Jane Russell,(AP) - Jane Russell, the buxom brunette who shot to fame as the sexy star of 1941 West Howard Hughes 'The Outlaw', died Monday of respiratory failure, his family said. She was 89.
Although Russell is largely retired from Hollywood after his last film, 's "Darker Than Amber", which had remained active in her church, charities and local singing group until his health began to decline a couple of weeks ago, said his daughter Etta Waterfield of Justice. He died at his home in Santa Maria.
"She always said I'm going to die in the chair, I will not sit at home and become an old woman," he told The Associated Press Waterfield. "And that's exactly what she did, she died in the chair."
Hughes, the eccentric millionaire, put it on the road to stardom when his cast in "The Outlaw", a film censors fought for nearly a decade to get a wide release.
With its sensual and sexual look bright, Russell became a star before he was seen by wider audience movies. Hughes Advertising mill ground photos of the beauty in low-cut dresses and swimsuits, and she became famous, especially as a pinup of World War II GIs.
Then, in 1948 starred with Bob Hope in the blockbuster, "The Paleface," a comedy-western in which Russell was tough-but-sexy Calamity Jane Hope cowardly dentist.
Despite her looks and hourglass figure made him the subject of numerous jokes club, unlike Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth and other pin-up queens of the time, Russell was touched by scandal in his personal life. During his career in Hollywood who married the star at UCLA and pro football quarterback Bob Waterfield.
"The Outlaw", although he established his reputation, was beset by problems from the beginning. Director Howard Hawks, one of the most prominent filmmakers and Hollywood autocratic, irritated by constant suggestions Hughes producer and finally came out.
Hughes led the whole picture - nine months with blood, "Russell said in 1999.
The movie trails, the fictional plot appears Russell as a friend of Billy the Kid when you fight with Doc Holliday and Sheriff Pat Garrett.
Short races were scattered in the 1940's, winning scathing remarks. The Los Angeles Times called it "one of the strangest paintings ever unwound western to the public."
However, Hughes made sure that nobody misses his No. star. The designer of the famous "Spruce Goose" aircraft used his engineering skills to make Russell a special bra (which she said she never used) and bought the RKO film studio in crisis to turn it into a vehicle for her.
Wisely, he also loaned to Paramount for "The Paleface", because in RKO starred in a number of potboilers such as "Kind of Woman" (with Robert Mitchum), "Double Dynamite" (Frank Sinatra, Groucho Marx) "Las Vegas Story" (Victor Mature) and "Macao" (Mitchum again.)
Hughes was awarded an exclusive contract paying 20 years and ,000 a week, and then sold the RKO and stop making films. Russell continued to receive the weekly fee, but never made another Hughes film.
His film shines another "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," a musical in 1953 based on the novel by Anita Loos. She and Monroe came together to sing "Two Little Girls Rock" and look for romance in Paris.
In one aspect of the 2001 film festival, Russell noted that Monroe was five years younger, saying: "It was like working with a younger sister."
She continued with music 1954 "The French Line," which like "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" had cavorting on an ocean liner. The film was shot in 3-D, and the campaign for proclaiming "JR in 3D. Need I say more?"
In 1955, he made the sequel to "gentlemen marry brunettes" (not Monroe) and starred in the western "The Tall Men," with Clark Gable, and "Glow" with Jeff Chandler. But the decade of 1960, her film career had faded.
"Why should I quit films?" was observed in . "Because I was too old! Could not continue to act in those days if an actress of 30 years."
She continued to appear in nightclubs, television and musical theater, including a stint on Broadway in Stephen Sondheim's "Company." He formed a band with Connie Haines and Beryl Davis, and they made a record of gospel songs.
For many years he served as TV spokesperson for Playtex bras, and in the 1980 made occasional guest on the television series "The Yellow Rose."
Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell was born on June , 1921, in Bemidji, Minnesota, and the family moved to the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. His mother was a lay preacher, and encouraged the family to build a chapel in his backyard.
Despite the Christian preaching of his mother, the young Jane had a wild side. She wrote in her autobiography of 1985, "My ways and detours" during high school that had a clandestine abortion, which could have lent her unable to bear children.
His first ambition was to design clothes and houses, but was postponed until later years. While working as a receptionist, was discovered by a film agent who submitted their photos from Hughes, who was summoned for a test with the Hawks, who would direct "The Outlaw".
"There were a lot of unknowns that were being tested that day," he recalled in a 1999 interview Associated Press. "I thought Jack Beutel would be chosen to play Billy the Kid, so he insisted on being tried with him."
Both were released, and three months would pass before she met Hughes. The producer was famous for hanging out with his discoveries, and many Hollywood actresses, but his contract with Russell remained strictly business. Their commitment and marriage from 1943 to the safety of Waterfield.
She was the leader of the Hollywood Christian Group, a group of film people who met for Bible study and good works. After experiencing problems in the adoption of her three children, founded the World Adoption Agency, which has helped to facilitate the adoption of more than ,000 children from abroad.
He made hundreds of appearances for the abandoned child and served on the board for 40 years.
As recounted in "My Road and diversions," his life was marked by anxiety. 24-year marriage ended in bitter divorce in 1968 Waterfield. Had adopted two boys and a girl.
That year she married actor Roger Barrett, three months later died of a heart attack. In she married the developer John Peoples, and lived in Sedona, Arizona, and later in Santa Barbara. He died in 1999 of heart failure.
Over the years Russell was also plagued by alcoholism.
He was always able to recover from problems by relying on the lessons he learned from his mother the Bible preaching.
"Without faith, I never would have done", said a few months after the death of her third husband. "I do not know how people can survive all the disasters in your life if you do not have faith, if you do not know the Lord loves and cares for them and has another plan."
His sons, Thomas K. Waterfield, Tracy Foundas and Robert "Buck" Waterfield, six grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, survive him.
A public funeral is scheduled March 12 at 11 am at the Pacific Christian Church in Santa Maria.
In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made in his name to any Care Net Pregnancy and Resource Center of Santa Maria or the Court Appointed Special Santa Barbara.
AP Bob Thomas contributed to this article.
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