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Rosalind Russell (June 4, 1907 - November 28, 1976) was an American film, stage actress.

She was not named after Shakespeare's heroine, but rather after a ship her parents had travelled on.

Life and career

Rosalind Russell was one of seven siblings born to a Waterbury, Connecticut Irish-American Catholic family. She attended Catholic schools before attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.

She started her career as a fashion model and in many Broadway shows. In the early 1930s she began to work for MGM, where she starred in many comedies (Craig's Wife, 1936; Four's a Crowd, 1938) and dramas (The Citadel, 1938). In 1939 she was cast as a catty gossip in the great comedy The Women, directed by George Cukor, with an all-female cast, including Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, and Paulette Goddard.

She could prove her brilliant talent for comedy in the unforgettable His Girl Friday (1940), directed by Howard Hawks. In this brilliant screwball comedy she played a beautiful and ace reporter, who is also the former wife of her newspaper editor (played by Cary Grant), who is still in love with her.

In the 1940s she was still wonderful in comedy (The Feminine Touch, 1941; Take a Letter Darling, 1942), but she also starred in many great dramas, where she gave really passionate performances (Sister Kenny, 1946; Mourning Becomes Electra, 1947).

Russell scored a big hit on Broadway starring 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.

Probably her most memorable performances was in the title role of the long-running stage hit Auntie Mame (1956) and the subsequent movie version (1958), in which she played a mature and bizarre aunt whose orphan nephew comes to live with her. When asked what role was most closely identified with her, 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 didn't want to burden the public with her escalating health problems, which now included rheumatoid arthritis.

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 her son, Lance Brisson.

She is buried in Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Rosalind Russell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1708 Vine Street. Her autobiography, written with Chris Chase, entitled Life is a Banquet was published a year after her untimely death.

Marriages

She married Danish-American producer Frederick Brisson on October 25, 1941. Her father-in-law was the successful Danish actor Carl Brisson. Frederick and Rosalind Brisson had one child, a son, Lance, in 1943.

Academy Award Nominations

Russell was nominated four times for the Academy Award for Best Actress:

Filmography

External links

1907 births | 1976 deaths | Academy Awards hosts | American film actors | American female singers | Best Actress Academy Award nominees | Deaths from breast cancer | Entertainers who died in their 60s | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Irish-American actors | Irish-American singers | People from Connecticut | Roman Catholic entertainers | Breast cancer patients | American models

Rosalind Russell | Rosalind Russell

 

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