Model and Actress Toukie Smith Dies at 74

Smith died after a long battle with multiple sclerosis, her twins, Airyn and Julian, announced. She had the children with actor Robert De Niro, her partner from 1988 to 1996; they were born in 1995 through a surrogate mother.

Born Doris Smith in Philadelphia in 1952, she began modeling in 1972 after studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her work included campaigns for Yves Saint Laurent and appearances in magazines including Vogue, Ebony and Cosmopolitan. In 1978, Bloomingdale’s chose her as its top model. She also modeled for her brother, designer Willi Smith, and worked with designers including Givenchy, Thierry Mugler and Issey Miyake.

Smith moved into acting after leaving modeling in the early 1980s. She joined 227 in 1989 as Eva Rawley, an artist who moves into the building managed by Mary Jenkins, played by Marla Gibbs. Smith appeared in the sitcom’s final two seasons, which ended in 1990. Her other television work included three episodes of Miami Vice, and her films included a comedy about suggestive nighttime conversation, a movie about embracing things as they are, Joe’s Apartment and The Preacher’s Wife.

In 1994, Smith opened Toukie’s, a restaurant on West Houston Street in Manhattan. Some of its profits supported people affected by AIDS, in memory of her brother, who died from complications related to the disease in 1987. Smith’s family announcement described her struggle with multiple sclerosis as a “long, courageous battle.”