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| Birth Name(s) : Rosalind Russell |
Date of Birth: June 4, 1907 |
| Status:
Married
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Partner:
Frederick Brisson |
| Profession:
Actor |
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Full Rosalind Russell Biography
The middle of seven children, she was named after the S.S. Rosalind at the suggestion of her father, a successful lawyer. After Catholic school education she went to the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New York having convinced her mother that she intended to teach acting. In 1934, with some stock company work and a little Broadway experience, she was tested and signed by Universal. Simultaneously MGM tested her and made her a better offer. Pleading ignorance of Hollywood (while wearing her worst fitting clothes) Universal released her and she signed with MGM for seven years.
For some time she was used in secondary roles and as a replacement threat to limit Myrna Loy's salary demands. Knowing she was right for comedy, she tried five times for the role of Syliva Fowler in "The Women". George Cukor told her to "play her as a freak"; she did and got the part. Her "boss lady" roles began with the part of reporter Hildy Johnson in "His Girl Friday" through whose male lead, Cary Grant she met her future husband, Grant's house guest at the time. In her forties, she returned to the stage, touring "Bell, Book and Candle" in 1951 and winning a Tony for "Wonderful Town" in 1953. Columbia, worried the public would think she had the female lead in "Picnic", billed her "co-starring Rosalind Russell as Rosemary" (she refused to accept an Oscar nomination as supporting actress). "Auntie Mame" kept her on Broadway for two years; the movie version was her last cinematic triumph. Oscar nominations: "My Sister Eileen", "Sister Kenny, " "Mourning Becomes Electra", and "Auntie Mame". In 1972 she received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for contributions to charity. |
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Additional Rosalind Russell Biography
Rosalind Russell (June 4, 1907 – November 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.
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.
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).
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.
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!"
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.
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. |
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