Jane Russell was America's beauty queen of the 1940s, and shared the crown with her rival, Marilyn Monroe, in the 1950s. Jane Russell was one of Hollywood's biggest stars of the 1940s and '50s. She died yesterday, Monday, after respiratory problems. She was 89.
From the Associated Press -- "She was the voluptuous pin-up girl who set a million male hearts to pounding during World War II, the favorite movie star of a generation of young men."
Jane Russell appeared in the movie 'The Outlaw,' completed in 1941, limited released in 1943. The flick caused a sensation. Its producer, Howard Hughes, spent years fighting censors for its wide release, and finally in 1946, the film got a general release. The movie introduced Jane Russell as America's sex siren.. It is not a great motion picture, but it made a big step against screen censorship.
Ms. Russell's other movies include 'The Paleface,' with Bob Hope, 'His Kind of Woman,' with Robert Mitchum, 'The Tall Men,' with Clark Gable. By the 1960s, she stopped making movies. She said, "Because I was getting too old! You couldn't go on acting in those years if you were an actress over 30."
One thing about film -- In the movies, the pretty girls are forever young, and lovely too.
Jane Russell, R.I.P.
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