Jane Russell
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell (June 21, 1921 - February 28, 2011) was an American film actress and was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s.
The oldest of five children, Russell moved from the Midwest to California, where she had her first film role in 1943 with The Outlaw. In 1947, Russell delved into music before returning to films. After starring in multiple films in the 1950s, Russell again returned to music while completing several other films in the 1960s. She starred in over 20 films throughout her career.
Russell married three times and adopted several children, and in 1955, founded the World Adoption International Fund. For her achievements in film, she received several accolades including having her hand and foot prints immortalized in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theater and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She died at her home in Santa Maria, California of a respiratory-related illness on February 28, 2011.
Early life
Born in Bemidji, Minnesota in 1921, Russell was the eldest child and only daughter of the five children of Roy William Russell (January 5, 1890 – July 18, 1937) and Geraldine Jacobi (January 2, 1891 – December 26, 1986).Template:Cn
Her parents were both born in North Dakota. Three of her grandparents were born in Canada, while her paternal grandmother was born in Germany. Her parents married in 1917. Her father was a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army and her mother was a former actress with a road troupe. Her parents spent the early years of their marriage in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. For her birth her mother temporarily moved back to the U.S. to ensure she was born a U.S. citizen.Template:OR Later the family moved to the San Fernando Valley of Southern California. They lived in Burbank in 1930 and her father worked as an office manager at a soap manufacturing plant.Template:Citation needed
Russell's mother arranged for her to take piano lessons. In addition to music, she was interested in drama and participated in stage productions at Van Nuys High School. Her early ambition was to be a designer of some kind, until the death of her father at forty-six, when she decided to work as a receptionist after graduation. She also modeled for photographers and, at the urging of her mother, studied drama and acting with Max Reinhardt's Theatrical Workshop and with famed Russian actress Maria Ouspenskaya.Template:Citation needed [[File:Bob Hope.gif|left|thumb|Jane Russell with Bob Hope in 1944.]]
Filmography
- Features
- The Outlaw (1943)
- Young Widow (1946)
- The Paleface (1948)
- His Kind of Woman (1951)
- Double Dynamite (1951)
- The Las Vegas Story (1952)
- Macao (1952)
- Son of Paleface (1952)
- Montana Belle (1952)
- Road to Bali (1952) (Cameo)
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
- The French Line (1954)
- Underwater! (1955)
- Foxfire (1955)
- The Tall Men (1955)
- Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955)
- Hot Blood (1956)
- The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956)
- The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (1957)
- Fate Is the Hunter (1964)
- Johnny Reno (1966)
- Waco (1966)
- The Born Losers (1967)
- Darker Than Amber (1970)
- Hollywood on Fire (2007) (documentary)
- Short Subjects
- Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Rodeo (1949)
- Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Goes to Bat (1950)
- Screen Snapshots: Playtime in Hollywood (1956)
