Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell
(June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011)
Jane Russell was an American film actress and was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s.
She was discovered by the wealthy industrialist Howard Hughes who in 1940 cast her in the movie The Outlaw. In 1947, Russell delved into music before returning to films. She made several films unde her contract with RKO – thrillers such as His Kind of Woman (1951) and Macao (1952), both opposite Robert Mitchum; The Las Vegas Story (1952) with Victor Mature; and Double Dynamite (1951), with Frank Sinatra and Groucho Marx. The Western Montana Belle had been made for RKO in 1948, but Howard Hughes bought out the rights and sat on it for four years, releasing it only in 1952, when he felt his protégée was sufficiently established. In that year she also made Son of Paleface for Paramount.
Her best known role came in 1953 when she starred alongside another Hollywood legend, Marilyn Monroe, in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
After starring in multiple films in the 1950s, Russell again returned to music while completing several other films in the 1960s. She starred in over 20 films throughout her career.
In 1955, she founded the World Adoption International Fund. For her achievements in film, she received several accolades including having her hand and foot prints immortalized in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theater and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Russell married three times and adopted three children.
She died at her home in Santa Maria, California of a respiratory-related illness. She is survived by her three children: Thomas Waterfield, Tracy Foundas and Robert Waterfield.
RIP
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