---
name: "Rosalind Russell"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/rosalind-russell"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "4 June 1907"
died: "28 November 1976"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
updated: "2026-09-16T11:50:28.426850+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Rosalind Russell

Actor. Born 4 June 1907 in Waterbury, Connecticut, USA. Died 28 November 1976.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 4 June 1907, Waterbury, Connecticut, USA
- **Died:** 28 November 1976
- **Also known as:** 罗莎琳德·拉塞尔, Catherine Rosalind Russell 

## Fi1m on Rosalind Russell

> Rosalind Russell’s comedy depends on quick answers and the confidence to stand by them. We value her most opposite an actor who can answer back: in *His Girl Friday*, Cary Grant gives her a proper contest.

In *His Girl Friday* (1940), Rosalind Russell listens to Cary Grant with no intention of being impressed. As Hildy Johnson, she answers at speed, but the confidence behind the answer matters just as much. We laughed at her refusal to let Grant’s Walter Burns have an uncontested sentence, because she makes it clear that Hildy knows whom she is dealing with. The overlapping dialogue never obscures who is trying to take control. Watch her through one exchange and it becomes clear how much comic work she does while the other actor is speaking.

Her breakthrough came with *The Women* (1939), playing Sylvia Fowler for George Cukor, followed by Howard Hawks’s *His Girl Friday*. Those two films established her in comedy. Ruth Sherwood, the aspiring writer in *My Sister Eileen* (1942), belongs to the line of working women for which she became known. The dramatic, biographical role in *Sister Kenny* (1946) is a useful reminder that comedy was not her only work. Still, Hildy gives us the clearest reason to keep returning: she has a profession, and her exchanges with Walter are funnier because both know the job.

That identification with capable career women also narrowed the parts she was offered, with repetitive plots and settings in the 1940s comedies. Forcefulness can become hard work when a script merely asks an actor to assert it again. Russell’s raucous, strenuous comic manner makes that a particular risk, though the repetition of those roles should not be mistaken for all she could do. Her later work includes the eccentric Mame Dennis in *Auntie Mame* (1958), a role she had played on stage, and the ambitious stage mother Rose Hovick in *Gypsy* (1962). Neither part suggests much interest in becoming more retiring.

Hawks makes Russell’s forcefulness funny by giving her an opponent who keeps trying to get his own way. In *His Girl Friday*, Grant’s scheming and Russell’s refusal to be overawed are equally necessary; take away either and the comedy loses its contest. Their shared newspaper work also stops the sparring from becoming a succession of clever insults. The clamour can be tiring, and we would not pretend otherwise. Start there, provided rapid conversation is not what you were hoping to escape for the evening.

## Biography

Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen. Born Catherine Rosalind Russell on 4 June 1907 in Waterbury, Connecticut, she trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and made her Broadway debut in 1930. She signed with MGM in 1934 and appeared in supporting roles before gaining prominence in the late 1930s.

She is best known for her performance as reporter Hildy Johnson in the screwball comedy *His Girl Friday* (1940), opposite Cary Grant, and for her roles as Sylvia Fowler in *The Women* (1939) and Mame Dennis in *Auntie Mame* (1958). Other notable films include *Gypsy* (1962) and *Picnic* (1955). Russell also starred in the Broadway musical *Wonderful Town*, for which she won a Tony Award in 1953.

She received four Academy Award nominations and won five Golden Globe Awards. In 1972 she was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Russell died on 28 November 1976 in Beverly Hills, California.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, britannica.com, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *His Girl Friday* (1940), Fi1m 90, as Hildy Johnson — [page](https://film.one/film/his-girl-friday.md)

## Also known for

- *The Women* (1939), Sylvia Fowler
- *Auntie Mame* (1958), Mame Dennis
- *Picnic* (1955), Rosemary - The School Teacher
- *The Oscars* (1953), Self
- *Gypsy* (1962), Rose Hovick
- *The Trouble with Angels* (1966), Mother Superior
- *Night Must Fall* (1937), Olivia Grayne
- *That's Entertainment! III* (1994), (archive footage) (uncredited)

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/rosalind-russell