the war, Tucker appeared in Louis Jordan's film Reet, Petite and Gone; in the early 1950s, he returned to the stage appearing in a London production of Anna Lucasta. Tucker later became an autopsy technician for the New York City medical examiner, where he worked on the bodies of Malcolm X and Nina Mae McKinney. Tucker moved to Hollywood permanently in 1977, where he continued to seek work. He took the nighttime security guard job, he said, so his days would be free for interviews. Tucker died of lung cancer at age 79 at his home in Hollywood, California. He left a widow, Pauline Segura Tucker. His funeral took place at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Hollywood, California. Honors and awards In 1974, Tucker was inducted into the Black Film Makers Hall of Fame, and he received the Audelco Recognition Award in 1981. On an episode of The Cosby Show, titled "Denise Drives", Clair Huxtable quizzes Denise Huxtable on car safety asking if she should stop her car for a stranger on a dark rainy night with "hair like Lorenzo Tucker, eyes like Billy Dee and a smile like Nat King Cole." References Bibliography Richard Grupenhoff. The Black Valentino: The Stage and Screen Career of Lorenzo Tucker. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1988. External links 1907 births 1986 deaths African-American male actors American male film actors American male silent film actors Deaths from lung cancer in California Male actors from Philadelphia Temple University alumni Burials at Riverside National Cemetery 20th-century American male actors African-American Catholics 20th-century African-American people