Evangeline Russell
{{Use American English|date=July 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Short description|American actress (1902–1966)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Evangeline Russell
| image = Floodgates (1924) - 2.jpg
| caption = From a 1924 advertisement
| birth_name = Evangeline Frances Russell
| birth_date = August 18, 1902
| birth_place = New York City, U.S.
| death_date = February 22, 1966 (aged 63)
| death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.
| occupation = Actress
| spouse = Roy Anthony Wayne (divorced)
Raymond Herbert Claymore (m. 1926; div. 1926)
Carey Harrison (divorced)
J. Stuart Blackton (m. 1936–1941; his death)
William P.S. Earle
| children = 2
| father = John Lowell
| mother = Lillian Case Russell
| relatives = John L. Russell (brother)
}}
Evangeline Frances Russell (August 18, 1902 – February 22, 1966) was an American actress known for her work in silent Westerns of the 1920s. She was the daughter of actor John Lowell Russell and screenwriter Lillian Case Russell. Her brother was Academy Award–nominated cinematographer John L. Russell.
Biography
Russell was born in Manhattan to actor John Russell Lowell and screenwriter Lillian Case Russell. She had a brother, John L. Russell, who became a cinematographer. She was noted as an expert horsewoman and race car driver.{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/48245640/?terms=%22evangeline+russell%22|title=24 May 1924, Page 7 - Reading Times at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-02-24}}
She pursued a career as an actress in Westerns, often playing the wife of characters played by her father (in scripts written by her mother).{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/12526940/?terms=%22evangeline+russell%22|title=15 Mar 1937, Page 11 - The Evening Independent at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-02-24}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/95124101/?terms=%22evangeline+russell%22|title=9 Feb 1925, Page 24 - The Wilkes-Barre Record at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-02-24}} Her credits include films like The Isle of Sunken Gold, The Big Show, and Lost in a Big City. She was something of a method actor; she recounted trying to harden her feet by walking barefoot for six weeks in preparation for a role in 1927's Hawk of the Hills.{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/491133272/?terms=%22evangeline+russell%22|title=9 Jul 1927, 25 - The Vancouver Sun at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-02-24}}
Russell was married at least five times; her husbands included director William P.S. Earle (her final husband), producer J. Stuart Blackton,{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/147044485/?terms=%22evangeline+russell%22|title=2 Oct 1936, Page 63 - The Pittsburgh Press at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-02-24}} Roy Wayne, actor Carey Harrison, and rancher Raymond Claymore; she divorced him when she found out he was "a full-blooded Indian".{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/380609094/?terms=%22evangeline+russell%22|title=1 Oct 1926, 35 - The Los Angeles Times at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-02-24}} She had two children with Harrison, neither of whom were interested in the family business.{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/57412259/?terms=%22evangeline+russell%22|title=18 Nov 1947, Page 5 - Santa Cruz Sentinel at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-02-24}}
After Blackton (whose fortune was lost in the Great Depression){{cite news |title=Once-Wealthy Queen of Films Seeks Job as Baby Sitter |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29490866/evangeline_russell/ |accessdate=14 March 2019 |work=Oakland Tribune |date=November 18, 1947 |location=California, Oakland |page=21|via = Newspapers.com}} died in a car accident in 1941,{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/52610964/?terms=%22evangeline+russell%22|title=14 Aug 1941, Page 11 - The Brooklyn Daily Eagle at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-02-24}} she fell on hard times,{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/445625228/?terms=%22evangeline+russell%22|title=19 Nov 1947, 724 - Daily News at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-02-24}} taking on work as a babysitter, stuntwoman, extra, and taxi driver to supplement her income and support her children.{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/38539003/?terms=%22evangeline+russell%22|title=27 Nov 1949, Page 7 - Joplin Globe at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-02-24}}
She died in Los Angeles in 1966; she was survived by Earle and her two children, Frank and Elizabeth, from her marriage to Harrison.{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/65014065/?terms=%22evangeline+russell%22|title=24 Feb 1966, Page 14 - Pasadena Independent at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|access-date=2019-02-24}}
Filmography
- Lost in a Big City (1923)
- Floodgates (1924)
- It Might Happen to You (1925, short)
- Red Love (1925)
- The Big Show (1926)
- Married? (1926)
- The Isle of Sunken Gold (1927)
- Hawk of the Hills (1927)
- Hawk of the Hills (1929)
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|0751138}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Evangeline}}
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:American film actresses
Category:Actresses from Manhattan