Jane Russell
21st June 1921 - 28th February 2011
On February 28, 2011, the world lost one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1940s and 1950s era. Jane Russell was born as Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell on June 21st, 1921 in Bemidji, Minnesota. She was the oldest of five children born to Roy William Russell and Geraldine Jacobi.
From her midwestern beginnings, Russell’s family made the decision to move to Burbank, California, where Russell’s mother enrolled her in piano lessons and later encouraged drama classes at Van Nuys High School.
After graduation, Russell studied drama and acting and later was signed by Hollywood mogul, Howard Hughes to a seven-year film contract. This turn of events catapulted Jane into her first film role in the movie The Outlaw – a film based on the life of Billy the Kid, and one that took full advantage of her ample cleavage.
Jane Russell became a pin up girl for GIs in World War II and also the object of comedian jokes and puns. The Outlaw was Russell’s only movie until she landed the role of Joan Kenwood in the RKO movie, Young Widow, released in 1946.
In 1951 she made a guest appearance on the Martin and Lewis Show and featured with Dean and Jerry in a parody of The Outlaw, which they called The In Law!
By 1947, Jane began yet another career in radio musicals. She sang with the Kay Kyser Orchestra and performed on two single records with his band. Russell also sang with Frank Sinatra and The Modernaires on the single record, Kisses and Tears.
Working almost around the clock, Jane Russell was officially named a star and worked with stellar comedian, Bob Hope, Groucho Marx and another Hollywood beauty, Marilyn Monroe. Monroe and Russell would later co-star in the 1953 box office hit, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
Bob Hope chose Russell to be his co-star in the 1948 hit movie The Paleface and the same show was brought to radio on March 3, 1950, when she and Hope starred in the Screen Director’s Playhouse version of the film. The two appeared on the radio show in the same roles as they played in the film.
During the 1940s and 1950's, Russell appeared as a celebrity on several variety radio shows including Command Performance, The Martin and Lewis Show and as a panel expert on The Adventures of Ellery Queen.
She also began a stage career, singing in nightclubs and making guest appearances on television shows. In 1954, she formed a production company with her husband, Bob Waterfield and subsequently recorded songs to benefit her favorite charity, The Women’s Adoption International Fund, which helps those wanting to adopt children from other countries.
Russell will be remembered mostly for her roles in film, but her radio performances will also be cherished for her deep, husky voice and deadpan sense of humor.
Jane Russell passed away peacefully on Monday, February 28, 2011, at her Santa Maria Valley, California home at the age of 89 from a respiratory illness.
Happy listening my friends,
