#Fact1At 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.2Had 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).3Had appeared with Brian Aherne in four films: Hired Wife (1940), My Sister Eileen (1942), What a Woman! (1943) and Rosie! (1967).4Had appeared with Robert Montgomery in five films: Forsaking All Others (1934), Trouble for Two (1936), Live, Love and Learn (1937), Night Must Fall (1937) and Fast and Loose (1939).5Is 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).6She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1708 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.7She was considered for the title role in Mildred Pierce (1945), which went to Joan Crawford.8During the filming of The Women (1939), Rosalind Russell actually bit Paulette Goddard in their fight sequence. Despite the permanent scar the bite left Goddard, the actresses remained friends.9She was friends with Paulette Goddard, Greer Garson, Merle Oberon, Frank Sinatra, Joan Crawford, Alexis Smith, Craig Stevens, Van Johnson, Loretta Young, Martha Hyer, Cary Grant, Leland Hayward, Jules Stein, Phyllis Kennedy, Frank Sinatra, Mr. and Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Reagan.10She was a staunch conservative Republican and an avid supporter and personal friend of Dwight D. Eisenhower in particular.11Russell wanted the role of Sylvia Fowler in The Women (1939) so much that she did five screen tests. On the fifth one, she burlesqued the role, which pleased director George Cukor and won her the role.12Profiled in book "Funny Ladies" by Stephen Silverman (1999).13Shares the screen with actress and former vaudevillian June Havoc in My Sister Eileen (1942). Twenty years later, she portrays Havoc's mother, Mama Rose, in the musical Gypsy (1962).14Helped Van Johnson overcome his fear of live audiences after goading him into performing in nightclubs. He made his Las Vegas debut in the 1950s.15Her husband, son, and son's wife (actress Patricia Morrow), and a priest were at her bedside when she died.16Her son married actress Patricia Morrow on March 15, 1975. They later divorced in the 1980s.17In 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.18Sister-in-law of actress Elizabeth Russell.19In Italy, almost all her films were dubbed by either Tina Lattanzi or Lidia Simoneschi.20Cary Grant introduced her to her future husband and was the best man at their wedding.21Her performance as Hildy Johnson in His Girl Friday (1940) is ranked #28 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).22In 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).23She died after a long battle with breast cancer in 1976 at age 69, although initially her age was misreported because she had shaved a few years off her true age.24Won 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)).25She 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.26Died about three weeks after Patrick Dennis, the author of Auntie Mame (1958), one of her most famous roles.27Gave birth to her only child age 35, a son Lance Brisson on May 7, 1943. Child's father is her husband, Frederick Brisson.28Following her death, she was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.