• Born: 17 February 1954
• Birthplace: Burbank, California
• Best Known As: Co-star of the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair

A tall and sexy actress in the Geena Davis mold, Rene Russo has made a career out of playing brainy-but-nutty love interests in Hollywood action films and comedies. She began as a model, appearing in ads for Revlon cosmetics and in magazines such as Vogue in the 1970s and 1980s. Russo shifted to acting in the late 1980s and made a strong debut as the catcher's ex-girlfriend in the cult baseball comedy Major League (1989, starring Charlie Sheen). Her heyday was the early 1990s, when she co-starred with a glamour lineup of leading men in quick succession : Mel Gibson (Lethal Weapon III, 1992), Clint Eastwood (In the Line of Fire, 1993), John Travolta (Get Shorty, 1995) and Kevin Costner (Tin Cup, 1996). She had the leading role in the strange zoological biopic Buddy (1997), then matched chiseled forty-something physiques with Pierce Brosnan in the 1999 remake of The Thomas Crown Affair (with Russo in the role created by Faye Dunaway). She rang in the new century by playing nefarious Natasha Fatale in The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000). In 2005 she co-starred with Al Pacino in the sports gambling drama Two For the Money, written by her husband, the screenwriter Dan Gilroy.

Russo and Dan Gilroy met on the set of the 1992 film Freejack... She suffered from the spinal disease scoliosis as a young girl... According to legend, Russo began modelling after being spotted by a talent agent at a Rolling Stones concert... According to the Internet Movie Database, Russo attended high school with director Ron Howard.

• Born: Feb 17, 1954 in Los Angeles, California
• Occupation: Actor
• Active: '90s-2000s
• Major Genres: Comedy, Crime
• Career Highlights: Lethal Weapon 3, Get Shorty, In the Line of Fire
• First Major Screen Credit: One Good Cop (1991)

Biography

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. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Big Trouble Buy this Movie	Showtime Buy this Movie	The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle Buy this Movie	The Thomas Crown Affair Buy this Movie
Lethal Weapon 4 Buy this Movie	Free Willy Story: Keiko Buy this Movie	Buddy Buy this Movie	Tin Cup Buy this Movie

Show More Movies Show Fewer Movies

Quotes:

"There are times when you just get down, you feel like nobody likes you. We're in high school forever. It's just what we do with it."

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)