Catherine Rosalind Russell was an American actress, comedienne, screenwriter, and singer, known for her role as fast-talking newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, opposite Cary Grant, as well as for her portrayals of Mame Dennis in Auntie Mame and Rose in Gypsy.
38 Facts About Rosalind Russell
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Rosalind Russell was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress four times during her career before being awarded a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1973.
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Rosalind Russell was one of the few actresses of her time to portray women in professional roles such as judges, reporters, and psychiatrists.
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Catherine Rosalind Russell was one of seven children born in Waterbury, Connecticut, to James Edward, a lawyer, and Clara A Russell, a teacher.
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Rosalind Russell was named after a ship on which her parents had traveled.
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Rosalind Russell attended Catholic schools, including the women's-only Rosemont College in Rosemont, Pennsylvania and Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York.
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Rosalind Russell then attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.
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Rosalind Russell's parents thought Russell was studying to become a teacher and were unaware that she was planning to become an actress.
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Rosalind Russell began her career as a fashion model and was in many Broadway shows.
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When MGM first approached her for a screen test, Rosalind Russell was wary, remembering her experience at Universal.
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Under contract to MGM, Rosalind Russell debuted in Evelyn Prentice.
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Rosalind Russell starred in many comedies such as Forsaking All Others and Four's a Crowd, as well as dramas, including Craig's Wife and The Citadel.
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Rosalind Russell was acclaimed when she co-starred with Robert Young in the MGM drama West Point of the Air.
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Rosalind Russell approached director Frank Lloyd for help changing her image, but instead, Lloyd cast her as a wealthy aristocrat in Under Two Flags.
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Rosalind Russell was then cast as catty gossip Sylvia Fowler in the comedy The Women, directed by George Cukor.
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Rosalind Russell continued to display her talent for comedy in the classic screwball comedy His Girl Friday, directed by Howard Hawks.
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Rosalind Russell had been, as she put it, "Everyone's fifteenth choice" for the role of Hildy in the film.
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Rosalind Russell found out about this while riding on a train to New York, when she read an article in The New York Times stating that she had been cast in the film and listing all the actresses who had turned the part down.
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Rosalind Russell scored a big hit on Broadway with her Tony Award-winning performance in Wonderful Town, a musical version of her successful film of a decade earlier, My Sister Eileen.
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Rosalind Russell reprised her starring role for a 1958 television special.
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Rosalind Russell has appeared in movies through the mid-1960s, including Picnic, A Majority of One, Five Finger Exercise, Gypsy, The Trouble with Angels, and its sequel Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows.
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Rosalind Russell was the logical choice for reprising her role as Auntie Mame when the musical version Mame was set for a production on Broadway in 1966, but she declined for health reasons.
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Rosalind Russell received a Special Academy Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1972, which came with an Oscar statuette.
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In 1972, Rosalind Russell received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
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Rosalind Russell won five Golden Globe Awards in her career and a Tony Award.
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Rosalind Russell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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On October 25,1941, Rosalind Russell married Danish-American producer Frederick Brisson, son of actor Carl Brisson.
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Rosalind Russell became so enamored with Russell's performance as Sylvia Fowler that he turned to his friends and proclaimed: "I'm either gonna kill that girl, or I'm gonna marry her".
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One night, when Rosalind Russell opened her door to let Grant in before they went dancing, as they often did, she found him standing next to a stranger.
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Rosalind Russell was a registered Republican who supported the 1960 campaign of Richard Nixon.
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Rosalind Russell was a devout Catholic, and a member of the Good Shepherd Parish and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California.
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Rosalind Russell was survived by her husband and her son.
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Rosalind Russell is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
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Rosalind Russell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the 1700 block of Vine Street.
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Rosalind Russell's autobiography Life Is a Banquet, written with Chris Chase, was published a year after her death.
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The foreword states that Rosalind Russell had a mental breakdown in 1943.
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Rosalind Russell had rheumatoid arthritis, and an arthritis research center at the University of California, San Francisco currently bears her name.
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In 2009, the documentary film Life Is a Banquet: The Life of Rosalind Russell, narrated by Kathleen Turner, was shown at film festivals across the US and on some PBS stations.