Gail Russell Movies

gailrussellWant to know the best Gail Russell movies?  How about the worst Gail Russell movies?  Curious about Gail Russell box office grosses or which Gail Russell movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Gail Russell movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Gail Russell (1924-1961) was an American film and television actress.  She made her film debut in 1943’s Henry Aldrich Gets Glamour.  From 1944 to 1949 she appeared in 8 movies that earned over $100 million in adjusted box office…including three movies that crossed $200 million. IMDb page shows 28 acting credits from 1943-1961.  This page will rank 25 Gail Russell movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Her three television appearances were not included in the rankings. 

Drivel Part:  This page comes from a request by Lyle.  We easily admit we knew almost nothing about Gail Russell’s career before researching and publishing this page.  So we want to say thanks to Lyle for making the suggestion and for helping us finally pay attention to a talented actress.

John Wayne and Gail Russell in 1947’s Angel and the Badman

Gail Russell Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Gail Russell movies by co-stars of her movies
  • Sort Gail Russell movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Gail Russell movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Gail Russell movies by how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Gail Russell movie received.
  • Sort Gail Russell movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR)Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
  • Blue link in Co-star column takes you to that star’s UMR movie page

Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Gail Russell Table

  1. Nine Gail Russell movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 36.00% of her movies listed. Lady In The Dark (1944) was her biggest box office hit.
  2. An average Gail Russell movie grossed $93.90 million in adjusted box office gross.
  3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  15 Gail Russell movies are rated as good movies…or 60.00% of her movies.  Seven Men From Now (1956) is her highest rated movie while The Silent Call (1961) is her lowest rated movie.
  4. Five Gail Russell movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 35.71% of her movies.
  5. Zero Gail Russell movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 0.00% of her movies.
  6. An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 40.00.  13 Gail Russell movies scored higher that average….or 52.00% of her movies. The Uninvited (1944) got the the highest UMR Score while The Silent Call (1961) got the lowest UMR Score.
Alan Ladd and Gail Russell were frequent co-stars

Alan Ladd and Gail Russell were frequent co-stars

Possibly Interesting Facts About Gail Russell

1. Gail Russell was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1924.

2.  Gail Russell went to the same high school as Jane Russell.

3. Gail Russell signed a long-term contract with Paramount Pictures when she was 18.

4.  While filming 1944’s The Uninvited, Gail Russell began drinking on set.  This was to ease her paralyzing stage fright and lack of confidence

5.  Gail Russell was John Wayne‘s leading lady in two movies: 1947’s Angel and the Badman and 1949’s Wake of the Red Witch.  Wayne’s production company also cast her in the classic western 1956’s Seven Men From Now.

6. Gail Russell was married one time.  She was married to actor Guy Madison from 1949 to 1954….they did not have any children.

7.  In 1961…at the age of 36 Gail Russell passed away.  Years of alcohol abuse caused her liver to stop functioning.

8. Check out Gail Russell‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

25 thoughts on “Gail Russell Movies

  1. So sad about the tragic life of Gail Russell. It appears she was in her early twenties when alcohol took over. By then she had from 25 to 36. 11 short years. The photos tell the story of a gloriously beautiful young woman with talent, and John is Wayne on her side. Yet Satan in a bottle took the power away from her. The pho’s oh her being arrested, in court, being fingerprinted make my stomach turn. She lost her looks, fame and employment,until the last drink ended it all.

  2. 1 Gail Russell was maybe the most angelic-looking actresses that I have seen and it was probably no coincidence that she was Duke’s leading lady in Angel and the Badman. {Initially Duke didn’t want to do the part himself and would have preferred Cooper or Randy but they were unavailable.]

    2 I read that Wayne was so platonically fond of her that when her alcohol problems were at their height in the 1950s he gave her the break of casting her as Randolph Scott’s leading lady in Seven Men from Now which as Bruce has said Duke’s film company produced.[Gail had earlier developed a crush on Wayne but he distanced himself a bit and told his secretary to “Set her straight.”]

    3 Budd Boetticher praised Randolph and Gail for the tasteful way in which they conveyed their mutual attraction towards each other in that movie. Gail played the part of a married woman in the plot.

    4 Gail had only one more good part in her short career and that was the following year in Jeff Chandler’s Tattered Dress. Sadly her early death meant that she didn’t even get to test the ‘curse of 39’.

    1. Hey Bob
      1. Thanks for the comment and thoughts on Gail Russell.
      2. I agree she was a very pretty lady….the photos I found of her did do her justice compared to how she looked in movies.
      3. I actually read that she and Wayne had an affair and that it almost cost him his marriage until he broke things off……the truth might never be known.
      4. She and Scott made a nice team in their only movie together.
      5. I had not even heard of Tattered Dress before doing this page.
      6. Based on where he career was at the time of her passing….not thinking she would have beaten the curse.
      Good stuff!

  3. Hi

    Normally when you do a page on a star from Hollywood’s Golden era, I would be familiar with at least 4 or 5 of their movies. For the first time I’ve came unstuck. I made a point of watching The Uninvited and a documentary on Gail’s life on youtube.
    The Uninvited is actually quite good and eerie for a ghost story. Gail is absolutely fabulous in it for one so young. And it’s all the more sad to learn that in this movie she started drinking on set to calm her nerves. Sadly by the end of the 40’s, her brief moment of fame was soon to end. She lost her contract with Paramount and she seemed to spend headlines in court cases and fines and drunk driving charges, all drink related. I think there was individuals at Paramount that tried to help her, John Wayne in particular did. But it seemed the hold of alcohol was just too strong. She was a beautifully talented woman who’s early death was a real loss and robbed us of what could have been an incredible career.

    1. Hey Chris….very cool comment. I will have to check out that You Tube documentary…glad my page got you interested in taking a deeper look at her tragic career. You gotta love You Tube…it has everything.

      I also just watched The Uninvited….and I also enjoyed her performance…..I have not seen it since I learned she was having such bad stage fright. I read that her and Wayne had an affair….which is one of the reasons he was so supportive of her. His production company gave her the last great role of her career in Seven Men From Now.

      Thanks for sharing your “new” movie thoughts on Gail Russell.

  4. Hello Bruce.
    I like your Gail Russell Page. But 1943’s “Our Hearts Were Young and Gay” shows a much lower Box Office than it’s 1946 sequel “Our Hearts Were Growing Up” which according to The Paramount Story “Our Hearts Were Young and Gay” was a hit at the box office and the sequel which was not as good as the first film and so it’s box office dropped off. And so I was wondering if you got the figures of the two films mixed up?

    1. Hey Lyle….I currently am away from my database….but I will check it out when I get home. Either I got it wrong (me being wrong happens a lot….lol) or the sequel might have benefited from the fact that 1946 (the year of the sequel) was the best year ever for movie attendance. It will be one of the first things I check when I get home. Sadly…I am being forced to turn off my electronic device.

      1. 1 Actually in my experience you have been remarkably consistent considering the vast numbers of movies and stars with which you deal.

        2 I operate about 10 different folders off your stats so I have to constantly cross check to ensure I PERSONALLY am being consistent with my entries and I always go back to your figures as a starting point and have found very few problems. and as you know I draw to your attention any inconsistencies.

        3 Sequals/franchises etc can often confuse the mind and my biggest nightmare is the Stallone page where he has 3 franchises running and you get all the stuff like Expendables 2
        Rocky Balboa, Rocky 3, First Blood Part 2, Rambo 3 etc. – and he’s even got a Spy Kids 2 thrown in for good measure. Some film historian opined that such franchise involvement will be the future template for super stardom. Heaven help us! Young people are better at coping with it than I for one and my grandson can quite fluently trot out that for example Star Wars Episode iV is really the first Star Wars.

          1. Got it…..turning off electronics for the final time today. Only a 66 minute flight this time….at least according to the pilot.

        1. Hey Bob….I think my errors will be greatly reduced when we make this site dynamic. I find it very frustrating when I make a change to a movie and then I have to remember all the places that movie is located on the site.

          As for this possible error….I actually have a Variety Magazine for the first movie….not sure I used that one to get the box office rental…that could be my error. I will check that first thing in the morning….if I ever get home!

          Interesting about your different folders……glad you have been able to collect that much data.

      2. Hey Lyle…well….I did some research….and I really screwed that one up. I could blame doing 4 pages in one day……I could blame getting ready for a trip…..but in the end…..I am just glad you caught that error. It was one of the few times the Paramount Story book actually came in handy.

        I do remember when I was counting movies I was one short….and it took some time figuring out the missing movie ….which turned to be the one I messed up…..so maybe I researched the 1946 movie both times….any way…it was a great catch in your part….and it has been fixed. Thanks again.

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