Buxom Bombshell Jane Russell Dies at 89

CNN reports the 1940s and '50s movie bombshell, whose name was synonymous with voluptuousness, died Monday morning at her home in Santa Maria, California, her family said. Jane Russell was 89.

Daughter-in-law Etta Waterfield said that Russell was a "pillar of health" but caught a bad cold and died of respiratory difficulties.

Russell's children, Thomas K. Waterfield, Tracy Foundas and Robert "Buck" Waterfield," were at her side, Etta Waterfield said.

Eccentric philanthropist and movie producer Howard Hughes was the first to put Jane Russell on the silver screen, signing her to a seven-year contract in 1940 and promptly putting her in his production of "The Outlaw," a film about a torrid romance between Billy the Kid and woman named Rio (Russell).

The film got only limited release -- in 1943 -- because censors at the time were skittish about the attention given Russell's figure. Hughes wasn't satisfied. He pulled the film from release and kept it out of circulation for six more years while he did more reshoots and re-editing.
And, Hughes kept Russell off the screen -- her only other appearance during those seven years was in "The Young Widow" (1946), shot while she was on loan to United Artists.

Hughes' extensive publicity campaign for "The Outlaw," however -- she has said that he had her making appearances five days a week for five years -- made Russell popular during World War II as a pin-up, and when the movie was finally released in 1946, she was a star.

While Hughes fetishized Russell's body in other films after her initial contract ended and the two negotiated another, the actress quietly made a name for herself as a talented actress capable of high drama or light comedy. She appeared as Calamity Jane with Bob Hope in "The Paleface" (1948) -- another loan-out -- and a sequel, "Son of Paleface," in 1952 -- earning an Oscar nomination for the song "Am I in Love?"

Robert Mitchum was her co-star twice -- in 1951's "His Kind of Woman" and 1952's "Macao." She shared the screen with Frank Sinatra and Groucho Marx in 1951's "Double Dynamite," and with Victor Mature, Vincent Price and Hoagy Carmichael in "The Las Vegas Story" (1952).

But it was 1953's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" with Marilyn Monroe that shot Russell into the stratosphere. She was hailed for her singing and comedic acting, and just two years later made her last film for Hughes.

Russell had some success as a singer in the 1940s, appearing with the Kay Kayser Orchestra, and in 1954 she and Beryl Davis, Connie Haines and Della Russell (later replaced by Rhonda Fleming) began recording religious-themed music and touring as The Four Girls.

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