speaker 1: They picked Tony said not yet, Bob isn't sure what
Speaker 1: he he's not sure yet. But finally he called me
Speaker 1: and he said, well, I'm sorry, but they picked Richard
Speaker 1: Bamer to play the part of Tony. But they said Richard, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had no idea who he was. And they said,
Speaker 1: but they've offered you the role. They've offered you the
Speaker 1: role of Riff, and I said Riff. I said no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: He said, you don't want to do it, and I said, yes,
Speaker 1: I do want to do it. You know, it's like
Speaker 1: really really quick. I said, I really want to be
Speaker 1: in this film, but I said, I don't think I
Speaker 1: can handle the dancing is like incredibly difficult for Riff.
Speaker 1: But am I glad I didn't do it. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's not a good part, Tony. But when they offered
Speaker 1: me the part of Riff, they wanted to see me
Speaker 1: both Bob and Jerry Robbins. So I go to the
Speaker 1: studio and I go in to see them and they're
Speaker 1: both sitting there and the first thing that Jerry says
Speaker 1: to me, he says, now, Russ. He says, I've seen
Speaker 1: your musical Seven Rides and The Fastest Gonna Live, where
Speaker 1: you dance on shovels. And he says, on all your films,
Speaker 1: even comedies, you do tumbling. But I kept to tell
Speaker 1: you right now, there'll be no tumbling in this movie,
Speaker 1: will be none. And he said, you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: do straight dancing. That's the way the part is for riff.
Speaker 1: And I said, all right, I'll that's what he told me.
Speaker 1: And I was so Jerome Robbins was fired because he
Speaker 1: was taken too long. We were doing shots in New York,
Speaker 1: going like dancing down two blocks, you know, and and
Speaker 1: then of the West sideway. Then then he would come
Speaker 1: back and get this and he would say that was fine,
Speaker 1: and Robert Wise he would say that was terrific, that
Speaker 1: was great. Printed We're all done, And Jerry said, no, no no, no,
Speaker 1: I'd like to do one more, but I would like
Speaker 1: all the dancers to do it on the other foot.
Speaker 1: So Jerry so Robbins was the choreographer, not the director.
Speaker 1: Robbins well the co director, but but they had an
Speaker 1: agreement that Bob Wise would would do the dramatic scenes
Speaker 1: and and uh Robin Robins would numbers. So do it
Speaker 1: on the other foot. Now you may not know what
Speaker 1: that means. That means instead of stepping on the left
Speaker 1: and kicking to the right, you gotta step on the
Speaker 1: right kick to the left, you gotta do with the
Speaker 1: other way. And so every all these dancers are walking
Speaker 1: around crazy. So we were there in New York for
Speaker 1: Oh my God. We are there for a month late,
Speaker 1: and by the time he got back to l A,
Speaker 1: they closed the production down. They said that's it. He
Speaker 1: had it in his option that if it didn't work
Speaker 1: out for a certain amount of time that he could
Speaker 1: be let go. He was just gone. By the time
Speaker 1: we came back to work, he was gone. And all
Speaker 1: the dancers were like depressed. They've been complaining the whole time,
Speaker 1: complaining about how all they'd rather have Jerry Robins and complaining, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not like calling them names or anything. There was
Speaker 1: there's a book written his biography is Dancing with the Devil,
Speaker 1: you know. So, I mean, he just was a prick.
Speaker 1: So it was until after he was fired that, uh,
Speaker 1: one of his assistants, Tony Mordente, married Rivera, you know
Speaker 1: Tony and Tony took over. So Tony said, let's put
Speaker 1: some tumbling back in the in the in the film,
Speaker 1: Let's put some So that's when I in the dance
Speaker 1: Hall number. I did the round off back with a
Speaker 1: full twist, kept dancing and everything. And so later on
Speaker 1: Jerry Robins had a show called Jerome Robbins Broadway, and
Speaker 1: the kid that was playing Riff did a flip on
Speaker 1: the stage and I saw that and almost had a
Speaker 1: heart attack. I turned to Buy, I said, did you
Speaker 1: see that? So I couldn't wait to get back to stage,
Speaker 1: you know. And I met him and he was so
Speaker 1: happy to meet me, and I said, now I gotta
Speaker 1: ask you. How were you able to do a flip
Speaker 1: on the stage? He says, that was part of the audition,
Speaker 1: So I give myself a pat on the back for that.
Speaker 1: Were you ever seriously injured doing the work You've done
Speaker 1: only once in a Wonderful World of Brothers Grim, which
Speaker 1: was in cinerama, So it was hard to do. And
Speaker 1: I had to down a hill and jump over the
Speaker 1: camera and I think I hit the top of the
Speaker 1: camera and cut like Tom Cruise and mission impossible. Yeah,
Speaker 1: did you know when you were doing the movie what
Speaker 1: the movie was going to be? Did you know? I
Speaker 1: knew I was doing a classic movie, but I didn't
Speaker 1: know that it was going to end up history history
Speaker 1: and as big as it was, it's an epic film.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of big stars, so like Glenn Ford,
Speaker 1: there's like tons of them that are big stars that
Speaker 1: have never really had an epic film. You know that
Speaker 1: they could hang their shirt on a big movie. I mean,
Speaker 1: you take Georgia Carris, you know, think what else has
Speaker 1: he done? West Side Story is his premier. Because of that,
Speaker 1: we got to go to Grummin's Chinese and get our
Speaker 1: hands and feet as it should cement, you know, which
Speaker 1: was pretty pretty much of a trip. Actor dancer West
Speaker 1: Side Story star Russ Tamblin. Another Here's the Thing guest
Speaker 1: who came up through the old Lywood studio system is
Speaker 1: Robert Osborne, who, before he was the host of Turner
Speaker 1: Classic Movies, was a member of Lucille Ball's stable of
Speaker 1: actors at Desilu Studios in the nineties. It didn't pay
Speaker 1: us much money at all, but it was like a
Speaker 1: masterclass for me because Lucy took us under her wing.
Speaker 1: Now DESI at this point was womanizing. He wasn't around much,
Speaker 1: so she would show us I love Lucy shows she'd
Speaker 1: done bad ones and show us why they didn't work,
Speaker 1: then show us a good one and why it did work.
Speaker 1: Wanting to share with something. The rest of my interview
Speaker 1: with Robert Osborne is in our archives that Here's the Thing.
Speaker 1: Dot Org Tamblin talks life after riff coming up. This
Speaker 1: is Alec Baldwin. Your listen to Here's the Thing, and
Speaker 1: we're back with my guest, Russ Tamblin West Side Story,
Speaker 1: director Robert Wise made a surprising choice to follow up
Speaker 1: his musical mega hit. It was a genre film co
Speaker 1: starring Julie Harris and Claire Bloom, a supernatural horror project
Speaker 1: called The Haunting. Tamblint decided to join the cast, but
Speaker 1: it took some convincing. I don't even think I wanted
Speaker 1: to do it at the beginning, because I was the
Speaker 1: one person in The Haunting that that wasn't one of
Speaker 1: the strange people that had some sort of psychological damage damage,
Speaker 1: you know. I was just a guy that was going
Speaker 1: to inherit. The house turned it down at first, to
Speaker 1: tell you the truth, but then MGM said, you know,
Speaker 1: Bob really wants you, and unfortunately we're gonna have to
Speaker 1: put you on what is it where they where you
Speaker 1: don't get paid for a bunch of months, you know,
Speaker 1: And so I said, well, the third Salary, maybe you'll
Speaker 1: read the script again. So I decided to do it,
Speaker 1: and I was in the South of France then doing
Speaker 1: some other movie when he offered it mean, so I
Speaker 1: flew back to England and uh, and that's where we
Speaker 1: did the Haunting. And we did it just in this
Speaker 1: amazing place which was in Stratford upon Avon, and they
Speaker 1: found this house that had been It was actually like
Speaker 1: a big manner that had been haunted for you know,
Speaker 1: hundreds of years, and it was all run down and
Speaker 1: there were weeds growing everywhere and uh, it was an
Speaker 1: incredible place. So it was it was quite amazing. So
Speaker 1: what was the set of that on the Haunting? It
Speaker 1: was incredible. I mean a lot of it was shot
Speaker 1: at Elstree. The the interior of the house was shot
Speaker 1: at Elstree where they could really really work it out
Speaker 1: better when we mainly use the outside of the hotel
Speaker 1: uh for um for shooting the openings and everything. But
Speaker 1: I had this experience one night and we were staying
Speaker 1: there the night. We only stayed there one night, and
Speaker 1: my bedroom was right above where they were shooting, where
Speaker 1: the entrance was. So there were arc lights and they
Speaker 1: were shooting out front and I wasn't working then and
Speaker 1: and these lights kept coming on and I could hear
Speaker 1: the noise and ah, ship, I'm gonna go just take
Speaker 1: a walk in the back and see there was supposed
Speaker 1: to have been a ghost in the back, and uh,
Speaker 1: there was like a path that went up and there
Speaker 1: was a little graveyard up there, and there was like
Speaker 1: a eight year old that was murdered, and so I
Speaker 1: decided I'd walk up there. And they say, well, that's
Speaker 1: where you where the ghost is, you know, so and
Speaker 1: I was said, I'd love to see a ghost. I
Speaker 1: thought that would be really really cool. So I go
Speaker 1: out the back and it was pitch dark. I couldn't
Speaker 1: see a thing. So I had to walk backwards because
Speaker 1: the arc lights from the other side of the building
Speaker 1: were lighting up the stone path, so I could walk
Speaker 1: backwards and see where I was where I was going.
Speaker 1: I got up to a certain point and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I felt like somebody put a brick of
Speaker 1: ice on the back of my neck. I swear to God,
Speaker 1: I never told anybody that, never told any of the
Speaker 1: cast I'm getting the exclusive And I said, you know what,
Speaker 1: if I turn around right now, I'm going to see
Speaker 1: a ghost. I mean I felt that really strongly. Because
Speaker 1: of that, it was like freezing right in the back
Speaker 1: of my neck. So instead I just high tailed it. Back.
Speaker 1: I went to bed, and I thought, and you could
Speaker 1: really run back. I can't. I can't tell anybody about
Speaker 1: this ever, and I didn't didn't tell anyone. I was
Speaker 1: in my house on Long Island. Someone told me that
Speaker 1: my house had a ghost. And one night I'm laying
Speaker 1: in bed and I hear these voices in my house.
Speaker 1: I swear to God, I heard people talking and heard
Speaker 1: a woman like raising her voice, and I listened to it.
Speaker 1: And I listened to it. It's two in the morning.
Speaker 1: It's three in the morning, and I'm insomnia. I have
Speaker 1: bed in zomnia. And I jumped out of my bed.
Speaker 1: I swear to God, I jumped out of my bed
Speaker 1: and I started screaming. I started screaming at the top
Speaker 1: of my lungs. Come on, you want to funk with me,
Speaker 1: Come on, show yourself. Don't you fucking hide from me,
Speaker 1: Come on out and show me your face. I go
Speaker 1: nuts in my bedroom of my house on This is
Speaker 1: about twenty years ago. Anyway, very soon in the timeline
Speaker 1: of the business, paint your wagon as a flop, Finnian's
Speaker 1: Rainbow as a flop. And in that seem easy Rider
Speaker 1: comes up and it's the death of the musical as
Speaker 1: we know it in from Hollywood? How did you feel
Speaker 1: during that period? You get to the late sixties and
Speaker 1: everything becomes the countercultural thing in Nicholson and five Easy
Speaker 1: Paces and all everything becomes a little more well. I
Speaker 1: dropped out. I actually dropped out of show business. Uh,
Speaker 1: moved to to Panga and uh and got into fine
Speaker 1: art as opposed to how long did you do that?
Speaker 1: Oh boy? I was out for years. For several years,
Speaker 1: I did nothing. Uh. The last movie I did, I
Speaker 1: think was The Long Ships, a movie with Sydney Portier
Speaker 1: and wood Mark and and um. Then I dropped out
Speaker 1: and I went I went up to to Panga and
Speaker 1: on into I met an artist, Wallace Berman, I got
Speaker 1: involved with like Alan Ginsburg and uh, Michael McClure, the
Speaker 1: poet uh. And I got involved with a lot of
Speaker 1: those people, and I got turned onto fine art as
Speaker 1: opposed to the performing on. You've got quite a few
Speaker 1: credits after them, Yeah, yeah, but they're b movies. I
Speaker 1: did them just for some money so I can support myself.
Speaker 1: But I didn't give a funk what I did. I
Speaker 1: just did them, you know. I did him in there
Speaker 1: and made up my own lines and a lot of them.
Speaker 1: And Uh, they were happy to have you. Yeah, Oh,
Speaker 1: they were thrilled to have me. But I did well
Speaker 1: in the fine art. I did, had shows and I did.
Speaker 1: We still doing that soul art well when I get
Speaker 1: a chance. I've been writing my book for the last
Speaker 1: twenty years, by the way, it's called Dance on the Edge.
Speaker 1: When's it coming out early next year. We finished it
Speaker 1: and Bonnie is is putting in all of photos. Now,
Speaker 1: we got tons of photos that we're putting, I hope.
Speaker 1: So I tell you one of the stories about west
Speaker 1: Side Story. When um we finished And and I was
Speaker 1: friends with Natalie and UH and r J. And they
Speaker 1: came out to the beach house one time to have dinner.
Speaker 1: And we had dinner and we were we were drinking
Speaker 1: and UH and and Tony Bardente was came came to.
Speaker 1: He was a friend of Natalie's. And so we're all
Speaker 1: sitting around, We're having a few drinks, and I got
Speaker 1: this crazy idea. It was just because I had done
Speaker 1: it one time at Anthony Quinn's house up in ox
Speaker 1: and Rd. He had a big ranch and I went
Speaker 1: there and and we were out in the back and
Speaker 1: he was barbecuing, and and he said, let's play. You
Speaker 1: ask somebody a question and you have to tell the truth.
Speaker 1: So I said, let's play that. So we started doing
Speaker 1: it with Natalie and in r J. We went around
Speaker 1: the room and I thought, well, I'm gonna liven it up.
Speaker 1: So I thought for sure that I knew the answer
Speaker 1: to this. So I said to Natalie. I said, Natalie,
Speaker 1: and that if you had your choice of getting an
Speaker 1: Academy Award for west Side story, get an Academy award,
Speaker 1: But in order to get the Academy award, you would
Speaker 1: have to divorce r J, you know? Or would you
Speaker 1: rather keep your marriage with r J? You know? And
Speaker 1: and so she thought about it for a second. She said,
Speaker 1: I'll take the Academy. That's a true story. I was
Speaker 1: so surprised. I mean, I thought, sure, did J nod?
Speaker 1: He pounded the table. He practically broke a bottle again,
Speaker 1: he rang the back. And I was living at the beach,
Speaker 1: out a beach, and he ran down to the beach
Speaker 1: and Tony went to help him, and I was sitting
Speaker 1: there with Nat. I said, Ned, why did you say that?
Speaker 1: She said why? She said, well, I thought about it,
Speaker 1: and I thought you know, it may be my only
Speaker 1: chance to get an Academy award. I could always marry
Speaker 1: r J again. But they came back up. And uh,
Speaker 1: I thought about that story when you know, with that
Speaker 1: big deal that they had on the yacht where she
Speaker 1: drowned and they had a big fire. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: don't know what. He was very much in love with her.
Speaker 1: You could tell he was a little he was he
Speaker 1: was really possessed by. But my thing. I would go
Speaker 1: to dinner with people in New York and I noticed
Speaker 1: to play a game and I'd say, and my friends
Speaker 1: back then, this is like ten fifteen years ago. They
Speaker 1: were all ten years older than me. So I'm fifty,
Speaker 1: they're sixty, they're seventy. And I'd have like, I went
Speaker 1: with a friend of mine and his wife and two
Speaker 1: couples that were friends of his. So I'm gonna table.
Speaker 1: There's eight of us there. I'm the youngest one that
Speaker 1: everybody's in their seventies. And I turned to this woman
Speaker 1: who was very and Bancroft, kind of salty, savvy New
Speaker 1: York dame. Uh. And I said to her, I said, uh,
Speaker 1: And the game I played with him, do you want
Speaker 1: to know your husband? Or your wife, your partner you're
Speaker 1: married to in the next life when you die, will
Speaker 1: you see them again? And the first person I turned
Speaker 1: to with this woman who was like this and Bancroft type,
Speaker 1: I said, you, Julia, you and Irving here, I said,
Speaker 1: do you before I even opened my mouth, and she was,
Speaker 1: oh God, no, my god. Forty years with him is enough.
Speaker 1: You think I'm going to see him on the other
Speaker 1: side for eternity? Oh christ, I thought, what an honest
Speaker 1: thing to say in front of your husband that when
Speaker 1: you're dead, they're I always obsessed about that, like, well,
Speaker 1: I know my wife and my kids on the other side,
Speaker 1: Will I see my dad? Blah blah blah real quickly, Um,
Speaker 1: how do you get dialed into David Lynch and Twin Peaks?
Speaker 1: How did you get pulled into that? I was living
Speaker 1: with Dean Stockwell, and Dean and I were living up
Speaker 1: in Laurel Canyon. I just divorced my second wife and
Speaker 1: uh moved in with Dean, and that two of us
Speaker 1: were living there. And then I went to do a
Speaker 1: play and Dean and Dennis Hopper did Blue Velvet, and
Speaker 1: so Dennis said he was gonna have a birthday party
Speaker 1: for David Lynch. And and so I went with Dean
Speaker 1: to Dennis's place and uh, and Lynch was getting cards
Speaker 1: and gifts and stuff. And he opened up this one
Speaker 1: card and it was a guy standing in the center
Speaker 1: with these naked women around him, you know, with all
Speaker 1: these naked women, and he sort of laughed and everybody
Speaker 1: laft and it was like a funny thing, you know.
Speaker 1: And I was standing next to him. He said, wouldn't
Speaker 1: you love to be this guy? Is it funny like that?
Speaker 1: And it was an opportunity and I said to him,
Speaker 1: I said, what I would really loved, David, is to
Speaker 1: work with you sometime. And he looked at me and
Speaker 1: he said, the next project. I do the next project.
Speaker 1: And it was it was like a year later that
Speaker 1: I got a call from my agent and remember, David
Speaker 1: Lynch wants to see you. And so I went in,
Speaker 1: he remembered, and I went in to see him, and uh,
Speaker 1: he said the part that and I'll never forget what
Speaker 1: he said was. And I went home and told Bonnie
Speaker 1: later what he said to me. Not the part I
Speaker 1: want you to I'm thinking of you for that. The
Speaker 1: part I want you to do in this film is
Speaker 1: this eccentric character called Dr Jacobe. I want you to
Speaker 1: do that in the film. So I went home and
Speaker 1: I kept thinking about it all the way home. And
Speaker 1: what he said. I didn't say, I want you to
Speaker 1: audition or try out or I'm thinking of you the
Speaker 1: part I want you to do. And I went on
Speaker 1: when I told Bonnie and said, that's what he said.
Speaker 1: So my agent called and said, yeah, he want you
Speaker 1: to do it. Don't have a part yet written for
Speaker 1: Dr Jacobe, but they wrote a scene in for the pilot,
Speaker 1: and I decided to do something nuts. Dean told me
Speaker 1: Dean had worked with him. He said, David loves something
Speaker 1: that's out there, you know. So I decided to Uh,
Speaker 1: I put air plugs in my ears. I figured it's
Speaker 1: a psychiatrist. So when I get off the elevator in
Speaker 1: the one scene and the agent Cooper says to me,
Speaker 1: Agent Cooper, I said, Gary Cooper. And that was about
Speaker 1: the only scene I had. But after the pilot, Lynch
Speaker 1: loved it and so they picked it up and I'm
Speaker 1: going to shoot it a year later. And that's when
Speaker 1: I went to Venice and I wanted to find some
Speaker 1: crazy glasses, so I narrowed it down to a blue
Speaker 1: pear or a red pair, and then finally I stopped.
Speaker 1: I was looking in the mirror and I said, oh
Speaker 1: my god, that's it. So I had a pair of
Speaker 1: glasses made with one red lens and one blue lens,
Speaker 1: and that was my Jacoby showed him to Lynch. I said,
Speaker 1: the lens affects the creative side of the eye. On
Speaker 1: the logical side of the eye was a red lens
Speaker 1: to give it some light. So I explained all this too,
Speaker 1: and he says, I love it. But let's not tell
Speaker 1: anybody why you're wearing those glasses. Let's keep it a secret.
Speaker 1: He loves secrets. Let me just say this. Here's my
Speaker 1: last quick question. Do everybody knows uh because you have
Speaker 1: you now have a multi generational show business family. Uh
Speaker 1: that you're Amber Tamblin's dad. Do you ever give her
Speaker 1: any advice about the bis? Did she ever want any
Speaker 1: advice for me about the biz? Uh? She did a
Speaker 1: she did a soap opera General Hospital that she was on.
Speaker 1: I wasn't working, so I used to take her. My
Speaker 1: mother was taking her for a while, passed away. Then
Speaker 1: I took her and I used to stand next to
Speaker 1: the camera and when she would finish a scene. You
Speaker 1: know in soap opera, the director is not there, directors
Speaker 1: in the booth. Yeah. And I used to stand next
Speaker 1: to the camera and when she would finish a scene,
Speaker 1: the one piece of advices I gave her, whatever you do,
Speaker 1: don't get caught acting. That's the main thing. Don't get
Speaker 1: caught acting. That should be the name of your book,
Speaker 1: Don't get caught acting. Russ Tamblin, thank you from the bottom.
Speaker 1: Thank you. It's such an honor to be interviewed by
Speaker 1: your preasure. Russ Tamblin on a rich, exciting life in
Speaker 1: the movies him Alec Baldwin. Here's the Thing, as a
Speaker 1: production of w NYC Studios,