Jane Russell Jane Russell Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011) was an American film actress and one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s. Russell moved from the Midwestern United States to California, where she had her first film role in 1943 in "The Outlaw". In 1947, Russell delved into music before returning to films. After starring in multiple films in the 1950s, including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1953, Russell again returned to music while completing several other films in the 1960s. She starred in more than 20 films throughout her career. Russell married
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (novel) as a book by Boni & Liveright in 1925 and became a runaway best seller, becoming the second best selling title of 1926 and earning the praise of no less than Edith Wharton who dubbed it "The Great American Novel." A sequel, "But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes", was published two years later. Responding to a male friend’s suggestion that she should write down her thoughts because it would make an interesting book, the blonde Lorelei Lee narrates the novel in the form of a diary complete with spelling and grammatical errors. Lorelei Lee had been working in movies in Hollywood when