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Rene Marie Russo (born February 17,
1954) is an American film actress and former fashion
model.
Early life: Russo, an Italian American, was born
in Burbank, California to Shirley Jean (a secretary and
barmaid) and Nino Russo, a sculptor and mechanic who
left the family when Rene was 2. Russo grew up with her
sister, Toni, and their single mother.
She attended Burroughs High School
(where her classmates included director Ron Howard), but
eventually dropped out in the tenth grade. Due to
financial constraints within the family, she began
taking a variety of part-time jobs including working in
an eyeglass factory, and as a movie cashier.
Career: In 1972, Russo was spotted at a Rolling
Stones concert by a scout and manager from International
Creative Management. She was signed to the Ford modeling
agency and began modeling shortly after, appearing on
several magazine covers, including that of Vogue. Russo
spent the majority of the 1970s and early 1980s
modeling, but later began to study acting, and appeared
in roles at regional theaters in Los Angeles.
Russo made her television series debut in 1987, with a
supporting role in the TV-series Sable. Two years later,
she made her debut in film as the girlfriend of the lead
character in Major League. Her first major breakthrough
role is generally considered to be her part as an
internal affairs detective in Lethal Weapon 3 (1992).
Throughout the 1990s, Russo appeared in a number of
high-profile thrillers that were successful at the box
office, including In the Line of Fire, Outbreak, and
Ransom. She has starred in at least one major studio
film per year from 1992 to 2002. Although she did not
appear in any films in 2003 or 2004, she starred in both
Two for the Money and Yours, Mine and Ours in 2005.
Former model Rene Russo's first dramatic role of note
was on the 1987 TV series Sable, in which she played
Eden Kendall, the literary agent to a children's
author-turned-crimefighter.
Her breakthrough theatrical feature was Major League
(1989), wherein the statuesque blonde actress was
saddled with portraying the "misguided"
heroine who foolishly prefers marriage with a stable,
secure lawyer over a relationship with boozing,
philandering ballplayer Tom Berenger.
Since then, happily, the message conveyed by Russo's
characters has been "Don't mess with me: I can
cope." In One Good Cop (1991), she played the
strongly supportive wife of police officer Michael
Keaton, for whom she successfully tackles the sudden
responsibility of caring for the surly children of
Keaton's late partner.
In Lethal Weapon 3 (1993), Russo could be seen as the
karate-chopping cop who wins the confidence (and the
love) of "loose cannon" Mel Gibson by proudly
showing off her line-of-duty wounds and evincing a
fascination with the Three Stooges.
In In the Line of Fire (1992), Russo was once more
partnered on an equal basis with the leading man, in
this case Secret Service agent Clint Eastwood; one of
her best scenes featured her wired for sound -- despite
a most revealing evening gown -- at a Washington social
affair.
Apparently there are still reviewers out there who can't
quite grasp the concept of a leading lady who can match
her leading man blow for blow in a tight situation. In
1995, some observers seemed surprised that Russo,
playing a biohazard-suited military research operative
in Outbreak, was "as good as" her male
counterparts Dustin Hoffman and Morgan Freeman.
Despite such ill-founded critical misgivings, Russo has
continued to do strong work playing strong women: The
acclaimed Get Shorty (1995) featured her as a B-movie
actress, while she re-teamed with Gibson for Ron
Howard's crime thriller Ransom (1996) and Lethal Weapon
4 (1998).
She also played a psychologist who puts the swing back
into washed-up golfer Kevin Costner's game in the
well-received Tin Cup (1996), and generated considerable
heat as a crime investigator who hunts and then beds
down with art thief Pierce Brosnan in the 1999 remake of
The Thomas Crown Affair.
After the embarrassment of “Rocky and Bullwinkle,”
Russo took another misstep with the limp action comedy
“Showtime” (2002), playing the producer of a reality
show that pairs a showboating actor (Eddie Murphy) and
an old-school cop (Robert De Niro).
She then played an unhappy housewife with an unhappy
daughter (Zooey Deschanel) in “Big Trouble” (2002),
a ensemble comedy about a group of people brought
together by a suitcase nuke at a Miami airport.
The feature languished for six months because of the
terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and was finally
released with little fanfare or audience attendance
something about bombs and hijacked airplanes kept people
away.
Russo spent a few years away from film, but returned in
2005 to star alongside Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughey
in “Two For the Money,” a gambling drama about a
college basketball player (McConaughey) turned to sports
wagering after being groomed by a consultant (Pacino)
who notices his knack for predicting the right outcome
for games.
She then starred opposite Dennis Quaid in the romantic
comedy, “Yours, Mine and Ours” (2005), a remake of
the 1968 Lucille Ball-Henry Fonda comedy about two high
school sweethearts who reunite after the deaths of their
spouses and rush to get married only to discover their
children hate the new arrangement.
Private life: Russo has been married to
screenwriter Dan Gilroy since 1992. They have one
daughter, Rose, and reside in Brentwood, Los Angeles,
California. |
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