Rosalind Russell

 Rosalind Russell (June 4, 1907 – November 28, 1976)

She was known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks comedy His Girl Friday (1940), as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame (1958). Russell had a wide career span from the 1930s to the 1970s, and attributed her long career to the fact that, although usually playing classy and glamorous roles, she never became a sex symbol. Russell started her career as a fashion model and was in many Broadway shows. Against parental objections, she took a job at a stock company for seven months at Saranac Lake and then Hartford, Connecticut. In the early 1930s, Russell went west to Los Angeles to be a contract actress for Universal Pictures. However, she was unhappy with their leadership, and her status as a second class actor, and wanted to join MGM. Picked up by MGM, Russell debuted in Evelyn Prentice (1934). Although the role was small she was noticed, with one critic saying that she was "convincing as the woman scorned." She starred in many comedies, such as Forsaking All Others (1934), and Four's a Crowd (1938), as well as dramas, including Craig's Wife (1936) (which would be the film's second of three remakes; Joan Crawford did the third) and The Citadel (1938).

Russell was first acclaimed when she co-starred with Robert Young in the MGM drama West Point of the Air (1935). She displayed her talent for comedy in the classic screwball comedy His Girl Friday (1940), directed by Howard Hawks. In the 1940s, she made comedies such as The Feminine Touch (1941) and Take a Letter, Darling (1942), dramas including Sister Kenny (1946), and Mourning Becomes Electra (1947), and a murder mystery The Velvet Touch (1948). Over the course of her career, Russell earned four Academy Award nominations for Best Actress: My Sister Eileen (1942); Sister Kenny (1946); Mourning Becomes Electra (1947); and the movie version of Auntie Mame (1958). She received a Special Academy Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1972. She died of breast cancer at age 68 in 1976, and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, CA