Harold Russell

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Harold John Russell (born January 14, 1914 in Sydney , Nova Scotia , Canada , † January 29, 2002 in Needham , Massachusetts , USA ) was an American film actor of Canadian descent.

biography

Harold Russell spent his first five years in Canada and in 1919, after his father's death, moved with his mother to live with their relatives near Cambridge . After attending school, Russell decided to join the US Army . But it wasn't until the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 that the wish became a reality. He signed up for the Army on December 8th and was active in the clean-up and salvage work in Pearl Harbor .

Russell became a paratrooper and was also responsible for training recruits. He and his troops were stationed at Camp Mackall in North Carolina when a fatal accident occurred on June 6, 1944. When TNT , which he was handling, exploded in his hands, both of Russell's hands were severed.

After prostheses were made for him and he recovered, he took part in an army training film in early 1945: the title Diary Of A Sergeant . Director William Wyler saw the film and hired Russell in 1946 for his war drama The Best Years of Our Lives . For the role of Homer Parish , returning from the war , Russell was - as the only person to date - awarded two Oscars for one and the same role. It was both the regular academy and an honorary Oscar that recognized Russell as a symbolic figure for the veterans. He also received the Golden Globe in 1947 .

After the war, Russell attended Boston University and graduated in economics in 1949 .

He was politically active and was chairman of AMVETS , the association of American veterans , for three periods . In 1964, Russell was named by US President Lyndon B. Johnson to chair the Presidential Committee for the Advancement of the Physically Disabled.

Harold Russell married twice. After his accident, he married his childhood sweetheart Rita Nixon in 1944, who is not related to Richard Nixon . The couple had two children, daughter Adele and son Gerald. Rita Russell-Nixon died in 1978. In 1981, Russell married Betty Marshallsee. He spent the last two decades of his life with her near Cape Cod .

When the couple got into financial trouble, Russell sold his Oscar statue in August 1992, contrary to the Academy’s wishes and requests. A buyer who is still anonymous to this day paid $ 60,500. It was the first and so far only sale of an Oscar statue during the owner's lifetime.

Harold Russell is one of the least-noticed Oscar winners, having only appeared four more times after making his film debut in The Best Years Of Our Lives .

He died of a heart attack at the age of 88 and is buried in Wayland, Massachusetts.

Filmography

Awards (selection)

  • 1947: Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in The Best Years of Our Lives
  • 1947: Honorary Oscar as hope and courage for his veterans for the film The Best Years of Our Lives. To date, the only time in Oscar history that the Academy has awarded two Oscars (Oscar + Honorary Oscar) to an actor for the same film.
  • 1947: Golden Globes special award for non-professional acting in The Best Years of Our Lives

Fonts

  • A man without hands ("Victory In My Hands", 1947). Mont Blanc Verlag, Vienna 1950 (autobiography; together with Victor R. Rosen).
  • The Best Years Of My Life . Eriksson Books, Middlebury, Vt. 1981, ISBN 0-8397-1026-7 (autobiography; with Dan Ferullo).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Russell, Harold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Russell, Harold John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film actor of Canadian descent
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Sydney , Nova Scotia , Canada
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 2002
Place of death Needham , Massachusetts , USA