16 Facts About Anna Russell

Anna Russell gave many concerts in which she sang and played comic musical sketches on the piano.

Anna Russell studied at the Royal College of Music, where her piano teacher was Marmaduke Barton.

Anna Russell had a difficult childhood, and particularly a difficult relationship with her mother, who often shipped her off to live with other relatives for some time.

Anna Russell was twice married and divorced, first to John Denison and second to artist Charles Goldhamer.

In one of Anna Russell's comic routines she said that some of the world's greatest teachers had completely ruined her voice, going on to relate that she was interrupted early in her graduation song recital by the Royal College's judges who indicated her singing was a joke.

Anna Russell's mother was Canadian, and the family returned in 1939 to Toronto, after her father's death, where she began to appear on local radio stations as an entertainer.

Anna Russell made her New York City debut in her one-woman show in 1948, which she toured throughout North America, Britain, Australia and the rest of the English-speaking world.

Anna Russell wrote the lyrics and music for Anna Russell's Little Show and sang the role of the Witch in an animated film of the opera Hansel and Gretel in 1954, singing that role at New York City Opera the same year and with the Cosmopolitan Opera in San Francisco in 1957.

Anna Russell took Anna Russell's Little Show to Broadway in 1953 and appeared on Broadway in All by Myself in 1960.

Anna Russell played a leading role in Noel Coward's comedy Blithe Spirit.

Anna Russell appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and in a number of plays and television episodes.

Anna Russell performed her concerts at New York's Carnegie Hall and London's Royal Albert Hall.

Anna Russell became known for her deadpan humour, including her disbelieving emphasis of the absurd in well accepted stories and her mockery of pretension.

Anna Russell received the Canadian Women's Press Club Award in 1956 as the best Canadian comedy writer of the year.

Anna Russell retired to Unionville, Ontario, Canada, in the late 1960s, living on a street named after her, but she went on several "farewell" tours in the 1970s and 1980s, including one-woman shows at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Carnegie Hall parodying opera divas who did the same.

Anna Russell died in Rosedale, New South Wales, near Batemans Bay.