Theresa Russell Biography
Born: March 20, 1957
Discovered by a photographer at the age of 12, Theresa Russell was rapidly initiated into the world of child modeling, and was encouraged to leave public school in order to attend the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. At 19 years old, Russell made her film debut in The_Last_Tycoon (1976), one of prolific director Elia_Kazan's final six films before his death in 2003. Though The_Last_Tycoon did not share the type of praise garnered for many of Kazan's other films, it nonetheless allowed the inexperienced actress an opportunity to work alongside Robert_De_Niro, Robert_Mitchum, and Jack_Nicholson.
In 1978, Russell found herself opposite Dustin_Hoffman and a fledgling Kathy_Bates in Straight_Time, for which she earned no small amount of critical praise for her performance as Hoffman's steadfast love interest. Two years later, Russell took what turned out to be a fruitful risk starring in Nicolas_Roeg's Bad_Timing:_A_Sensual_Obsession (1980). Her first of over six experiences acting with Roeg, whom she would later marry, the erotic drama featured Russell opposite Harvey_Keitel and Art_Garfunkel as a sexually frank woman involved in a torrid affair with her psychiatrist. Though the film was initially rated X, the more explicit scenes were edited enough to appropriate an R rating. Bad_Timing wouldn't be Russell's last sexually provocative role; in 1991, she starred in Ken_Russell's Whore, an NC-17-rated prostitution drama, and she later took part in Britain's three-part television series A Woman's Guide to Adultery and participated in Erotic Tales II, which was co-directed by Roeg.
Interestingly enough, Russell also took on several pointedly feministic roles, such as her part as a young, idealistic lawyer in Physical_Evidence (1989) with Burt_Reynolds, and later played a proud, highly capable 19th century widow in The_Proposition (1997). In The_Razor's_Edge, one of Bill_Murray's first dramatic roles, Russell's performance as a painfully self-destructive alcoholic was lauded as one of her best yet. In 1998, she played a scorned wife in Wild_Things with Matt_Dillon, Kevin_Bacon, and then "it" girls Neve_Campbell and Denise_Richards. In 2001, Russell was praised for her performance as co-leader of a skinhead sect in Henry_Bean's The_Believer, which also starred Billy_Zane and Ryan_Gosling. After several ill-advised film roles and relatively well-received, if short-lived, television appearances, Russell took part in the star-studded television movie Empire_Falls (2004) opposite Ed_Harris, Helen_Hunt, Joanne_Woodward, and Paul_Newman. Tracie Cooper, Rovi
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