Return to Eden: Actor Tucker Smallwood, the Vietnam War, and Hollywood
Hosted by the War, Diplomacy, and Society Program
Hosted By

MA in War, Diplomacy, and Society Program

Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
TUCKER SMALLWOOD was commissioned an Army Infantry Officer in June '68, served as a TAC Officer at Ft. Benning, Ga. for six months, then attended Benning's Jump School, MATA at Ft Bragg’s JFK/SWC and Vietnamese Language School at Ft. Bliss, Texas. He commanded MAT-36 (a five-man Army Advisory Team to Vietnamese Regional Force troops) in 1969. After recovering from his injuries at Walter Reed Hospital, he taught patrolling, ambush, escape and evasion to Engineer OCS Candidates at Ft. Belvoir, Va. He then resigned his commission in 1970 and moved to NYC to study acting.
For the past 52 years, he has worked on and off Broadway in more than 40 theatrical productions, appeared in more than 40 feature films, along with hundreds of hours of episodic television. He is the author and narrator of the book, RETURN TO EDEN, an anthology of essays recounting his experiences as an Army Advisor, how his life as an artist was affected by PTSD and his return to Vietnam in 2004.
He is also an accomplished blues guitarist/singer and a member of Rogue Machine, an accomplished LA theater group. For six months in 2010-2011 he performed at Rogue Machine in THE SUNSET LIMITED by Cormac McCarthy. In 2012, WHERE THE GREAT ONES RUN at Rogue Machine. In 2013, FRATERNITY for Ebony Rep. In 2014, THE SUNSET LIMITED at Rubicon Theatre and received an Ovation Nomination for Best Actor and received the Independent Theater Award for his performance.
His extensive professional resume can be accessed at IMDb.com or Google.
You can contact the event organizer, Natalie Figueroa at nfigueroa@chapman.edu.
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