Trivia of Rosalind Russell

Trivia of Rosalind Russell (4 June 1907 - 28 November 1976)

*Rosalind Russell was named after a ship on which her parents had traveled ( S.S Rosalind).

*Russell wanted the role of Sylvia Fowler in The Women (1939) so much that she did five screen tests.Director George Cukor told her to "play her as a freak". On the fifth one, she burlesqued the role, which pleased director George Cukor and won her the role. During filming, Russell actually bit Paulette Goddard in their fight sequence. Despite the permanent scar the bite left Goddard, the actresses remained friends.

*While filming His Girl Friday (1940), she didn't have as many good lines as Cary Grant had, so she hired an advertisement writer through her brother-in-law and had him write more clever lines for the dialog. Since Director Howard Hawks allowed for spontaneity and ad-libbing, he, and many of the cast and crew didn't notice it, but Grant knew she was up to something, leading him to greet her every morning: "What have you got today?".

*Cary Grant introduced Russell to her future husband, Frederick Brisson and was the best man at their wedding in 1941.Russell and Brisson were married for 35 years, until her death. They had one child in 1943, a son, Carl Lance Brisson.

*At the 1948 Oscar awards ceremonies, just prior to the announcement of the name for the Best Actress Award, she started to get up (she assumed she would win for "Mourning Becomes Electra"), and had her balloon burst when Loretta Young's name was announced.

*She refused to be placed in the Best Supporting Actress category when Columbia Pictures wanted to promote her for an Academy Award nomination for her role in Picnic (1955). Many felt she would have won had she cooperated.

*Despite Auntie Mame (1958) being one of Rosalind Russell's biggest successes, she lost the Tony Award to Margaret Leighton for "Separate Tables" and the Oscar to Susan Hayward for "I Want to Live."