Russell Mack

Russell Mack, born Edward Russell Mahoney on November 11, 1892, in Oneonta, New York, was an American performer, stage actor, film director, and producer whose career spanned vaudeville, Broadway, and Hollywood from the 1910s through the 1930s. He died on June 1, 1972, in New York City at the age of 79.

Raised in Providence, Rhode Island, Mack worked early in his life as a reporter and later as a theatre manager. In 1911 he partnered with pianist Blanche Vincent to form a vaudeville duo billed as "Mack and Vincent," touring the Orpheum circuit and managing cabarets in New York City. Vincent was frequently identified as Mack's wife, though no confirmation of a marriage exists. The duo dissolved in 1919, after which Mack transitioned to stage acting, with brief returns to vaudeville in 1921 and 1922.

His Broadway career ran from 1920 to 1927. Before his first credited Broadway appearance, he had a minor role in a production by Oscar Hammerstein II titled Joan of Arkansaw, which was renamed Always You and opened on Broadway on January 5, 1920. He went on to appear in the revue Bombo and the musical Go Easy, Mabel, and was featured in The Gingham Girl during its 1923–24 run. Among his more prominent credits was the successful musical My Girl, which ran in 1924–25, as well as The Four Flusher, also from 1924–25, which he additionally produced. The musical My Best Girl was another Broadway credit during this period. He appeared in Square Crooks, a 1926 comedy, and The Little Spitfire, another successful comedy from 1926–27. His final stage performance came in 1927, when he played the lead role in the farce Storm Center.

With the rise of talking pictures, Mack relocated to Hollywood. His first film credit was writing the screenplay for Rio Rita in 1929, which became the most successful film of that year for the newly formed RKO Radio Pictures. He then moved into directing with the 1930 domestic drama Second Wife, also for RKO. He subsequently directed Night Work for Pathé Exchange, followed by Big Money, which he also wrote. When Pathé and RKO merged in 1931, Mack directed Lonely Wives for the combined studio before signing with Universal Pictures. Over the following three years he directed six films for Universal, among them a 1932 adaptation of the Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman play Once in a Lifetime. In 1934 he returned to RKO, where he wrote, directed, and produced The Meanest Gal in Town. His final screen credit was The Band Plays On, a 1934 production for MGM.

In 1942, Mack returned to the East Coast, where he and his second wife, Bobette, managed the Mosque Theater in Newark, New Jersey. He had one daughter with Bobette and one daughter from a previous marriage. He remained in the East in retirement until his death in New York City in 1972.