Jane Russell

Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell was born on June 21, 1921, in Bemidji, Minnesota, and died on February 28, 2011. Her father had served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army, and her mother had worked as an actress with a road troupe and was the subject of a portrait by Mary Bradish Titcomb, Portrait of Geraldine J., which drew public attention when Woodrow Wilson purchased it. Russell's parents had been living in Edmonton, Alberta, until shortly before her birth and returned there nine days after she was born, remaining for the first year or two of her life before the family relocated to Southern California, where her father worked as an office manager. She had four brothers: Thomas, Kenneth, Jamie, and Wallace.

Russell took piano lessons arranged by her mother and participated in stage productions at Van Nuys High School. Her early ambition was to work in design, but following her father's death in his mid-forties, she took a job as a receptionist after graduating. She also modeled for photographers and, at her mother's urging, studied drama with Max Reinhardt's Theatrical Workshop and with actress and acting coach Maria Ouspenskaya.

In 1940, Howard Hughes signed Russell to a seven-year contract, and she made her film debut in The Outlaw, a story about Billy the Kid completed in 1941 but released in limited form in 1943 and given a general release in 1946. Censorship disputes over the promotion of the film delayed its wider distribution. During that period Russell became nationally known through publicity work. Her measurements were 38-24-36 and she stood 5 feet 7 inches tall, and she became a widely circulated pin-up among servicemen during World War II. Her next film appearance came in 1946, when she played Joan Kenwood in Young Widow, produced by Hunt Stromberg and released through United Artists; the film exceeded its budget by $600,000 and was a box office failure.

In 1947, Russell pursued a musical career, singing with the Kay Kyser Orchestra on radio and recording two singles with the band, "As Long As I Live" and "Boin-n-n-ng!" That same year she recorded an eight-song album of torch ballads for Columbia Records titled Let's Put Out the Lights. In 1950, she recorded the single "Kisses and Tears" with Frank Sinatra and The Modernaires for Columbia. The Columbia album was reissued on CD in 2002, packaged with the Kyser singles and two previously unreleased Columbia recordings from 1949.

Her career gained momentum when she was cast as Calamity Jane opposite Bob Hope in The Paleface (1948), on loan to Paramount; the film earned $4.5 million and became Paramount's most successful release of that year. She reunited with Hope for Son of Paleface (1952), another hit, and made a cameo appearance in Road to Bali (1953). After Howard Hughes acquired RKO Pictures, Russell co-starred with Groucho Marx and Frank Sinatra in Double Dynamite, shot in 1948 and released in 1951, which was both a critical and commercial failure. At RKO she also appeared in the film noir His Kind of Woman (1951) opposite Robert Mitchum and Vincent Price, originally directed by John Farrow in 1950 and reshot by Richard Fleischer, in which she sang two songs. Additional film noirs followed: The Las Vegas Story (1952) with Price and Victor Mature, and Macao (1952) again with Mitchum.

Russell's largest commercial success came with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) for 20th Century Fox, in which she played Dorothy Shaw opposite Marilyn Monroe; the film earned over $5 million. Back at RKO, she appeared in Hughes's production The French Line (1954), which earned $3 million, and Underwater! (1955) with Richard Egan, which made $2 million but was a financial loss due to its production costs. Her contract with Hughes ended in February 1954.

In 1953, Russell and her first husband, former Los Angeles Rams quarterback Bob Waterfield, formed Russ-Field Productions. In March 1954, the company signed a six-picture deal with United Artists spanning three years, under which Russell was required to appear in three of the films. Russell starred in more than 20 films over the course of her career. In 1955, she founded Waif, the first international adoption program; she had adopted three children and married three times. Her hand and footprints were placed in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre alongside those of Marilyn Monroe, and a star bearing her name was installed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Russell also worked in theater, appearing on Broadway in 1970 in the musical Company. She had been born in Bemidji, Minnesota, the same city listed in her verified stage credits, connecting her Midwestern origins to a career that spanned Hollywood film, recording, and the Broadway stage.