Russell was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, the son of Ruth Stewart (née Vogel) and Warren Oliver Russell. He always wanted to become an actor and studied drama at Brattleboro High School. He grew up around the New York Yankees' spring training camp in St. Petersburg, Florida, in the 1930s and 1940s, where his father ran a floatplane service. As a result, he was an unofficial mascot of the New York Yankees, and became friendly with players including Lefty Gomez and Joe DiMaggio.[2][unreliable source?] When Lou Gehrig was weakened by illness, he gave Russell the bat he used to hit his last home run before retiring.[2][unreliable source?]
In 1963, he was cast as John Quigley, a Chicago mobster, in the episode "Five Tickets to Hell" of Jack Webb's CBSanthology series, GE True. In the storyline, Quigley travels to Chihuahua, Mexico, where he robs the mint of $500,000 and kills seven men in the commission of the crime. Police Lieutenant Juan Garcia (Carlos Romero) tracks down Quigley and his three accomplices. BarBara Luna also appears in the episode.[5][unreliable source?]
Russell appeared in the original pilot (filmed in November 1965) for The Monkees TV series as Rudy, a record store owner and the group's manager; after the show was greenlit by NBC, the concept of a manager was discarded and Russell's character was not retained. An edited version of this pilot, in which Russell appears, was broadcast as a regular episode of the first season, and is part of the show's syndication package to this day.
Russell much later played Vernon Presley to his son Kurt's Elvis Presley in the television movie, Elvis (1979). Kurt, as a child actor, had appeared with the real Elvis in the film It Happened at the World's Fair, and in a later interview recalled the singer-actor, professing to be a fan, asking to meet Bing, who had accompanied his son to the set.[6]
Russell owned the Portland Mavericks (1973–1977), the only independent team in the Short Season Northwest League. Russell kept a 30-man roster because he believed that some of the players deserved to have one last season. His motto was fun. He created a park that kept all corporate sponsorship outside the gates, hired the first female general manager, Lanny Moss[7] in professional baseball, and named the first Asian American GM/Manager. His team set a record for the highest attendance in minor league history, but lost the 1977 pennant to the Bellingham Mariners. Subsequently, Major League Baseball regained interest in Portland. The Albuquerque, NM franchise relocated to Portland (for nine years) and resurrected the Class AAA Portland Beavers name. The Portland area was recovered but was forced to pay $206,000 to Russell after he took the matter to arbitration; it was the biggest payout in baseball history for a minor league territory. Ex-major-leaguers and never-weres who could not stop playing the game flocked to his June try-outs, which were always open to anyone who showed up. The team and archival footage of Russell were featured in the documentary The Battered Bastards of Baseball (2014).
Personal life
In 1945, while working at Teddy's Restaurant in Newport, New Hampshire, a coworker introduced Russell to his future wife, Louise "Lulu" Crone.[8] Russell and Crone married in 1946 and had four children together, including actor Kurt Russell.[9]
The Virginian (1962 TV series) he took on the role of Sgt. Eads, a member of Col. Teddy Roosevelt's "Rough Riders"(It's 1898 and The Spanish–American War)in an episode entitled "Riff-Raff" on the first season of "The Virginian."
^Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 122. ISBN978-0-7864-6477-7.
^"GE True". Classic Television Archive. Archived from the original on October 5, 2016. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
