Quiz

Sister-in-law of Rosalind Russell.

Minor character actress who appeared rather unsympathetically in a number of films for producer Val Lewton in the 1940s, including La settima vittima (1943), Manicomio (1946) and Il bacio della pantera (1942) and her best known part in Il giardino delle streghe (1944).

She wrote an as yet unproduced screenplay on the life of friend María Montez.

Her first film assignment came almost immediately after her arrival at Paramount in Hollywood when she replaced Frances Farmer, who had been loaned to Samuel Goldwyn for the starring role in Ambizione (1936), in Girl of the Ozarks (1936) opposite Farmer's new husband, Leif Erickson.

She met writer Peter Viertel through friend and roommate Maria Montez, and he introduced her to Val Lewton. She ultimately appeared in five pictures for Lewton's unit.

After Paramount dropped her she returned East to act in theater with Zasu Pitts. Russell and the comedienne became good friends and Pitts had her cast in two of her films, Miss Polly (1941)" and So's Your Aunt Emma! (1942).

Profiled in "Character Actors in Horror and Science Fiction Films, 1930-1960" by Laurence Raw (2012).