Jane russell

The actress jumped to half the world’s magazines thanks to the promotional photos of the movie El Forajido , her film debut. The director and tycoon Howard Hughes chose her in that film to make Billy the Kid fall in love and they say that he devised certain tricks to enhance the actress’s bust. True or not, the obsession of the powerful billionaire leaves no room for doubt: “Hughes,” Russell commented, “had me advertising all hours of the day, five days a week, for five years.” And the result was that the dark beauty of Jane Russell did not go unnoticed by anyone and her character from Rio McDonald entered posterity as an icon of the feminine ideal.

Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell was born on June 21, 1921 in Bemidji, Minnesota. Her father was a lieutenant in the army and her mother had worked as an actress in a traveling company. When her father retired from the army, the family moved to Canada and later to California. Jane was the only girl among four brothers and her mother arranged for her to take piano lessons. After graduating from school she started working as a receptionist, and although she planned to be a designer, she had to forget about that dream when her father died, as the family needed money. She then decided to work as a model, since her impressive figure was beginning to stand out, as was her beautiful face with its sinuous shapes, wide smile and mischievous gaze.

Saving enough, she later managed to enter a dramatic art school, and at only 20 years old she was hired as the female lead in The Outlaw , a job for which she earned $50 a week. The film was shot in 1941, but it ran into innumerable problems with censorship (due to the provocative physique of the actress) and was only screened in a limited way in 1943. When it finally managed to be released nationwide in 1946, the public success was overwhelming. The professional bonanza was joined by the sentimental one, since the actress married Bob Watterfield in 1943 (she would divorce 24 years later, and later survive two more husbands). In 1946 she also shot the drama Young Widow. But despite those initial serious roles, Jane Russell had an innate gift for comedy and this was demonstrated in 1948 with Paleface , a charming western in which she accompanied the incomparable comedian Bob Hope , with whom she would also work in the sequel The Son of pale face (1952).

In the 50s the decade of success of the actress would begin. He shared the bill with the master of humor Groucho Marx in Don Dólar (1951) and then changed register by undertaking a series of high-level black film films: The Frontiers of Crime (1951) and An Adventuress in Macao (1952) with Robert Mitchum , and the Las Vegas Story (1952) with Victor Mature . But it was in 1953 when her name and her talent once again filled tons of coated paper. That was the year that she shared the lead with Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes . In that delightful Howard Hawks comedy, both actresses played Lorelei and Dorothy, two entertainers eager to find a husband. The divas form a charming couple, completely attuned and full of humor, and give away fabulous musical themes, such as the one that opens the film (“A Little Girl from Little Rock”), the mythical “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friends” sung by the Monroe or “Bye Bye Baby” interpreted by both. In 1955 she would try the adventure genre in The Mermaid of the Green Waters , by John Sturges and would also accompany the gallant Clark Gable in the estimable western The Implacables . And the following year she would shoot the drama The revolt of Mrs. Stover , by the hand of Raoul Walsh ,Hot blood , by master Nicholas Ray .

However, the best years of the actress were ending, because despite the fact that she was still very young, she did not lavish much on the cinema. She filmed with Norman Taurog the comedy The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown in 1957 and almost ten years later she stood out as the love interest of Dana Andrews in the western Johnny Reno , her last big name role.