RUSSELL, GAIL

(1924–1961)

Hollywood lore has it that two Santa Monica High School boys gave a ride to a man who turned out to be a talent scout for Paramount, and they tipped him off about the most beautiful girl in their class. The girl was 19-year-old Gail Russell, who was signed to a contract based solely on her looks. While her acting ability came from a studio coach, her hauntingly melancholy expression mixed with a sense of bubbling, innocent enthusiasm came naturally.

Russell’s first Western was John Wayne’s Angel and the Badman (1947). Wayne produced the film and was rumored to be romantically involved with Russell. In the film Russell plays a young Quaker daughter of a family who out of kindness nurse a stranger (Wayne) back to health.While the stranger is in a fevered, unconscious condition, Penelope Worth (Russell) falls in love with him. As it turns out, the stranger is a notorious outlaw. In a plot reminiscent of a William S. Hart film, Russell’s angelic character displays a confident innocence that wins the hardened heart of the badman. Russell’s other Western was Budd Boetticher’s Seven Men from Now (1956), opposite Randolph Scott. In this film, past failures haunt an aging ex-sheriff (Scott) as he helps a young couple, Annie (Russell) and John (Walter Reed), negotiate the treacherous wilderness in their covered wagon. One of the outlaws the sheriff is hunting (Lee Marvin) sarcastically accuses him of carrying on an affair with the wife. Russell brings to her role a sexual innocence that exacerbates the tension of Scott’s situation. The story behind the scenes, though, was that this film was Russell’s last chance to prove herself after being dismissed by her studio for alcoholism. She clearly sought to excel in this role out of a sense of desperation, and while this film is a minor masterpiece, Gail Russell could not re-create her life. News reports of the day say that on August 26, 1961, Russell, age 36, was found dead in her apartment from an alcoholic stupor.