In Memory of Jane Russell – Dear Mr. Gable

We’ve lost another Gable leading lady, as Jane Russell, his costar in The Tall Men (1955), has died at age 89.

From the AP:

Jane Russell, the full-figured beauty who was one of Hollywood’s leading sex symbols of the 1940s and ’50s, died Monday at her home in Santa Maria, Calif.

The Minnesota-born icon, 89, died of a respiratory-related illness, according to reports.

Discovered by Howard Hughes in 1941, Russell shot to fame in the controversial Western The Outlaw. The publicity stills were as scandalous as the film, with Russell sprawled in the hay wearing a tight, low-cut dress.

Russell also hit movie gold in 1953, when she starred opposite Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Russell also tried a career in music, forming a gospel group that had a hit single in the mid-’50s.

Following her gospel career, Russell started the Hollywood Christian Group, a Bible study at her home for people in the film industry. She also appeared periodically on television’s Praise the Lord.

Russell was married three times. Unable to have children on her own, Russell and first husband Bob Waterfield adopted two boys and a girl, and in1955, she founded World Adoption International Fund.

Russell was married to her third husband, John Calvin Peoples, through his 1999 death.