Catherine Rosalind Russell (June 4, 1907 – November 28, 1976) was one of the most prominent leading ladies of The Golden Age of Hollywood. Tall and beautiful, she was often cast as incarnations of fashion and high class. She had a broad range but particularly excelled at screwball comedies and musicals.
Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Russell attended the American Academy for Dramatic Arts in New York and embarked on a show business career immediately after graduation. After an unsuccessful stint at Universal, she signed with MGM and started getting supporting roles, often cast as Fake Brits for some reason. A starring role in the domestic drama Craig's Wife helped Russell rise to the A-list.
In 1939 she appeared in the Ensemble Cast piece The Women, playing the bitchy friend of Joan Crawford's husband-stealing vixen. Perhaps the highlight of her career came in the following year, when she played the Gender Flipped role of Cary Grant's star reporter (and ex-wife) in His Girl Friday, Howard Hawks's hugely successful adaptation of the stage comedy The Front Page. In 1942 her performance in My Sister Eileen earned Russell her first of four Academy Award nominations for Best Actress (she went 0 for 4).
As her screen career began to slow down in the 1950s Russell returned to Broadway, winning a Tony Award for My Sister Eileen's musical adaptation Wonderful Town and getting another Tony nomination for one of her most memorable roles, Auntie Mame.
Rosalind Russell on TV Tropes:
- Evelyn Prentice (1934) - Her film debut.
- Forsaking All Others (1934)
- China Seas (1935)
- Reckless (1935)
- Rendezvous (1935)
- Craig's Wife (1936)
- Trouble for Two (1936)
- Night Must Fall (1937)
- The Citadel (1938)
- Four's a Crowd (1938)
- The Women (1939)
- His Girl Friday (1940)
- My Sister Eileen (1942)
- Mourning Becomes Electra (1947)
- The Velvet Touch (1948)
- Picnic (1955)
- Auntie Mame (1958)
- Gypsy (1962)
- The Trouble with Angels (1966)
