How Gail Russell Destroyed John Wayne’s Marriage?

Welcome Age of Vintage Society. Gail Russell made indelible impressions in 1940s films The Uninvited and Angel and the Bad Man, but her cinematic achievements were overshadowed by addiction and its resultant string of progressively worse legal problems. How Gail Russell destroyed John Wayne's marriage. Make sure to watch the video until the end and leave your thoughts in the comments. If you are new here, join our wonderful community by subscribing to the Age of Vintage Channel. Gail Russell and John Wayne. Romance or Rumour? There were many talented female contract players at Republic Pictures. In the mid-1940s the studio had more than 120 actors in its stable of gifted individuals. Some of those actresses became household names because of their work in front of the camera and others rose to fame as a result of their off-screen exploits. One of Republic Pictures' most popular actresses was one of the motion picture industry's most troubled. Her name was Gail Russell. Thrust into show business by her domineering mother, Gail Russell was a chronically shy teenager terrified of acting. To fight off her debilitating stage fright, she turned to the bottle and then the bottle turned on her. This trainwreck actress just couldn't cope with her own anxieties and her downward spiral was one of old Hollywood's most tragic stories. Viewing Angel and the Bad Man again, and in the restored version, one cannot help thinking that Gail Russell, had she been able to conquer her demons, would have been one of the great stars of the 1950s, a more introverted Susan Hayward perhaps. It was not to be, alas. Poor Gail Russell, the adjective has almost become part of her name, as in poor Gail Russell, and she is usually only mentioned whenever the more destructive aspects of fame are discussed. Her movies are mere afterthought to her well-reported neuroses. Russell, a beautiful brunette with dark blue eyes, was a gifted talent who dreamed of becoming a commercial artist. She was born Elizabeth L Russell in Chicago on September 21st 1924. Throughout her childhood she was painfully shy and often hid under her parents' piano whenever guests came to their home. Gail's timid nature begged one question. How would she ever make it in Hollywood? The young girl only felt completely comfortable when she was sketching various people and places in her sphere of influence. She began drawing at the age of five years old and was considered exceptional by most that saw her sketches and paintings. Gladys still clung to her dream of being the parent of a Hollywood star, even though her daughter was deathly afraid of being caught in the spotlight. By the time Russell hit her teens, her parents were ready to take drastic measures. Above all, they wanted to see their daughter shine on centre stage. When she was in her late teens, her mother encouraged her to set aside her drawing pencils and venture into films. Russell was 14 when her parents moved to Los Angeles, so their daughter could pursue their dream of her becoming a star. Gladys Russell's plan was becoming an obsession and she was going to make it happen, whether Russell wanted it or not. She was discovered after Paramount Studios talent manager William Michael John picked up two hitchhiking Santa Monica High School boys who told him all about the Hedy Lamarr of Santa Monica High School. Michael John tracked down Gail at school and arranged for a screen test. The rest, as they say, is Hollywood history. She auditioned for Paramount Pictures and signed a contract with the studio for $50 a week. Mom said, take it, we need the money. And thus the fate of Gail Russell was cast. The truth was the Russell family was not doing well in LA. They were so poor that Russell was actually sleeping on newspapers on the living room floor. They needed the money from Paramount big time, but Gladys had doubts and wondered whether her daughter was still too young to be in films. She made her screen debut in 1943 in Henry Aldrich Gets Glamour, but it wasn't until she was cast as Stella in the romantic thriller The Uninvited, opposite Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey, that the dazzling beauty with the soulful eyes caught on with moviegoers. Paramount, seeing her potential, pushed her into film after film and she soon starred in Sortio Rourke opposite Alan Ladd, The Unseen with Joel McCree, Our Hearts Were Growing Up and Oh Calcutta with Ladd again. However, Gail was not equipped to be a movie star. Russell's shyness followed her as she began her career. Acting instructors were hired to help her overcome her timidity, but it never completely subsided. It did add to her haunting persona, and she was cast in roles where that part of her personality could be highlighted. As her star rose in the industry, her fear of performing became more pronounced. With each film, it took more effort to overcome her lack of self-confidence and commit to the part. While filming The Uninvited in 1944, Russell chose to deal with her paralysing self-doubt by drinking. Alcohol did not quiet her nerves, it merely made her more anxious. By the end of the production, she had become dependent on liquor and was on the brink of a nervous breakdown. The Uninvited was a critical success and the film was nominated for an Academy Award. Russell became even more popular by the film. She went on to work with such stars as Alan Ladd and Joel McCree, Jane Wyatt and Adolphe Menjou. The work was continuous and the pace gruelling. Russell dealt with the frantic schedule the same way she did with her shyness, by drinking. As she continued to work non-stop, she found that the only way to overcome her stage fright was through alcohol. Nobody's interested in sweetness and light. These words, spoken by gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, aptly characterised the Hollywood social scene of the 1940s. Unfortunately, many innocent and easily exploitable young women found their reputations destroyed by the public's insatiable appetite for real or imagined scandal. And Gayle Russell was one of these women. Her beauty was irresistible, combined with the shyness that made her appear angelic on the silver screen. Russell seduced her audience without knowledge or intent, but did she seduce one of the most powerful men in Hollywood? In 1946, Russell starred in the first of four films she made for Republic Pictures. John Wayne co-produced The Angel and The Bad Man, and specifically requested Gayle Russell to play opposite him in The Western, written and directed by James Edward Grant. Wayne was moved by her quiet, unassuming personality. He treated her with respect and kindness she'd not known from many of other leading men or producers. With her mesmerising stare and kind demeanour, she wins over John Wayne's heart in the 1947 film Angel and The Bad Man. Perhaps it's the story of opposites attract that make us root for love to win in the end, but the way the Duke and Russell look at each other feels authentic. The pair's chemistry didn't go unnoticed, and they starred in Wake of the Red Witch together the following year. The two became good friends while working on the film. Wayne was protective of Russell. He recognised vulnerability in the actress some could have taken advantage of. He was a father figure to Russell, and she considered him to be a fiercely honest individual. Wayne's friendship with Gayle did not go over so well with his spitfire wife. Wayne's second wife, Esperanza Chatterbower, was less than enthusiastic with the bond the shy actress and her husband had forged. She accused him of having an affair with the fragile beauty. One night, convinced that they were together, she even took a shot at him when he came home late. Wayne and Chatter's marriage was strained at this point, and Russell's presence made matters worse. The pair was nothing more than friends, but Chatter often accused Wayne of feeling more for Russell than he did. Russell was working with an acting coach, but this did little to ease her performance fears. In fact, her shyness seemed to transform during the film of The Uninvited into pathological stage fright. After the filming of The Uninvited, she lost 20 pounds and was forced to take a short break from acting. What happened next is one of many mysteries surrounding the friendship between Russell and Wayne. It is widely accepted as fact that someone suggested to Russell that she try alcohol to calm her nerves. Many believed that person was John Wayne, but Wayne adamantly denied the allegations. Regardless of who made the suggestion, alcohol proved to be more of a poison than a cure for what ailed the young actress. In the biography Duke, Ronald L. Davis quotes director Bud Botica as saying that Wayne was a one-woman man, and Wayne was only married to one woman in 1941, Josephine Alicia Sands. Wayne and Sands were married on June 24, 1933 and had four children. However, according to his biography, it was rumoured that Wayne was intimately involved with at least three women in 1941. When filming for The Angel and the Bad Man was complete, the cast and crew of the picture celebrated the progress at a restaurant across the street from Republic Studios. The party graduated from the restaurant to a bar. Wayne offered to escort Russell, who had been drinking, to her family's apartment. He drove her car with plans to take a cab back to his home after dropping her off. Along the way, Russell and Wayne stopped to have something to eat. It was late by the time they arrived at the Russells' home. Russell's parents invited Wayne to come in and visit a while. Not wanting to be impolite, he accepted their invitation. It was one in the morning when Russell's brother called a cab for Wayne, and even later when Wayne returned to his own home. Chatter was furious and, not long afterwards, filed for divorce. While Wayne's domestic issues were being covered in various West Coast newspapers, The Angel and the Bad Man was released in theatres across the country. The movie was well received. Russell's performance was praised by film critics. A review in the March 3, 1947 edition of the New York Times noted that her portrayal of the soft-spoken Quaker Pennyworth was a haunting mixture of sweetness and sex appeal. Russell was thrilled with the positive response for her work, and she was looking forward to the other film projects that were lined up. Shortly after the release of The Angel and the Bad Man, Russell began work on another Republic Picture Vehicle, a crime drama entitled Moonrise. Acting opposite Dane Clark, Ethel Barrymore and Lloyd Bridges, the story involves a man who is despised because of a murder his father committed. Russell portrays the tortured man's love interest. Audiences again applauded her talent and made it known through ticket sales they wanted to see her perform more. The chemistry Wayne and Russell exhibited on screen in The Angel and the Bad Man would be duplicated in another Republic Pictures production, The Wake of the Red Witch. Reviews for the pictures were mixed, but all agreed Russell lent charm and distinction to her role of Angelique. Just as the actress was basking in the approval of moviegoers and film critics, her name was mentioned in Wayne's divorce case. Chatter named Russell as a co-respondent, and told the court that she and Wayne were having an affair. Wayne vehemently denied the accusation. Russell was crushed, and the publicity from the scandal caused her to have a nervous breakdown. She spent a month in a sanitarium, learning to deal with the humiliation and hurt she experienced from the public divorce proceedings. Once she was released, she resorted to drinking again. On November 26th 1953, she was arrested for drunk driving. At her hearing, two months later, the troubled actress was placed on two years probation with a condition she refrained from intoxicants, staying away from places where liquor was sold and obtain medical treatment. She was also ordered to pay a $150 fine. Russell's reputation wasn't the only thing that suffered from her alcoholic tendencies. It had taken a toll on her marriage too. Five years after she married actor Guy Madison, she filed for divorce, citing mental cruelty as the reason. The truth was that Madison couldn't deal with Russell's constant drinking. While the terms of the divorce were being decided, Russell appeared in her last project, a movie entitled Studio 57. Shortly after the production was completed, Russell was involved in another drunk driving accident. While travelling in North Hollywood, the actress failed to stop in time and rear-ended a vehicle in front of her. Instead of waiting for the police to arrive, Russell fled the scene. A day later, accompanied by her attorney, she turned herself in to the police. Russell's career stalled after the second drunk driving incident. Studios felt she was too big a risk to hire. In September 1955, John Wayne came to her rescue and offered her a part in a film he was making under his own company's banner. The movie was Seven Men From Now. For a moment, it appeared as though the actress was well on her way to a successful comeback. Other film offers began to come in and when she wasn't working, she spent time painting and practising archery. Try as she might, she could not overcome the power alcohol had on her. In the early hours of July 5th 1957, Russell drove her car into a closed coffee shop in West Los Angeles and pinned a janitor under a wheel. At the scene of the accident, she was given a series of sobriety tests, all of which she failed. I had two drinks, no four. Oh, I don't know how many I had. It's nobody's business, she told the arresting officer. Russell was arraigned on felony drunk driving charges She was released on $1,000 bail. On August 21st 1957, Russell was found unconscious on her bathroom floor by deputies who came to arrest her for failing to appear in court on the felony drunk driving charge she had received a month prior. According to the August 21st 1957 edition of the Star-Gazette, Sergeants H. W. Trail and G. A. Corbett said Miss Russell's mother met them at the front door and said, Gail's on the bathroom floor. Will you help me get her up? The deputies said the actress, barefooted and clad in pyjamas, was unconscious. They took her to the prison ward of Los Angeles General Hospital, where she was booked on a charge of failure to appear for arraignment in superior court on the drunk driving accusation. Russell was later fined $420 and placed on three years probation. She was also ordered to surrender her driver's license for an indefinite period. Her 30-day jail sentence was suspended. Ashamed of her actions and deeply sorry for the trouble she'd caused, Russell vowed to turn her life around. When God is going to do something wonderful, he begins with a difficulty, she told a reporter with the Los Angeles Times on October 5th 1957. If it's going to be something very wonderful, he begins with an impossibility. Producer-director William D. Coates hired Russell to star in a movie entitled Man From Arizona. She would play the role of the wife of a domineering husband who is a paraplegic. Gail had also committed to doing a play. She hoped establishing herself as a star again would erase doubts Hollywood had about her. On August 26th 1961, less than four years after her pledge about setting her life on a new course, Gail was found dead in her apartment. She had lost her battle with alcohol. Her body was discovered by neighbours that had stopped by to check on her. She was lying on the floor next to an empty bottle of vodka. There were additional bottles of alcohol strewn about her home. Gail Russell was a movie star at 18 and a has-been by 30. She was dead at 36. If you liked this video, don't forget to give it a thumbs up, subscribe if you are new here, and if you want to support my work, please visit my Patreon page. Unfortunately, Gail Russell has only been able to entertain us for a short time through the screen. But there have been talented actresses with extraordinary beauty besides her. Why was Nancy Kwan Hong Kong's best gift to Hollywood? Find out from this video.