{"id":21042,"date":"2012-03-23T06:01:04","date_gmt":"2012-03-23T10:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=21042"},"modified":"2014-03-29T17:11:08","modified_gmt":"2014-03-29T21:11:08","slug":"gail-russell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=21042","title":{"rendered":"Gail Russell: Gone Too Soon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Gail Russell <\/a>was one of the most hauntingly beautiful women ever to appear in the movies. She was also a sensitive actress who was used to great effect in some wonderful movies. Unfortunately that touching sensitivity was a factor offscreen as well; Russell waged a long battle against shyness and stage fright. She “steadied her nerves” with alcohol, leading to a decline in her appearance and an early death at the age of 36.<\/p>\n

Russell was born in Chicago on September 21, 1924. Her family moved to California and in her late teens she signed with Paramount Pictures. She appeared in her first film, the programmer Henry Aldrich Gets Glamour (1943), at the age of 18.<\/p>\n

Russell’s star rose quickly; after a small role in\u00a0Lady in the Dark\u00a0\u00a0(1944) she was given the plum role of Stella in the classic “haunted house” thriller The Uninvited (1944). Stella is gently romanced by a dashing older man (Ray Milland<\/a>) who tries to understand the odd connection between Stella and the spooky home he’s recently purchased.<\/p>\n

The score for The Uninvited introduced a song named for Russell’s character which became an American standard, the haunting “Stella By Starlight”:<\/p>\n