Photograph of Rosalind Russell.
Rosalind Russell

Overview

Rosalind Russell (June 4, 1907November 28, 1976) was a four-time Academy Award nominated and Tony Award winning American film and stage actress, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday.

She is the actress (tied with Meryl Streep) with the most Golden Globe Awards (for films) wins, with five. It is notable that she won every Golden Globe for which she was nominated.

Early life

Rosalind Russell was one of seven siblings born in Waterbury, Connecticut to Clara and James Edward Russell, an Irish-American Catholic family. She was not named after the character from Shakespeare's As You Like It, but rather after the ship on which her parents had travelled. She attended Catholic schools before attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.

Career

She started her career as a fashion model and was in many Broadway shows. In the early 1930s, she began to work for MGM, where she starred in many comedies, such as Forsaking All Others (1934) and Four's a Crowd (1938), as well as dramas, including Craig's Wife (1936) and The Citadel (1938). In 1939, she was cast as a catty gossip in the all-female comedy The Women, directed by George Cukor.

She proved her quick-witted talent for comedy in the classic screwball comedy His Girl Friday (1940), directed by Howard Hawks. She played a quick-witted ace reporter who was also the ex-wife of her former newspaper editor (played by Cary Grant).

In the 1940s, she continued to make both comedies such as The Feminine Touch (1941) and Take a Letter Darling (1942), dramas like Sister Kenny (1946) and Mourning Becomes Electra (1947), and a murder mystery The Velvet Touch (1948).

Russell scored a big hit on Broadway with her Tony Award-winning performance in Wonderful Town in 1953. The play was a musical version of her successful film of a decade earlier, My Sister Eileen. Russell reprised her starring role in the musical version in 1958 in a television special.

Russell returned to her native Waterbury for the world premiere of her movie The Girl Rush at the State Theater on Aug. 18, 1955.

Probably her most memorable performance was in the title role of the long-running stage hit Auntie Mame (1956) and the subsequent movie version (1958), in which she played an eccentric aunt whose orphan nephew comes to live with her. When asked which role she was most closely identified with, she replied that strangers who spotted her still called out, "Hey, Auntie Mame!"

From the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, she starred in a large number of movies, giving notable performances in Picnic (1956), Gypsy (1962) and The Trouble with Angels (1966).

Russell was the logical choice for reprising her role as "Auntie Mame" when its Broadway musical adaptation Mame was set for production in 1966. She claimed to have turned it down since she preferred to move on to different roles. In reality, she did not want to burden the public with her growing health problems, which included rheumatoid arthritis.

Rosalind Russell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1708 Vine Street.

Personal life

She married Danish-American producer Frederick Brisson on October 25, 1941. Fred was often referred to in Hollywood as "The Lizard of Roz" due to his habit of getting choice Broadway play roles for the movie to be played by his wife Roz. They had one child in 1943, a son named Lance. Her father-in-law was the successful Danish actor Carl Brisson.

Russell died after a long battle with breast cancer in 1976 at the age of 69, although initially her age was misreported because she had shaved a few years off her true age. She was survived by her husband and son. She is buried in Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Her autobiography, written with Chris Chase, entitled Life is a Banquet was published a year after her death. In the foreword (written by her husband), he states that Russell had a nervous breakdown sometime in the early 1940s. Details are scant, but it indicates that her health problems can be traced back to the 1940s.

Filmography

Features
*Evelyn Prentice (1934) *The President Vanishes (1934) *Forsaking All Others (1934) *The Night Is Young (1935) *The Casino Murder Case (1935) *West Point of the Air (1935) *Reckless (1935) *China Seas (1935) *Rendezvous (1935) *It Had to Happen (1936) *Under Two Flags (1936) *Trouble for Two (1936) *Craig's Wife (1936) *Night Must Fall (1937) *Live, Love and Learn (1937) *Man-Proof (1938) *Four's a Crowd (1938) *The Citadel (1938) *Fast and Loose (1939) *The Women (1939) *His Girl Friday (1940) *No Time for Comedy (1940) *Hired Wife (1940) *This Thing Called Love (1940) *They Met in Bombay (1941) *The Feminine Touch (1941)

*Design for Scandal (1941) *Take a Letter, Darling (1942) *My Sister Eileen (1942) *Flight for Freedom (1943) *What a Woman! (1943) *Roughly Speaking (1945) *She Wouldn't Say Yes (1945) *Sister Kenny (1946) *The Guilt of Janet Ames (1947) *Mourning Becomes Electra (1947) *The Velvet Touch (1948) *Tell It to the Judge (1949) *A Woman of Distinction (1950) *Never Wave at a WAC (1952) *The Girl Rush (1955) *Picnic (1955) *Auntie Mame (1958) *A Majority of One (1961) *Five Finger Exercise (1962) *Gypsy (1962) *The Trouble with Angels (1966) *Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad (1967) *Rosie! (1967) *Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968) *Mrs. Pollifax - Spy (1971)
Short subject
*The Candid Camera Story (Very Candid) of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures 1937 Convention (1937) *March of Time: The Movies Move On (1939) *March of Time: The Movies Move On (1939) *You Can't Fool a Camera (1941) *Screen Snapshots: 25th Anniversary (1945) *Screen Snapshots: Famous Hollywood Mothers (1947)

Footnotes

Who is Rosalind Russell connected to?
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How is Rosalind Russell connected to Shirley MacLaine? Tell the world.

This biography says:

...In the early 1930s, she began to work for MGM, where she starred in many comedies, such as Forsaking All Others (1934) and Four's a Crowd (1938), as well as dramas, including Craig's Wife (1936) and The Citadel (1938). In 1939, she was cast as a catty gossip in the all-female comedy The Women, directed by George Cukor....

That biography says:

...In 1952, Lupino was invited to become the "fourth star" in Four Star Productions by Dick Powell, David Niven, and Charles Boyer after Joel McCrea and Rosalind Russell dropped out....
How is Rosalind Russell connected to Pearl Bailey? Tell the world.

That biography says:

...By the mid-1940s he grew disillusioned with New York and left for Hollywood in 1946 where he took the post of Chief Photographer for the Vogue studios. He photographed Katharine Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, Gloria Swanson and Orson Welles, from the film industry as well as others in the arts among them Aldous Huxley, Igor Stravinsky and Thomas Mann...

That biography says:

*Queen of the Night Clubs (1929) with Texas Guinan *Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929) *Side Street (1929) with Tom Moore, Owen Moore, and Matt Moore (Raft unbilled dancer) *Quick Millions (1931) with Spencer Tracy and Marguerite Churchill *Goldie (1931) with Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow *Hush Money (1931) with Joan Bennett and Myrna Loy *Palmy Days (1931) with Eddie Cantor *Scarface (1932) with Paul Muni and Ann Dvorak (Raft flips the nickel in his breakthrough role) *Love Is a Racket (1932) (scenes deleted) *Madame Racketeer (1932) with Alison Skipworth and Richard Bennett *Night World (1932) with Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, and Boris Karloff *Dancers in the Dark (1932) with Miriam Hopkins *Taxi! (1932) with James Cagney *Winner Take All (1932) with James Cagney *Night After Night (1932) with Mae West as a fictionalized Texas Guinan (Raft's 1st leading role) *Under Cover Man (1932) with Nancy Carroll *If I Had a Million (1932; Raft plays a forger who can't cash his million dollar check) *Pick-Up (1933) with Sylvia Sidney *The Bowery (1933) with Wallace Beery, Fay Wray, and Pert Kelton (Raft 2nd billed) *The Midnight Club (1933) with Clive Brook (Raft 2nd billed) *The Trumpet Blows (1934) with Adolphe Menjou *All of Me (1934) with Fredric March and Miriam Hopkins (Raft 3rd billed) *Bolero (1934) with Carole Lombard and Ray Milland (besides Scarface, Raft's signature film) *Limehouse Blues (1934) with Anna May Wong *Every Night at Eight (1935) with Alice Faye and Frances Langford *The Glass Key (1935) with Edward Arnold *She Couldn't Take It (1935) with Joan Bennett *Stolen Harmony (1935) with Lloyd Nolan and William Cagney *Rumba (1935) with Carole Lombard *Yours for the Asking (1936) with Dolores Costello and Ida Lupino *It Had to Happen (1936) with Rosalind Russell *Souls at Sea (1937) with Gary Cooper (Raft 2nd billed) *You and Me (1938) with Sylvia Sidney (with bizarre musical interludes by Kurt Weill) *Spawn of the North (1938) with Henry Fonda and John Barrymore *I Stole a Million (1939) with Claire Trevor *The Lady's from Kentucky (1939) with Ellen Drew *Each Dawn I Die (1939) with James Cagney (Raft 2nd billed) *The House Across the Bay (1940) with Joan Bennett *They Drive by Night (1940) with Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino, and Humphrey Bogart *Invisible Stripes (1940) with William Holden and Humphrey Bogart *Manpower (1941) with Edward G...
How is Rosalind Russell connected to Jane Wyman? Tell the world.

That biography says:

...After her MGM contract expired in 1954, she made only a few films. In 1958, she received a warm reception on Broadway in Auntie Mame, replacing Rosalind Russell, who had gone to Hollywood to make the film version. In 1960, Garson received her seventh and final Oscar nomination for Sunrise at Campobello, in which she played Eleanor Roosevelt, this time losing to Elizabeth Taylor for BUtterfield 8...

That biography says:

...(Arthur Byron) at loggerheads with his pro-war cabinet; he pretends to be kidnapped, to show by the ensuing media uproar how false propaganda can mislead the public. ... In the cast: Edward Arnold, Paul Kelly, Rosalind Russell (beginning her 37-year screen career), Charley Grapewin, Peggy Conklin, Osgood Perkins, Janet Beecher, Walter Kingsford, Sidney Blackmer, and Edward Ellis.<bgref>Eames, John Douglas, <i>The Paramount Story; 1985, Crown Publishers, Inc.; Hardcover ISBN 0517553481 p...

That biography says:

...Aside from a minor role in The Producers, Kirk's only feature film work was done behind-the-scenes, dubbing Rosalind Russell's singing voice in Gypsy. It's a shame that they used Lisa's name in the credits for the "Producers"...
How is Rosalind Russell connected to Tony Randall? Tell the world.

That biography says:

...With the advent of the talkies, she went from writing screenplays and subtitles for silent movies to screenplays with dialogue for such classics as Red-Headed Woman (1932) starring Jean Harlow; San Francisco (1936) starring Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy; The Women (1939), adapted from the play by Clare Booth Luce, starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell; Susan and God (1940) starring Crawford, Fredric March and Ruth Hussey; and I Married an Angel (1942) starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy...
How is Rosalind Russell connected to Gertrude Lawrence? Tell the world.

That biography says:

...She also lent her voice in the Spanish translation of movies. She was the voiceover of Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck and Rosalind Russell. In 1978, her supporting role in the Telemundo soap opera, Cristina Bazan, was throughly acknowledged, alongside Jose Luis Rodriguez, and Johanna Rosaly...

That biography says:

...Barnum again) *West Point of the Air (1935) with Robert Young, Maureen O'Sullivan, Rosalind Russell, and Robert Taylor *China Seas (1935) with Clark Gable and Jean Harlow *O'Shaughnessy's Boy (1935) with Jackie Cooper *Ah, Wilderness! (1935) with Lionel Barrymore and Mickey Rooney *A Message to Garcia (1936) with Barbara Stanwyck *Old Hutch (1936) *The Good Old Soak (1937) with Betty Furness and Ted Healy *Slave Ship (1937) with Warner Baxter (first-billed) and Mickey Rooney *The Bad Man of Brimstone (1937) with Noah Beery *Port of Seven Seas (1938; written by Preston Sturges and directed by James Whale) with Maureen O'Sullivan *Stablemates (1938) with Mickey Rooney *Stand Up and Fight (1939) with Robert Taylor and Charles Bickford *Sergeant Madden (1939; directed by Josef von Sternberg) with Laraine Day *Thunder Afloat (1939) with Chester Morris *The Man From Dakota (1940) with Dolores del Rio *20 Mule Team (1940) with Anne Baxter and Noah Beery, Jr...
How is Rosalind Russell connected to Jerry Lewis? Tell the world.

That biography says:

*1934 – Once to Every Woman (from short story, Kaleidoscope in "K") – directed by Lambert Hillyer, featuring Ralph Bellamy, Fay Wray, Walter Connolly, Mary Carlisle, and Walter Byron *1934 – Grand Canary – directed by Irving Cummings, featuring Warner Baxter, Madge Evans, Marjorie Rambeau, Zita Johann, and H.B. Warner *1938 – The Citadel – directed by King Vidor, featuring Robert Donat, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Richardson, and Rex Harrison *1940 – Vigil in the Night – directed by George Stevens, featuring Carole Lombard, Brian Aherne, Anne Shirley, and Robert Coote *1940 – The Stars Look Down – directed by Carol Reed, narrated by Lionel Barrymore (US version), featuring Michael Redgrave, Margaret Lockwood, Emlyn Williams, Nancy Price, and Cecil Parker *1941 – Shining Victory (from play, Jupiter Laughs) – directed by Irving Rapper, featuring James Stephenson, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Donald Crisp, Barbara O'Neil, and Bette Davis *1942 – Hatter's Castle – directed by Lance Comfort, featuring Robert Newton, Deborah Kerr, James Mason, Emlyn Williams, and Enid Stamp-Taylor *1944 – The Keys of the Kingdom – directed by John M...
How is Rosalind Russell connected to Kay Kendall? Tell the world.

That biography says:

...After her contract with Disney expired in 1966, Mills starred in The Trouble with Angels opposite Rosalind Russell. Looking to break from her clean-cut, girl-next-door image, Mills went home to England to star in The Family Way...

That biography says:

...That episode was romanticized in Martha Ostenso's biography of Kenny, And they Shall Walk, and the 1946 movie Sister Kenny starring Rosalind Russell. Actually, there was an outbreak of what was thought to be Infantile Paralysis on the Darling Downs just before World War I, and cases probably came to Kenny's cottage hospital in Clifton...

That biography says:

...Jillian has been acting since 1961 when she played "Little Bo Peep" in the Disney film, Babes In Toyland. She appeared in the Rosalind Russell- Natalie Wood 1962 movie version of Gypsy. She later became a regular on the 1960s sitcom Hazel, the Twilight Zone ("Mute" 1963) as the mute telepathic Ilse Nielson; and did voice acting for Scooby Doo and Sealab 2020 in the early 1970s...
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