Jane Russell

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Ernestine Russell (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011) was an American film actress and one of Hollywood's most prominent sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s. Russell went from the Midwestern United States to California, where she appeared in Howard Hughes' The Outlaw in 1943.

Russell delves into music in 1947 before returning to film.

Russell returned to music after appearing in many films in the 1950s, including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1953, while making several other films in the 1960s.

Throughout her career, she appeared in more than 20 films. Russell married three times, adopted three children, and established Waif, the first international adoption service in 1955.

She has been recognized for her appearances in films, including having her hand and footprints immortalized in Grauman's Chinese Theatre's forecourt and being a part of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Early life

Russell was born in Bemidji, Minnesota, on June 21, 1921. She was Geraldine (née Jacobi) and Roy William Russell's eldest daughter and only daughter of the five children who died in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on March 22, 1918. Thomas, Kenneth, Jamie, and Wallace were among her brothers.

Her father was a first lieutenant in the United States Army and her mother an actress with a road troupe; her mother was also the subject of a portrait by Mary Bradish Titcomb, Portrait of Geraldine J., which attracted public attention when Woodrow Wilson acquired it. Russell's parents lived in Edmonton, Alberta, Alberta, for the first one or two years of her life. The family then moved to Southern California, where her father worked as an office manager.

Russell's mother arranged for her daughter to take piano lessons. She was interested in drama and appeared in stage productions at Van Nuys High School in addition to music. She had aspired to be a designer from the start, but she didn't know her father's death in his mid-40s before she decided to work as a receptionist after graduating. She also trained for photographers and, at the request of her mother, studied drama and acting with Max Reinhardt's Theatrical Workshop, as well as actress and acting coach Maria Ouspenskaya.

Personal life

Russell referred to herself as "vigorously pro-life." After a botched abortion that left her infertile in her teenage years, she was unable to have children.

Russell was married three times, first to Bob Waterfield, from 1943 to their divorce in July 1968. He was a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was a UCLA All-American, Cleveland Rams quarterback, Los Angeles Rams quarterback, Los Angeles Rams head coach, and inductee of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Russell Barrett married actor Roger Barrett, who died of a heart attack just two months later in November 1968. On January 31, 1974, she married real estate broker John Calvin Peoples, and he lived with him until his death from heart failure on April 9, 1999. Russell and Peoples were relocated to Sedona, Arizona, where they owned Dude's nightclub, and Russell revived her nightclub act in the late 1970s. The majority of their married life occurred in Santa Maria, California.

Russell and Waterfield adopted a baby girl, whom they named Tracy in February 1952. Thomas, the 15-month-old boy whose birth mother, Hannah McDermott, had moved to London in December 1952 to escape poverty in Northern Ireland, and they adopted Robert John, a nine-month-old boy. In 1955, she founded Waif, an organisation to house children with adoptive families and that pioneered international adoptions by Americans. Russell founded the "Hollywood Christian Group," a weekly Bible study at her house that was attended by many of the top film companies in the country at the beginning of her career.

Russell's photograph appears on a wall in the film Philomena (2013), but a character states that Russell bought a child from the contaminated Sean Ross Abbey in Ireland, but that it was based in Derry, Northern Ireland, in the mid-1950s. Russell was able to formalize the adoption after a big controversy and a court case.

Russell never attempted to convert Marilyn Monroe to Christianity, contrary to common belief. "Jane tried to convert me (to faith), and I attempted to introduce her to Freud," Monroe said, referring to the time Russell attempted to introduce her to a Bible study for Hollywood actors as an alternative to church. Russell later said in an interview that "I certainly wasn't trying to convert her to Christianity because I don't like religion." Russell appeared on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, a Christian television network based in Costa Mesa, California, occasionally on the Praise the Lord program.

Russell, a leading Republican party supporter, and attended Dwight D. Eisenhower's inauguration as well as other Hollywood celebrities such as Lou Costello, Dick Powell, June Allyson, Hugh O'Brian, Anita Louise, and Louella Parsons. In a 2003 interview, she was a recovering alcoholic who had come into recovery at the age of 79, but not a bigot.

Russell grew up in the Santa Maria Valley of California, near the Central Coast of California. She died in Santa Maria at her home. On February 28, 2011, a respiratory disease sufferer was diagnosed. Her funeral took place on March 12, 2011 at Pacific Christian Church in Santa Maria.

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Career

Russell was recruited by film mogul Howard Hughes for seven years and made her motion-picture debut (1943), a tale about Billy the Kid that went to great lengths to display her voluptuous figure.

The film was released in 1941, but it wasn't until 1943 that it was released in limited quantities. The censorship of the code caused problems with her ample cleavage in the film's promotion.

In 1946, the film was first released in general. Russell was still working in publicity and became well-known around the country during this period. Russell did not wear the specially developed underwire bra that Howard Hughes had envisioned and made for her use during filming, contrary to numerous inaccurate reports in the media after the introduction of The Outlaw. According to Jane's 1985 autobiography, she said the bra was so uncomfortable that she concealed it and wore her own bra with the cups padded with tissue and the straps pulled up to raise her breasts.

Russell's heights were 38-24-36, and she stood 5 ft 7 in (97-61 cm and 1.7 m), making her more statuesque than many of her contemporaries. "The two and only Jane Russell" was her beloved co-star Bob Hope's first appearance at her stage. "Culture is the ability to characterize Jane Russell without moving your hands," he joked. "There are two valid reasons why men come to see her," Howard Hughes said. Those are sufficient."

During World War II, she was a common pin-up photo of servicemen. Russell later said that "sex appeal is positive but not in bad taste," Russell said in a sex appeal. It's ugly. I don't believe a celebrity has any interest in posing in a vulgar manner. I've seen plenty of pin-up photographs that have sex appeal, passion, and allure, but not vulgar. They have a little bit of art to them. Marilyn's calendar was artistic."

She did not appear in another film until 1946, when she appeared Joan Kenwood in Young Widow for Hunt Stromberg, which was released by United Artists. The film was over budget by $600,000, and was a box office disappointment.

Russell began performing in 1947 and began a life as a singer. On radio, she performed with the Kay Kyser Orchestra and performed two singles with his band, "As Long As I Live" and "Boin-n-ng." Let's Put Out the Lights, Columbia Records' 78th anniversary, also includes eight torch ballads and cover art with a diaphanous gown that put the emphasis on her legs rather than on her breasts.

Russell's interview with Fine and Dandy in 2009 revealed that the Columbia album was "horrible and boring to listen to." On CD in 2002, it was reissued on CD, with the Kyser singles and two songs she recorded for Columbia in 1949 that hadn't been released at the time. "Kisses and Tears" was a hit on Columbia's Frank Sinatra and The Modernaires in 1950.

Russell's career was revived when she was cast as Calamity Jane opposite Bob Hope in The Paleface (1948) on loan out to Paraguay. The film was a huge box office hit, grossing $4.5 million and becoming Paraphrasedout's most popular launch of the year.

Russell worked in Montana Belle for Fidelity Pictures in 1948, playing Belle Starr. Republic Pictures had intended to be released the film, but the producer sold it to RKO, who released it in 1952.

Howard Hughes bought RKO Pictures, and Russell will be Russell's main employer for the next few years.

Russell co-starred with Groucho Marx and Frank Sinatra in a musical comedy called Double Dynamite, which was shot in 1948 and released in 1951. It was a critical and commercial failure.

Russell, Robert Mitchum, and Vincent Price in His Kind of Woman (1951), a film noir directed by John Farrow in 1950 that would be reshot by Richard Fleischer the following year.

Russell made two more film noirs: The Las Vegas Story (1952) with Price and Victor Mature (1952) with Mitchum; and Macao (1952) with Mitchum. His Kind of Woman and Macao were minor hits, but they were unable to fire because of Hughes' interference that they lost so much money.

Russell was lent to Hope, Son of Paleface (1952), which was another smash. She had a cameo in Road to Bali (1953).

Russell appeared in the hit film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), opposite Marilyn Monroe for twentieth Century Fox. Russell's biggest hit since The Outlaw was a big success, with a gross over $5 million.

She appeared in Howard Hughes' production The French Line (1954), a musical, back in RKO. Russell was seen in a form-fitting one-piece bathing suit with strategic cutouts, performing a then-protestative musical number titled "Lookin' for Trouble" in the film's penultimate scene. Russell's autobiography revealed that the unveiling outfit was a back-up to Hughes' original suggestion of a bikini, a particularly ratty option for a movie costume in 1954. Russell said she wore the bikini first time in front of her "horrified" film crew while "feeling very naked." The movie took in $3 million.

Hughes also produced Underwater!

Russell and Richard Egan appeared in RKO's adventure film (1955). It made $2 million, but it was a financial disaster because of the large investment. In February 1954, she's contract with Hughes came to an end.

Russell and her first husband, former Los Angeles Rams quarterback Bob Waterfield, formed Russ-Field Productions in 1953. Russell and his wife, Janice, got a six-picture contract with United Artists that lasted for more than three years, but they did not have to appear in three of the films until March 1954.

Russell was loaned out Russell's appearance in Foxfire (1955) at Universal, opposite Jeff Chandler. Russell was paid $200,000 for her performance, but she had the right to draw on Chandler's services for a film later today for her own production company. The film was a moderate success, grossing $2 million.

Russell appeared in The Tall Men (1955), one of the year's most well-known films, with incomes of $6 million.

Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), a sequel to Blondes in which Russell appeared alongside Jeanne Crain, was released by United Artists. It was not as popular as the original as it was.

Russell for United Artists produced two films without Russell: The King and Four Queens (1956) starring Clark Gable and Eleanor Parker (co-produced with Gable's company) and Run for the Sun (1956), starring Richard Widmark and Jane Greer.

Russell-Field's last film, The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (1957), starring Russell Russell, was a box-office failure.

Russell formed a gospel quartet in 1954, alongside three other members of a faith-sharing group named the Hollywood Christian Group. Connie Haines, Beryl Davis, and Della Russell were among the original participants. Haines was a former vocalist in the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey orchestras, while Davis, a British immigrant who had moved to the United States after receiving success entertaining American troops stationed in England during World War II. Della Russell was the wife of crooner Andy Russell. Their choral single "Do Lord" debuted at number 27 on the Billboard singles chart in May 1954, selling two million copies. Della Russell, no relation to Jane, left the company soon, but Jane, Haines, and Davis followed up with a trio LP for Capitol Records, The Magic of Believing. Rhonda Fleming, a Hollywood bombshell, joined them later in more gospel recordings. In 2008, the Capitol LP was released on CD as a set of the original quartet's choral singles as well as two tracks with Fleming replacing Della Russell. In 2005, Russell's gospel and secular recordings were released on CD in the United Kingdom, including Russell's spoken-word performances of Hollywood Riding Hood and Hollywood Cinderella, as well as a jazz band that featured Terry Gibbs and Tony Scott.

She debuted in a Las Vegas solo nightclub performance in October 1957. She has also performed in later roles in the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, and Europe. In 1959, MGM Records released a self-titled solo LP. Fine and Dandy, a 2009 CD, was reissued on CD, and it included demo and soundtrack tracks as well. "I finally had to make a record the way I wanted to make it," she said of MGM's album in the liner notes to the CD reissue. She debuted with a tour of Janus in New England in 1959, appeared in Skylark, New York, and appeared in Bells Are Ringing.

Russell began appearing in episodes of Colgate Theatre, Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, Death Valley Days (the "Splinter Station"), and The Red Skelton Hour. "Why did I stop movies?" she wondered in 1999.

Because I was getting too old!

If you were an actress over 30, you couldn't continue acting in those years. "She was the last on screen in Burned, Hunter season 2, 1985."

Russell was mentioned in a 1956 episode of The Honeymoons. Ralph Kramden (played by Jackie Gleason) arrives home "dead" exhausted, promising to go straight to bed after dinner, but "you won't let me out of this house tonight, and she couldn't get started until I arrived." Later, Kramden discovers that his best friend and neighbor, Ed Norton, is in fact throwing a party upstairs and didn't invite him. "I was talking about Jane Russell, not knowing that he was running for anything." He was reminded by his wife, Alice, of his reluctance to attend even a party that Jane Russell was throwing, an insulted Kramden rants.

Walter Findlay (played by Bill Macy) has a lipstick portrait and autograph of Jane Russell on a cocktail napkin in his wallet as a good luck charm on the sitcom Maude (the episode "The Wallet") as a good fortune charm.

Russell made her first movie appearance in Fate Is the Hunter (1964), in which she was seen as herself performing for the USO in a flashback sequence. She appeared in two A.C. Lyles Westerns, Johnny Reno (1966), and Waco (1966), and was second-billed in two A.C. Lyles Westerns, Johnny Reno (1966) and Waco (1966), and appeared in Cauliflower Cupids (1966), but not released until 1970. She appeared in The Born Losers (1967) and Darker Than Amber (1970).

Russell appeared in the musical drama Company in 1971, making her Broadway debut in the role of Joanne, replacing Elaine Stritch. Russell portrayed Joanne for almost six months. Russell began appearing in television commercials for Playtex "Your Heart Bras" for us full-figured gals in the 1970s, including the "18-Hour Bra," one of International Playtex's best-known products as of early March 2011. She appeared on television and on Hunter (1986), and had a semi-recurring guest appearance in The Yellow Rose (1983) on television. Russell wrote an autobiography titled "My Way and My Detours" (1985).

Russell was given the Women's International Center Living Legacy Award in 1989. At Grauman's Chinese Theatre, her handprints and footprints have been immortalized, and she appears on Hollywood Boulevard at 6850 Hollywood Boulevard. Russell was named one of the 40 Most Iconic Movie Goddesses of all time by Glamour in 2009.

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