1930s-40s child actor Johnny Russell, 91, died on Dec. 14. The Brooklyn native got his start at age 4 in The Frame-Up (1937). Among the notables he worked with were Barbara Stanwyck (Always Goodbye), The Dionne Quintuplets (Five of a Kind), Tyrone Power (Jesse James), Jimmy Stewart (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington), and Miriam Hopkins (Lady with Red Hair). Russell is best known for his costarring role with Shirley Temple in the creepy Maeterlinck fairy tale The Blue Bird (1940). Produced as a Fox answer to MGM’s The Wizard of Oz, it morphed into a bad LSD trip and did no one’s career any good (a bit player, Caryll Ann Ekelund, died in a fire before the film was released). Russell’s acting career ended in 1945, and he went on to serve as a US diplomat and ambassador in the Middle East and Africa (he was in Gabon while Shirley Temple was ambassador to Ghana). Russell was also in charge of Arabian Peninsula Affairs at the U.S. State Department during the Iran hostage crisis. Among his survivors is daughter daughter Vanessa Countryman, who is U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Secretary.
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