A brilliant, charismatic, and charming comedic actress, Rosalind Russell spent her career reflecting both her own life experiences and her observations of the world around her in her stage and screen characters.

Russell was born June 4, 1907 on Willow Street in Waterbury, Connecticut, to an educated and affluent family. Her father was a prominent trial lawyer, her mother a fashion editor for Vogue Magazine. One of seven siblings, she was named after the Steamship S.S. Rosalind. Russell attended the Notre Dame Academy in Waterbury. Upon her graduation from high school, she matriculated at Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York. After two years there, Russell convinced her mother that she intended to teach theater, and was allowed to enroll in the American Academy of the Dramatic Arts in New York City .

In 1934, after a brief stint on Broadway, Russell moved to Hollywood and began screen testing. She first signed with Universal Studios, but immediately after she entered into her contract, MGM made her a better offer. Russell approached Universal, lamenting her naiveté and her lack of knowledge of the studio system, and convinced Universal to release her from her contract. She signed with MGM.

The role of Ruth Sherwood earned Russell both an Academy Award® nomination – for the film My Sister Eileen – and a Tony® Award, for the theatrical version of the story, Wonderful Town. Rosalind Russell garnered four Oscar® nominations in her years as an actress.

As ace reporter Hildy Johnson in one of her best-known films, His Girl Friday (1940), Rosalind Russell created one of film history's most enduring feminist icons.

Other highlights of Russell's career, which spanned five decades, include Craig's Wife (1936), The Women (1939; based on a novel by Hall of Fame inductee Clare Booth Luce), Mourning Becomes Electra (1947), Auntie Mame (1958), Gypsy (1962), The Trouble with Angels (1966; the cast of this film Hall of Fame Inductee Susan Saint James, then just starting her career), and Mrs. Pollifax (1971). In 1974, Rosalind Russell received the National Artists Award from the American National Theater and Academy. Russell passed away on November 28, 1976.