Lillian Russell
actress
- Birth name:
- Helen Louise Leonard
- Born:
- 1860-12-04, Clinton, Iowa, USA
- Died:
- 1922-06-06, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
- Professions:
- actress
Biography
A winter baby, Lillian Russell arrived in Clinton, Iowa, on 4 December 1860 and grew up to set the Gilded Age’s footlights ablaze. Opera houses, Broadway marquees, and early movie palaces all claimed her: she blazed across the screen in Wildfire (1915), died dramatically for the camera in La Tosca (1911), and sent up vaudeville in Potted Pantomimes (1914). Offstage, her heart kept pace with her career—she marched down the aisle four times, exchanging vows with Alexander Pollock Moore, Giovanni Perugini, Edward Solomon, and Harry Braham. The final curtain fell on 6 June 1922 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, closing the era she had helped define.
