Rosalind Russell

Catherine Rosalind Russell was born on June 4, 1907, in Waterbury, Connecticut, the daughter of James Edward Russell, a lawyer, and Clara A. Russell, a teacher. One of seven children in an Irish-American Catholic family, she was named after a ship her parents had traveled on. Russell attended Catholic schools, including Rosemont College in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, and Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York, before enrolling at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. Her parents believed she was training to become a teacher and were unaware of her plans to pursue acting. Following her graduation, she worked in summer stock and joined a repertory company in Boston, where she spent a year with a theater group run by Edward E. Clive.

Russell launched her professional career as a fashion model before transitioning to the stage. Against her parents' objections, she took a position with a stock company, working for seven months in Saranac Lake, New York, and then Hartford, Connecticut. Her Broadway career began in 1930 with an appearance in the play Company's Coming, and she also performed in the revue Garrick Gaieties. During this period in New York, she took voice lessons and briefly pursued opera, though difficulty reaching high notes cut that path short.

In the early 1930s, Russell moved to Los Angeles, where she was hired as a contract player at Universal Studios. Unhappy with her standing there, she pursued a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where her screen test was directed by Harold S. Bucquet. She made her MGM debut in Evelyn Prentice in 1934 and quickly built a reputation through a range of comedies and dramas, including Forsaking All Others, Four's a Crowd, Craig's Wife, and The Citadel. By 1935, she was frequently cast in roles originally intended for Myrna Loy. Her performance as the catty Sylvia Fowler in George Cukor's The Women in 1939, opposite Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer, established her firmly as a comedienne. She followed that with Howard Hawks's screwball comedy His Girl Friday in 1940, playing fast-talking newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson opposite Cary Grant. Russell had been, by her own account, the fifteenth choice for the role after Hawks had approached Katharine Hepburn, Irene Dunne, Claudette Colbert, Jean Arthur, Margaret Sullavan, and Ginger Rogers, all of whom declined.

In the early 1940s, Russell appeared in The Feminine Touch and Take a Letter, Darling, and starred as Ruth Sherwood in Alexander Hall's My Sister Eileen in 1942, earning her first Academy Award nomination. Her performance as real-life Australian bush nurse Sister Elizabeth Kenny in Sister Kenny in 1946 brought her a second Academy Award nomination and her first Golden Globe Award. A third Academy Award nomination followed for Mourning Becomes Electra in 1947, along with a second Golden Globe. Russell was widely expected to win the Academy Award that year and reportedly began to rise from her seat before Loretta Young was announced as the winner for The Farmer's Daughter.

Russell's Broadway career reached a major peak in 1953 when she starred in Wonderful Town, a musical adaptation of My Sister Eileen. The performance earned her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She reprised the role for a 1958 television special. Her Broadway work continued through 1956, when she took on the title role in the stage comedy Auntie Mame, based on Patrick Dennis's novel, playing an eccentric aunt whose orphaned nephew comes to live with her. She repeated the role in the 1958 film adaptation. Russell later played Rose in the 1962 film Gypsy.

Across her career, Russell received five Golden Globe Awards, a Tony Award, nominations for four Academy Awards, and a BAFTA nomination. She was honored with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1973 and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1975. Known for portraying women in professional roles such as reporters, judges, and psychiatrists, Russell attributed the longevity of her career, which spanned the 1930s through the 1970s, to the fact that she never became a sex symbol despite her many glamorous roles. She died on November 28, 1976.