3 Movies / June 25
Jane Russell, who would have been 100 years old this month, began her film career as a sex symbol known primarily for her voluptuous physique. Over the years, however, she developed into a performer of humor and style who made her mark in musical comedy and melodrama. Born Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell in Bemidji, MN, on June 21, 1921, she was the daughter of an Army lieutenant and an actress. Russell was the oldest child and the only girl among five siblings. After her father left the service, the family settled in California where she acted in high school productions and did some modeling.
In 1940, after seeing modeling photographs of Russell and being impressed by her brunette beauty, the eccentric movie mogul Howard Hughes signed Russell to a seven-year contract and cast her in the lead role in The Outlaw (1943), a Western based on the story of Billy the Kid. The movie earned great notoriety, due largely to a publicity campaign designed by Hughes to emphasize Russell’s generous breasts. It took a while for her to recover from the hubbub, but the actress eventually rebounded with a series of films in which she revealed a gift for dry comedy and, when called upon, an engaging way with a song.
Hughes eventually bought RKO, where Russell settled in during the early 1950s when not on loan-out to other studios. The high point of her career was her turn as Marilyn Monroe’s bosom buddy in 20th Century-Fox’s musical-comedy romp Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).
Russell and her husband, celebrated quarterback Bob Waterfield, formed their own company and produced several films in the late 1950s, some of them starring Russell. Over the years she cut a number of records as a singer including a 1950 duet with Frank Sinatra. Always inclined towards religion, Russell organized bible-study classes and participated in various groupings of an all-female gospel quartet. She was active in charity, especially WAIF (World Adoption International Fund), the first international adoption program.
In the tradition of many film stars, Russell turned to television and the stage after her movie career faded. In 1971, she stepped into the Elaine Stritch role in Broadway’s Company, earning good notices and playing the part for six months.
Russell and Waterfield were married in 1943 and divorced in 1968. The couple adopted three children. Russell then married Roger Barrett (who died in 1968, the same year they wed) and finally John Calvin Peoples (1974-his death in 1999). Russell died of a respiratory illness at her home in California’s Santa Maria Valley on February 28, 2011.
Here are the Russell films in TCM’s birthday tribute.
The Outlaw (1943) casts Russell as Rio, a vixen who forms an erotic triangle with Billy the Kid (Jack Beutel) and Doc Holliday (Walter Huston). Thanks to its simmering sexuality and Russell’s highly publicized cleavage, the movie created an international uproar and was banned in some areas. After censorship problems were resolved, it finally received a general release in 1946.
The Paleface (1948), Russell’s third movie, was the one in which she salvaged her career by kidding her Western femme fatale image. In this Paramount production, she plays Calamity Jane opposite Bob Hope as a tenderfoot dentist who becomes an inadvertent hero. The pair clicked so well as a comic duo that they reteamed in a sequel, Son of Paleface (1952).
His Kind of Woman (1951), produced by Hughes for RKO, introduced Russell to film noir and another screen partner with whom she shared good chemistry, Robert Mitchum. He plays a down-on-his-luck gambler who falls for Russell as the slinky mistress of a ham actor (Vincent Price). All are caught up in shady goings-on in Mexico as this entertaining movie veers from melodrama to farce. Russell and Mitchum were reunited in another RKO crime drama, Macao (1952).
