“A star is a person with enormous audience acceptance who is aware of weakness and has genuine humility. A great star is rare.” – Rosalind Russell
Film still for Trouble for Two (1936).
Photographer: George Hurrell
“I won’t rebel against weak roles; they’re a challenge. I will rebel against the same type of roles; they’re a graveyard of monotony.” — Rosalind Russell
Source: James Carson (1940)
Photo: George Hurrell (I think)
“Flops are part of life’s menu and I’m never a girl to miss out on any course.” – Rosalind Russell
Source: Earl Wilson (1977)
“I wasn’t a sex symbol and never could be. I was always a character actress.” — Rosalind Russell
Photo: With George Raft in It Had to Happen (1936).
More images from It Had to Happen (1936):
“Why do girls play down height? They even develop bad posture trying to take off inches, and just call attention to their discomfort.” – Rosalind Russell, who stood between 5’7″ and 5’8″
Source: Associated Press, 1960.
Photographer: George Platt Lynes, 1937
“MGM in those days was constructed like something that was going to hit the beaches on D-Day. There was the first wave of top stars, then a second wave to replace them in case they got difficult. I was in the second line of defense, behind Myrna Loy.” — Rosalind Russell
Source: Bob Thomas (1965)
Russell enjoyed having guests over for breakfast on Sunday mornings when she was working. Her home was located at 706 N. Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills (still around).
Left to right: Christopher Seiter, Director William A. Seiter and Rosalind Russell on the set of Hired Wife (1940).
Christopher Seiter‘s mother was silent movie actress Marian Nixon. He grew up in the film business, eventually becoming an assistant director for both film and television throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He passed away in 2003 at the age of 68 in Pasadena, CA. His two main credits as an assistant director were Gunsmoke and Hawaii 5-0.
William A. Seiter was a director who worked in all genres dating back to 1915. Among his more notable credits were Girl Crazy (1932), Sons of the Desert (1933), Roberta (1935), If You Could Only Cook (1935), Room Service (1938), Allegheny Uprising (1939), Broadway (1942), You Were Never Lovelier (1942), Four Jills in a Jeep (1944) and The Affairs of Susan (1945). He passed away in 1964.
“I die a thousand deaths each time I see myself on the screen. I never look remotely as I think I will. I think I know exactly how I look. But I must be wrong. Because that image up there isn’t it.” — Rosalind Russell
Source: 1942
Photographer: George Hurrell
“Taste. You cannot buy such a rare and wonderful thing. You can’t send away for it in a catalog. And I’m afraid it’s becoming obsolete.” — Rosalind Russell
“It isn’t darkness, it isn’t enlightenment. What goes with poverty and ignorance is darkness. What goes toward making life better is light.” — Rosalind Russell
Photographer: George Hurrell
“I think it would be dishonest for any woman to say that aging doesn’t bother her at all. The best thing is to keep too busy to think about it.” — Rosalind Russell
Source: Norma Lee Browning (1970)
Here is the Rosalind Russell Cocktail recipe:
