Tucker Smallwood (born February 22, 1944) is an American actor, author, and vocalist.

Early life

From 1967 to 1970, Smallwood served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

Airborne Infantry Airborne forces, airborne troops, or airborne infantry are ground combat units carried by aircraft and airdropped into battle zones, typically by parachute drop or air assault. Parachute-qualified infantry and support personnel serving in ai ...

. Commanding a Mobile Advisory Team during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, he was nearly fatally wounded in action and pronounced dead, in 1969. After recovering from the injuries, Smallwood moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

where he studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse and established a career as a performer in Broadway productions (''Mahalia''), films and television.

Career

His films include '' The Cotton Club'' (1984), ''

Contact Contact may refer to: Interaction Physical interaction * Contact (geology), a common geological feature * Contact lens or contact, a lens placed on the eye * Contact sport, a sport in which players make contact with other players or objects * ...

'' (1997), '' Deep Impact'' (1998),

Larry David Lawrence Gene David (born July 2, 1947) is an American comedian, writer, actor, and television producer. He and Jerry Seinfeld created the television sitcom ''Seinfeld'', on which David was head writer and executive producer for the first sev ...

's ''

Sour Grapes Sour Grapes may refer to: * Sour grapes, an expression from "The Fox and the Grapes", one of Aesop's Fables * ''Sour Grapes'' (1998 film), a film by Larry David * ''Sour Grapes'' (2016 film), a film about Rudy Kurniawan * ''Sour Grapes'' (poetry c ...

'', ''

Traffic Traffic comprises pedestrians, vehicles, ridden or herded animals, trains, and other conveyances that use public ways (roads) for travel and transportation. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffi ...

'' (2000), '' The One'' (2001), ''Quigley'' (2003), ''Spectres'' (2004) and ''

Embers ''Embers'' is a radio play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English in 1957. First broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 24 June 1959, the play won the RAI prize at the Prix Italia awards later that year. Donald McWhinnie directed Ja ...

'' (2015). On television, he has been a regular and made guest appearances on many series, including '' Space: Above and Beyond'', ''

Millennium A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannus, kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting ...

'', ''

Babylon 5 ''Babylon 5'' is an American space opera television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski, under the Babylonian Productions label, in association with Straczynski's Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Warner Bros. Domestic Televi ...

'', ''

The X-Files ''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation ...

'', ''

Curb Your Enthusiasm ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' is an American television sitcom produced and broadcast by HBO since October 15, 2000, and created by Larry David, who stars as a semi-fictionalized version of himself. It follows David's life as a semi-retired televis ...

'', ''

Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as Jerry Seinfeld ( ...

'', ''

Murphy Brown ''Murphy Brown'' is an American television sitcom created by Diane English that premiered on November 14, 1988, on CBS. The series stars Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, a famous investigative journalist and news anchor for ''FYI'', ...

'', '' Star Trek: Voyager'', '' Star Trek: Enterprise'', '' Friends'' and ''

The Sarah Silverman Program ''The Sarah Silverman Program'' is an American television sitcom, which ran from February 1, 2007, to April 15, 2010, on Comedy Central starring comedian and actress Sarah Silverman, who created the series with Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab. ''The Sa ...

''. He often plays military characters, and as a science fiction fan, he always longed to play a ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vario ...

'' alien. He came close on ''Voyager'' when he played the human form of a disguised alien, but it was not until ''Enterprise'' that he played a fully alien character, a sympathetic Xindi, for several episodes. Smallwood sometimes sings in his acting roles. He plays his guitar on several occasions on '' Space: Above and Beyond'', as Commodore Ross. His character on ''

'' sang to people before euthanizing them. He is the vocalist in the blues band Incarnation led by bassist

Jerry Jemmott Gerald Stenhouse Jemmott (born March 22, 1946, in the Morrisania section of the Bronx, New York City) is an American bass guitarist. Jemmott was one of the chief session bass guitarists of the late 1960s and early 1970s, working with many of th ...

. Their self-titled first album, produced in 1994 at Clark Dimond's Dimond Studio in the

Sangre de Cristo Mountains The Sangre de Cristo Mountains ( Spanish for "Blood of Christ") are the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains. They are located in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico in the United States. The mountains run from Poncha Pass in South ...

, is a tribute to the music of Delta Blues King

Robert Johnson Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generat ...

with 15 tracks written by or associated with Johnson. It was actually recorded in 1981 at Greene St. Recording featuring guitarist Arlen Roth. They were joined by Pat Conte on Guitar and T C James on piano with

Herb Lovelle Herbie Lovelle (1 June 1924 - April 8, 2009) was an American drummer, who played jazz, R&B, rock, and folk. He was also a studio musician and an actor. Lovelle's uncle was the drummer Arthur Herbert. Lovelle began his career with the trumpete ...

on drums. Smallwood was one of the two actors in

Bruce Nauman Bruce Nauman (born December 6, 1941) is an American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives near Galisteo, New Mexico. Life and work ...

's video installation, "Good Boy Bad Boy" (1985). He is the author of ''Return To Eden'', anthology of 33 personal essays describing his tour of duty in the Vietnam War, his life as performer and his return to Vietnam in 2004. Some of these essays previously appeared in magazines. In 2006, the mp3 version of ''Return to Eden'' was first runner-up in the audio/spoken word category at the Fifth Annual DIY Book Festival, which celebrates independent authors and publishers. In 2009, he hosted the hybrid television radio horror anthology series ''As Darkness Falls''.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

References

External links

Tucker Smallwood's official site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smallwood, Tucker 1944 births Living people American male film actors United States Army soldiers African-American male actors American male television actors United States Army personnel of the Vietnam War Male actors from Washington, D.C. Military personnel from Washington, D.C. 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people