American actress who blazed to fame over a controversy about her bosom. Under contract to Howard Hughes, she made her first film in 1946, “The Outlaw.” The film was banned for the shots of her cleavage, enhanced by Hughes’ engineering abilities in constructing an uplift bra, coupled with a romp in the hay that was mild compared to later explicit movie sex. The film was not released until 1947.
Raised on a small ranch in the San Fernando Valley, Jane had no particular desire to be a movie star, until she was “discovered” in nearby Hollywood and cast as the half-breed girlfriend of Billy the Kid in “The Outlaw.” Famed primarily for her build, she was never given much more to do on screen than play a sex-image.
Russell married football star Bob Waterfield for 25 years; three adopted kids. Prior to her first marriage, she had a devastating abortion that cost her the ability to bear children. Her second marriage, to actor Roger Barrett, left her a widow in three months. On 31 January 1974, she married realtor John Peoples. Their marriage lasted for 25 years, ending with his death by heart attack 9 April 1999 in Santa Barbara, CA.
After rehab from a long-term drinking habit, she returned to commercial ads in her 60’s, appropriately, in brassiere ads for the full-bodied woman. She published her autobiography in 1985, “My Path and My Detours.”
Russell died of respiratory failure on 28 February 2011 at her Santa Maria, CA home. She was 89.
Link to Wikipedia biography