---
name: "Theresa Russell"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/theresa-russell"
fi1m_id: "theresa-russell"
imdb_id: "nm0000622"
tmdb_id: 9207
wikidata_id: "Q253467"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "20 March 1957"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_fi1m_score: 56
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-10-01T19:48:31.509714+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."
---

# Theresa Russell

## Identity

Theresa Russell

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/theresa-russell
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** theresa-russell
- **IMDb ID:** nm0000622
- **TMDB ID:** 9207
- **Wikidata ID:** Q253467
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresa_Russell, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q253467, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000622/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/9207

Actor. Born 20 March 1957 in San Diego, California, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 20 March 1957, San Diego, California, USA
- **Active:** 1991–2007
- **Also known as:** Theresa Paup
- **Average Fi1m score:** 56, as actor, over 2 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 58 (1), 2000s 55 (1)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresa_Russell, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q253467, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000622/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/9207

## Streaming the US now

- **Disney+:** [*Spider-Man 3*](https://film.one/film/spider-man-3.md) (55)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Theresa Russell

> Theresa Russell built a career on troubled women in films that made audiences uncomfortable, most of them with Nicolas Roeg. She is at her most persuasive when a director wants that discomfort; in *Kafka*, handed slogans, she looked stranded.

The thing Russell does, and did from the start, is decline to charm. The women who made her name are brooding, troubled, sometimes plainly disturbed, and she plays them without the small apologies most actors slip in to keep an audience onside: no wink, no softening close-up, no sign that she knows better than the character. She trained at the Lee Strasberg Institute, and the approach is method in the old sense, built from her own experience rather than from imitation, which gives the work a directness that can be hard to sit with. She has put it herself: "If I read something and it frightens me, I’m compelled to do it." The filmography bears that out.

The career divides cleanly. A debut at nineteen in Elia Kazan's *The Last Tycoon* (1976), a lead opposite Dustin Hoffman in *Straight Time* (1978), and then *Bad Timing* (1980), the first of six films with Nicolas Roeg and the one most often cited as fixing her reputation. Roeg's cinema is non-linear and preoccupied with obsession and identity, and Russell suited it; in *Insignificance* (1985) she played a version of Marilyn Monroe and built the woman up from nothing rather than doing the voice and the walk. *Black Widow* (1987), for Bob Rafelson, was the one time the mainstream came to her, as a serial killer opposite Debra Winger. It did not change her habits. The same year brought *Whore* for Ken Russell and *Kafka* for Steven Soderbergh; after that came supporting parts in *Wild Things* (1998) and *The Believer* (2001), and television.

We have reviewed only *Kafka*, and it is not the place to start. Soderbergh's black-and-white Prague looks superb and the story under it is pulp, and Russell's Gabriela, the dead man's lover who insists he did not kill himself, is written in slogans. She delivers them as if she would rather not, and we believed her. Watching it, we felt less that she was failing the part than that the part had nothing for her to do, and we kept waiting for a scene in which someone let her stop declaiming and simply look at Irons. It never arrives. Other reviewers noticed the accent and the delivery in the period setting. We noticed an actor whose gift is rawness being asked for stylisation, which is the wrong order.

The pattern is plain enough. Give her a director who wants a woman to be difficult and unglamorous, Roeg above all, Rafelson once, and she holds her own against anyone in the frame. Give her a mannered thriller and she looks like a guest. Her own choices did the rest: she took the frightening script over the safe one, and there were commentators at the time who said that cost her the larger career. On the evidence, she would not have wanted it. The films that made her name are the Roeg ones, and we have not yet reviewed them. *Kafka* we have, and we would send you to it for the lighting.

## Biography

Theresa Russell is an American actress, also credited as Theresa Paup. Born Theresa Lynn Paup on 20 March 1957 in San Diego, California, she made her film debut in *The Last Tycoon* (1976) and appeared in *Straight Time* (1978). She starred in Nicolas Roeg's *Bad Timing* (1980) and married the director in 1982. She trained at the Lee Strasberg Institute.

Russell collaborated with Roeg on further films including *Eureka* (1983), *Insignificance* (1985) and *Cold Heaven* (1991). In 1991 she played Gabriela in Steven Soderbergh's *Kafka* and appeared in Ken Russell's *Whore*. Later film roles include *Wild Things* (1998), *The Believer* (2001) and *Spider-Man 3* (2007). She has also worked in television, with appearances in *Fringe* (2008) and *Cold Case* (2010).

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

## On Fi1m (2)

- *Spider-Man 3* (2007), Fi1m 55, as Emma Marko — [page](https://film.one/film/spider-man-3.md)
- *Kafka* (1991), Fi1m 58, as Gabriela — [page](https://film.one/film/kafka.md)

## Complete filmography (60)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *A Winter Rose* (2016), as Rachal Love
- *Moving Mountains* (2014), as Trish Bragg
- *Delete* (2013), series, as Fiona
- *Liz & Dick* (2012), as Sara Taylor
- *The Legends of Nethiah* (2012), as Nethiah's Mother
- *1 Out of 7* (2012), as Lexi's Mom
- *Rid of Me* (2011), as Mrs. Lockwood
- *Born to Ride* (2011), as Frances Callahan
- *Jolene* (2010), as Aunt Kay
- *16 to Life* (2009), as Louise
- *Fringe* (2008), series, as Rebecca Kibner — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/tv/fringe.md)
- *Railroad to Hell: A Chinaman's Chance* (2008), as Mrs. Williams
- *Dark World* (2008), as Nicole
- *On the Doll* (2007), as Diane
- *Spider-Man 3* (2007), as Emma Marko — Fi1m 55, [page](https://film.one/film/spider-man-3.md)
- *American Heiress* (2007), series, as Jordan Wakefield
- *Empire Falls* (2005), series, as Charlene
- *Blind Injustice* (2005), as Joanna Bartlett
- *Cold Case* (2003), series, as Rachel Malone (2010)
- *Passionada* (2003), as Lois Vargas
- *The Box* (2003), as Dora Baker
- *Love Comes Softly* (2003), as Sarah Graham
- *Water Under the Bridge* (2003), as Jackie O'Connor
- *Now & Forever* (2002), as Dori Wilson
- *Project Viper* (2002), as Dr. Nancy Burnham
- *The House Next Door* (2002), as Helen Schmidt
- *Glory Days* (2002), series, as Hazel Walker
- *Earth vs. the Spider* (2001), as Trixie Grillo
- *Law & Order: Criminal Intent* (2001), series, as Regina Reid
- *The Believer* (2001), as Lina Moebius
- *Luckytown* (2000), as Stella
- *Wild Things* (1998), as Sandra Van Ryan
- *Running Woman* (1998), as Emily Russo
- *The Proposition* (1996), as Catherine Morgan
- *Once You Meet a Stranger* (1996), as Margo Anthony
- *Public Enemies* (1996), as Kate Barker
- *Nash Bridges* (1996), series, as Ellen Holiday
- *Hotel Paradise* (1995), as Bride
- *The Grotesque* (1995), as Lady Harriet Coal
- *A Young Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court* (1995), as Morgan Le Fay
- *Trade Off* (1995), as Jackie Daniels
- *The Spy Within* (1994), as Mary Ann Curran (aka Alex Canis)
- *Being Human* (1994), as The Storyteller
- *A Woman's Guide to Adultery* (1993), series, as Rose
- *Thicker Than Water* (1993), as Debbie / Jo
- *Cold Heaven* (1992), as Marie Davenport
- *Kafka* (1991), as Gabriela — Fi1m 58, [page](https://film.one/film/kafka.md)
- *Whore* (1991), as Liz
- *Impulse* (1990), as Lottie Mason
- *Physical Evidence* (1989), as Jennifer "Jenny" Hudson
- *Track 29* (1988), as Linda Henry
- *Aria* (1987), as King Zog
- *Black Widow* (1987), as Catharine
- *Insignificance* (1985), as The Actress
- *The Razor's Edge* (1984), as Sophie MacDonald
- *Eureka* (1983), as Tracy
- *Bad Timing* (1980), as Milena Flaherty
- *Blind Ambition* (1979), series, as Maureeen Dean
- *Straight Time* (1978), as Jenny Mercer
- *The Last Tycoon* (1976), as Cecilia Brady

## Gallery

- ![Newspaper advertisement promoting release of Insignificance (1985)](https://film.one/media/person/9958/gallery-15c8788186b3.jpg) Newspaper advertisement promoting release of Insignificance (1985) — The Oregonian, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Insignificance_%28newspaper_advertisement%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Martin Sheen and Theresa Russell (1979) in a publicity shot for Blind Ambition](https://film.one/media/person/9958/gallery-f86476353f03.jpg) Martin Sheen and Theresa Russell (1979) in a publicity shot for Blind Ambition — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Martin_Sheen_and_Theresa_Russell_%281979%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Michael Emil and Theresa Russell in Insignificance publicity still (1985)](https://film.one/media/person/9958/gallery-81df0ce5ed6e.jpg) Michael Emil and Theresa Russell in Insignificance publicity still (1985) — Island Alive, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Michael_Emil_and_Theresa_Russell_in_Insignificance.jpg/1280px-Michael_Emil_and_Theresa_Russell_in_Insignificance.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Theresa Russell](https://film.one/media/person/9958/gallery-2d52963ee886.jpg) Theresa Russell — Joost Pauwels, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Theresa_Russell_%282025%29_cropped.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Theresa Russell](https://film.one/media/person/9958/gallery-8efa76b53d5c.jpg) Theresa Russell — Image via TMDB
- ![Theresa Russell](https://film.one/media/person/9958/gallery-b12069c0de89.jpg) Theresa Russell — Image via TMDB
- ![Theresa Russell](https://film.one/media/person/9958/gallery-a0c03dc11d49.jpg) Theresa Russell — Image via TMDB
- ![Theresa Russell](https://film.one/media/person/9958/gallery-cf62f619a5a9.jpg) Theresa Russell — Image via TMDB

---
© 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/theresa-russell