Toukie Smith, a top runway model in the 1970s and actress on NBC's 227, died Wednesday in a New York hospital. She was 74. Smith died after a "long, courageous battle" with multiple sclerosis, according to an announcement from her twins, Airyn and Julian.
Smith modeled for fashion designers Hubert de Givenchy, Thierry Mugler, Issey Miyake and Patrick Kelly, as well as for photographers Jean-Paul Goude and Guy Bourdin. She appeared in photo campaigns for Yves St. Laurent and on the pages of Vogue, Ebony, Cosmopolitan, Redbook and Seventeen. Bloomingdale's named her model of the year in 1978.
She joined 227 in 1989 as Eva Rawley, an artist who moves into the building where Marla Gibbs' character Mary Jenkins works as landlord. Smith recurred on the comedy during its final two seasons through May 1990, and her character managed the building for a time.
Smith appeared on three episodes of Miami Vice in 1987-88 as Angie, assistant to Sheena Easton's character and wife of Don Johnson's Sonny Crockett. Her film roles included Talkin' Dirty After Dark (1991), I Like It Like That (1994), Joe's Apartment (1996) and The Preacher's Wife (1996).
Doris Smith was born in Philadelphia on Sept. 25, 1952. She began her modeling career in 1972 after attending the Fashion Institute of Technology. In the '90s, she opened an eponymous restaurant on West Houston Street in New York. She and Robert De Niro were partners from 1988-96. Their twins were conceived by in vitro fertilization and delivered by a surrogate mother. Her brother, fashion designer Willi Smith, died in 1987 at age 39 from AIDS complications.