Rosalind Russell

Inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 2005.

Profiled in book "Funny Ladies" by Stephen Silverman (1999).

Rosalind Russell was also the name used for the final female bailiff on the 1984-1992 sitcom, Night Court. Marsha Warfield played the character of Rosalind "Roz" Russell from the fourth season, following the death of Florence Halop, until the series ended.

Her son married actress Patricia Morrow on March 15, 1975. They later divorced in the 1980s.

In 1971, she accepted the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role on behalf of Helen Hayes, who was not present at the awards ceremony. Hayes won the award for her tour-de-force role as Mrs. Ada Quonsett in Airport (1970).

In Gypsy (1962), Russell portrayed the mother of famed stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. In The Trouble with Angels (1966), Russell appeared with the real life Gypsy Rose Lee.

Is one of 20 actresses who did not receive an Oscar nomination for their Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical Golden Globe-winning performance; hers being for A Majority of One (1961) and Gypsy (1962). The others, in chronological order, are: June Allyson for Too Young to Kiss (1951), Ethel Merman for Call Me Madam (1953), Jean Simmons for Guys and Dolls (1955), Taina Elg and Kay Kendall for Les Girls (1957), Marilyn Monroe for Some Like It Hot (1959), Patty Duke for Me, Natalie (1969), Twiggy for The Boy Friend (1971), Raquel Welch for The Three Musketeers (1973), Barbra Streisand for A Star is Born (1976), Bernadette Peters for Pennies from Heaven (1981), Kathleen Turner for Romancing the Stone (1984) and Prizzi's Honor (1985), Miranda Richardson for Enchanted April (1991), Jamie Lee Curtis for True Lies (1994), Nicole Kidman for To Die For (1995), Madonna for Evita (1996), Renée Zellweger for Nurse Betty (2000), Sally Hawkins for Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), and Amy Adams for Big Eyes (2014).

She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1708 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.

Died about three weeks after Patrick Dennis, the author of Auntie Mame (1958), one of her most famous roles.

Columbia, worried the public would think she had the female lead in Picnic (1955), billed her "co-starring Rosalind Russell as Rosemary.

" She refused to be placed in the Best Supporting Actress category when Columbia Pictures wanted to promote her for an Academy Award nomination for her role in Picnic (1955). Many felt she would have won had she cooperated. "Auntie Mame" kept her on Broadway for two years followed by the movie version.

Won Broadway's 1953 Tony Award as Best Actress (Musical) for "Wonderful Town", a musical based on the same source as her film My Sister Eileen (1942), for which she received an Oscar nomination playing the same character. She also received a 1957 Tony Award nomination as Best Actress (Dramatic for "Auntie Mame", a role she recreated in an Oscar-nominated performance in the film version Auntie Mame (1958)).

In her forties, she returned to the stage, touring "Bell, Book and Candle" in 1951 and winning a Tony Award for "Wonderful Town" in 1953.

Helped Van Johnson overcome his fear of live audiences after goading him into performing in nightclubs. He made his Las Vegas debut in the 1950s.

At the 1948 Oscar awards ceremonies, just prior to the announcement of the name for the Best Actress Award, she started to get up (she assumed she would win for "Mourning Becomes Electra"), and had her balloon burst when Loretta Young's name was announced.

She was considered for the title role in Mildred Pierce (1945), which went to Joan Crawford.

Russell gave birth to her only child at age 35. She and husband Frederick Brisson welcomed a son, Lance Brisson, on May 7, 1943.

Oscar nominations: My Sister Eileen (1942), Sister Kenny (1946), Mourning Becomes Electra (1947), and Auntie Mame (1958).

Her "boss lady" roles began with the part of reporter Hildy Johnson in His Girl Friday (1940), through whose male lead, Cary Grant, she met her future husband, Grant's house-guest at the time.

Knowing she was right for comedy, she tested five times for the role of Sylvia Fowler in The Women (1939). George Cukor told her to "play her as a freak". She did and got the part.

Had appeared with Binnie Barnes in four films: Rendezvous (1935), This Thing Called Love (1940), The Trouble with Angels (1966) and Where Angels Go Trouble Follows! (1968).

The middle of seven children, she was named, not for the heroine of "As You Like It" but for the S. S. Rosalind on which her parents had sailed, at the suggestion of her father, a successful lawyer. After receiving a Catholic school education, she went to the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New York, having convinced her mother that she intended to teach acting. In 1934, with some stock company work and a little Broadway experience, she was tested and signed by Universal. Simultaneously, MGM tested her and made her a better offer. When she plead ignorance of Hollywood (while wearing her worst-fitting clothes), Universal released her and she signed with MGM for seven years. For some time she was used in secondary roles and as a replacement threat to limit Myrna Loy's salary demands.

Alumna of the AADA (American Academy of Dramatic Arts), Class of 1929.

Daughter of James (1860-1926) and Clara (née McKnight) Russell (1874-1958). Both were born and raised in the state of Connecticut.

Maternal granddaughter of James (1852-1923) and Katherine (née Geary) McKnight (1855-1896). Both were born and raised in the state of Connecticut.

Maternal great granddaughter of Thomas (1808-1873) and Bridget McKnight (1816-1893). Both were born and raised in Ireland, and died in the state of Connecticut.