Rosalind Russell

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Catherine Rosalind Russell (June 4, 1907 – November 28, 1976) was an American actress, comedian, screenwriter and singer, known for her role as fast-talking newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday (1940), as well as for her portrayals of Mame Dennis in Auntie Mame (1958) and Rose in Gypsy (1962).

A noted comedian, she won all five Golden Globes for which she was nominated.

Russell won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1953 for her portrayal of Ruth in the Broadway show Wonderful Town (a musical based on the film My Sister Eileen, in which she also starred).

She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress four times throughout her career. In addition to her success as a comedic lead, Russell was known for playing dramatic characters as well, especially wealthy, dignified, ladylike women, being one of the few actresses of her time who regularly played professional women, such as judges, reporters, and psychiatrists.

She had a wide career span from the 1930s to the 1970s, and attributed her long career to the fact that, although usually playing classy and glamorous roles, she never became a sex symbol.

Early years

Catherine Rosalind Russell was one of seven children born in Waterbury, Connecticut, to James Edward, a lawyer, and Clara A. Russell (née McKnight), a teacher. The Russells were an Irish-American, Catholic family. She was named after a ship on which her parents had traveled. She attended Catholic schools, including the women's-only Rosemont College in Rosemont, Pennsylvania and Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York. She then attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. Her parents thought Russell was studying to become a teacher and were unaware that she was planning to become an actress. Upon graduation from the performing arts school, Russell acted in summer stock and joined a repertory company in Boston.

Personal life

On October 25, 1941, Russell married Danish-American producer Frederick Brisson (1912–1984), son of actor Carl Brisson. Cary Grant was responsible for the couple's having met, and was the best man at Frederick and Rosalind's wedding. Brisson had been traveling from England to the United States by ship in 1939, and The Women was playing on an endless loop during the voyage. After hearing the audio for the film day after day while traveling, Brisson decided he had better sit down and watch the whole film. He became so enamored with Russell's performance as Sylvia Fowler that he turned to his friends and proclaimed: "I'm either gonna kill that girl, or I'm gonna marry her".

Brisson stayed with Cary Grant in his guest house while Grant was filming His Girl Friday. Upon hearing that Grant was making the movie with Russell, Brisson asked his friend if he could meet her. Cary Grant then spent weeks greeting Russell each morning on set with the question "Have you met Freddie Brisson?" in an effort to pique the actress's curiosity. One night, when Russell opened her door to let Grant in before they went dancing, as they often did, she found him standing next to a stranger. Grant sheepishly explained that the odd fellow was Freddie Brisson, the man whom he had mentioned so often, and they set off for dinner, with Freddie in tow.

Russell and Brisson's marriage lasted 35 years, ending with her death. They had one child in 1943, a son, Carl Lance Brisson.

Russell was a registered Republican who supported the 1960 campaign of Richard Nixon.

Russell was a devout Catholic, and a member of the Good Shepherd Parish and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California.

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Career

Russell began her modeling career as a fashion model and appeared in numerous Broadway shows. She worked at a stock firm for seven months at Saranac Lake, New York, and then Hartford, Connecticut, Connecticut, facing parental objections. After that, she migrated to Boston, where she spent a year at Edward E. Clive's theater company for a year. She appeared in a revue in New York later (The Garrick Gaieties). There, she took voice lessons and started a career in opera, but it was short lived due to her inability to reach high notes.

Russell went west to Los Angeles, where she had been recruited as a contract worker for Universal Studios in the early 1930s. When she first landed on the lot, she was ignored by the majority of the crew but later told the world that she was angry and humiliated at Universal, which hurt her self-confidence. Russell, who was unhappy with Universal's leadership and second-class studio success at the time, vowed to leave Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was able to walk out of her Universal contract on her own terms. Russell was apprehensive when MGM first approached her for a screen test, remembering her time at Universal. However, when she met MGM's Benny Thau and Ben Piazza, she was taken aback because they were "the soul of understanding." Harold S. Bucquet conducted her screen test, and she later claimed she was hired as a result of a closeup he took of her.

Russell debuted in Evelyn Prentice (1934), according to MGM's under an employment deal. Despite the fact that the position was small, she received positive feedback, with one commentator describing her as "convincing as the woman scorned." She appeared in many comedies, including Forsaking All Others (1934) and Four's a Crowd (1938), as well as dramas, including Craig's Wife (1936) (which would be the film's second out of three remakes; Joan Crawford did the third) and The Citadel (1938). Russell was praised when she co-starred with Robert Young in the MGM drama West Point of the Air (1935). "Rosalind Russell, the 'other woman' in the tale, gives a mature and deft approach to her scenes with Young," one observer noted. She quickly rose to fame, and by 1935, she was seen as a replacement for actress Myrna Loy, as she performed many roles for which Loy was first established.

Russell was characterized as a sophisticated lady throughout her first years in Hollywood, both in her personal life and film career. Russell, who said in a 1936 interview, was dissatisfied by this dissatisfaction:

Russell begged for assistance in improving her image, but Lloyd instead of assisting her, depicting her as a wealthy aristocrat in Under Two Flags (1936). In George Cukor's all-female comedy The Women (1939), she was next cast as catty gossip Sylvia Fowler. The film was a huge success, both in terms of her career and establishing her reputation as a comedienne.

Russell continued to laugh out loud in the classic screwball comedy He Girl Friday (1940), directed by Howard Hawks. Russell played quick-witted ace reporter Hildy Johnson, who was also the ex-wife of her newspaper editor Walter Burns in the film (Cary Grant). Russell was, as she put it, "Everyone's fifteenth pick" for the role of Hildy in the film. Howard Hawks had contacted Katharine Hepburn, Irene Dunne, Claudette Colbert, Jean Arthur, Margaret Sullavan, and Ginger Rogers before she was cast. All of them refused. Russell discovered out about it while riding a train to New York, when she read an article in The New York Times revealing that she had been cast in the film and identifying all the actresses who had turned it down.

Take a Letter, Darling, and My Sister Eileen (1941), dramas including Sister Kenny (1946) and Mourning Becomes Electra (1948), along with a murder mystery: The Velvet Touch (1948).

Russell performed in Wonderful Town (1953), a Broadway tribute to her cult film of a decade ago, My Sister Eileen, earning her a big hit on Broadway. Russell reprised her role in a 1958 television special.

Perhaps her most memorable appearance was in the title role of the long-running stage comedy Auntie Mame (based on a Patrick Dennis book), as well as the 1958 film version, in which she played an eccentric aunt whose orphanage nephew comes to live with her. "Hey, Auntie Mame," she answered when asked which role she was most familiar with, she replied that strangers who caught her out shouted out. In 1957, she received a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her appearance. Patrick Dennis dedicated "the one and only Rosalind Russell," his auntie Mame's Around the World with Auntie Mame in 1958.

Picnic (1955), A Majority of One (1961), Gypsy (1962), The Trouble with Angels (1969), and its sequel Where Angels Go (1968). When the musical version Mame was scheduled for a revival on Broadway in 1966, Russell was the logical option for reprising her role as Auntie Mame but for health reasons.

Russell (under the name C.A.) began her acting career before deciding on a different one. As well as McKnight, a writer for the film The Unguarded Moment (1956), a tale of sexual assault starring Esther Williams. Russell used the pen name C.A. McKnight appeared in the screenplay for Mrs. Pollifax's adaptation of the novel The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, which she also appeared in. Russell's last big screen role was on television.

Russell received four Academy Award nominations for Best Actress: My Sister Eileen (1942); Sister Kenny (1946); Mourning Becomes Electra (1947); and Auntie Mame (1958), the film version of her Broadway comedy hit. In 1972, she received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, which culminated in an Oscar statuette.

Russell was given the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1972. Russell has received five Golden Globe Awards in her career, as well as a Tony Award. She also stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Russell is honoured at the Rosalind Russell Medical Research Center for Arthritis. In honor of her Congressional appointment to the National Commission on Arthritis, her portrait and a description of her work hangs in the lobby.

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