Hollywood icon Jane Russell passed away yesterday, in her Santa Maria home. The cause of death was “respiratory-related illness”. She was 89 years old. My favorite Jane Russell film is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, just because it’s actually quite hilarious today – it’s not as dated as you would expect, although Jane does have a scene where she’s surrounded by scantily-clad men at the gym, and she breaks into song and… well, that part is a little cheesy. But it’s totally worth watching! Jane’s complete filmography is here, in case you want to Netflix some of her old movies.
Jane Russell, the full-figured beauty who was one of Hollywood’s leading sex symbols of the 1940s and ’50s, died Monday at her home in Santa Maria, Calif.
The Minnesota-born icon, 89, died of a respiratory-related illness, according to reports.
Discovered by Howard Hughes in 1941, Russell shot to fame in the controversial Western The Outlaw about Billy the Kid. The publicity stills were as scandalous as the film, with Russell sprawled in the hay wearing a tight, low-cut dress.
Russell also hit movie gold in 1953, when she starred opposite Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Russell also tried a career in music, forming a gospel group that had a hit single in the mid-’50s.
Following her gospel career, Russell started the Hollywood Christian Group, a Bible study at her home for people in the film industry. She also appeared periodically on television’s Praise the Lord.
Russell was married three times. Unable to have children on her own, Russell and first husband Bob Waterfield adopted two boys and a girl, and in1955, she founded World Adoption International Fund.
Russell was married to her third husband, John Calvin Peoples, through his 1999 death.
[From People]
Wow, I didn’t know that Jane was an adoptive mother. I didn’t know she was so churchy either. I imagined that with those insane curves and that face, she had been marked a sinner all of her life. Anyway, thoughts and prayers to Jane’s family, and I’ll be toasting the good ol’ broad tonight.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
That’s sad to hear. She was a beautiful woman.
I wish Hollywood stars would look as glamorous as the Hollywood stars back in the 40’s and 50’s. Sweet baby jesus she was a gorgeous woman!! ha
So that is how real woman looked before botox,surgery and an obsession to be super thin took over
Sad, they looked better then.
She was awesome in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”….a true icon. RIP, Jane and sympathy to her family.
Pretty, pretty, pretty. And “full figured?” Her waist was weensy!
“i’m just a little girl from little rock-little rock!”
sing it Jane! she was freaken amazing! she lived a long life and is a true icon. sorry to hear of her passing.
no one can be glamorous all the time. but she was indeed beautiful. RIP.
I also love how she is referred to “full figure”.
She was maybe a size 2.
Look how pretty both her and Marilyn were. And neither one of them with a fake set of boobs. Just what the good lord gave them.
It is is tragic what LA has done to the image of a woman.
cross your heart…lifts & separates…platex 18 hour bra! RIP to one of the last hollywood legends.
This was the age and time of more naturally beautiful women in hollywood not the stick-thin/botox figures of today. What a loss…RIP
i love when you carry classic Hollywood stories!
They don’t make ’em like that anymore. I love stories about ‘The Outlaw’ and how Howard Hughes designed some crazy bra for her. RIP.
I love what “real” women look like, curvy, elegant and overall beautiful. Oh and they have faces that move. Jane was a classic.
Russell and Mitchum. They were great. Seeeing their picture is a reminder of Hollywood in its glory years.
She was said to be one of the very few major stars in Hollywood whose personal life was never touched by scandal.
Plastic surgery in Hollywood was around long before Jane or Marilyn, who both had nose jobs, but still…they really were stunning working those curves!
I LOVE Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Marilyn is great but Jane Russell steals the show! And I love that scene in the gym too!
No way was she a size two. Like Marilyn, she was closer to 12 or 14. She was tall for one thing. I went to junior high with her daughter – really sweet girl. Ms. Russell was buxom in the old-fashioned HAWT way. Gorgeous and classy actress. RIP
BTW, SHE called herself full-figured. She was proud of it. It wasn’t something negative back then.
Ah, the womanly Jane Russell, r.i.p. my dear.
OMG Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is total camp – especially the gym scene, lol!She was probably a 10 at most in modern sizing though, womanly
Jane represented what every woman wants to be: beautiful, sexy, confident, glamorous, witty, smart.
Hollywood is becoming less and less bright…
So freakin’ gorgeous – The ultimate brunette of her day. RIP, Ms Russell.
So sad to hear. :/
I didn’t know she had adopted either. I read that she, along with Irene Dunne, Loretta Young, and June Allyson, co-founded an adoption organization called the World Adoption International Fund.
What a stunningly gorgeous woman with a heart of gold. Her and Marilyn made an awesome team.
RIP Ms. Russell
Classy dame….enough said
Agreed, where did you get she was a size 2? She was a 38D bust and had a medium to large frame. I would guess also a 12 to 14 size (although specifics should not matter here). No shame in that since I was commenting that she was exactly what was sexy and a “real woman” before size 0 came into vogue. She was fantastic and sexy as heck!
Jane Russell’s dad was a pastor and I think that’s why she was ‘so churchy’ she also was unable to have children due to a back alley abortion that went wrong and that made her an advocate for facilitating adoption…I just heard this on the news.
A true Hollywood legend…RIP Jane.
Where’s Courtney? I was so looking forward to seeing her comment on this thread. 🙂
Loved the Playtex 18-hour bra commercials, too.
Marilyn Monroe did have a boob job at one point in her life but I am not sure if it was before or after her movie with Jane.
Old school beauty. Another great gone.
whoever you are that went to school with jane russell’s daughter you are the luckiest person evrer especially if you got to meet her i would pay anything to have met her. what was she like?! she is the best hollywood has and will ever have