- Through her organization, World Adoption International Fund (WAIF), Russell has placed 51,000 children with adoptive families.
- Leonardo DiCaprio visited Jane while filming The Aviator (2004) in order to find up close and personal what Howard Hughes was really like.
- First husband Robert Waterfield was her high school sweetheart.
- Unable to bear children, Russell championed the passage of the Federal Orphan Adoption Amendment of 1953, which allowed children of American servicemen born overseas to be placed for adoption in the United States.
- A born-again Christian decades before the term was coined, she held weekly Bible study at her home which was attended by some of the industry's biggest names.
- Her three adopted children are Tracy Waterfield, Thomas Waterfield and Buck Waterfield.
- Howard Hughes, in addition to designing airplanes, is said to have designed a "cantilever bra" to take care of her physical endowments.
- A political conservative, she sided publicly with an industry panel that urged the removal of certain provocative scenes in one of her films.
- In 2006 (at age 84), she put together a musical show entitled "The Swinging Forties" that played twice a month at the Radisson Hotel. The show featured herself and about a dozen local Santa Maria (CA) residents, including a choir director, lay preacher and retired police officer. She formed the show out of boredom and because there was nothing much going on in town for the older folks to do.
- Howard Hughes is reported to have said of her stardom, "There are two good reasons why men go to see her. Those are enough." (Source: quoted in the book "The Humour of Sex" by Robert Hale).
- Bob Hope once introduced her as "the two and only Jane Russell".
- The troops in Korea named two embattled hills in her honor.
- She confesses in her biography that, unable to have children with her husband by the natural way, they adopted a British boy, but that brought them some problems with the British authorities. They eventually obtained American citizenship for him.
- Her breasts are the namesake for "The Jane Russell Peaks" in Alaska.
- She and husband Robert Waterfield adopted a baby girl, Tracy Waterfield, on February 15, 1952.
- Has a street named after her in Iowa City, Iowa.
- Attended Van Nuys High School with James Dougherty, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) co-star Marilyn Monroe's first husband.
- Attended the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953).
- In 1942, she had an affair with John Payne. The affair is detailed in her autobiography, "My Path and My Detours" (1986). It ended when Jane realized that she was still in love with her high school sweetheart, football player Robert Waterfield, whom she married in April 1943 (they divorced in 1967).
- Although rumors circulated that she was buried at Santa Barbara Cemetery, she was in fact cremated at Santa Barbara Cemetery and her ashes were scattered at sea.
- Had macular degeneration and wore hearing aids in both ears until her death.
- Retired to Santa Maria, California, after the death of her third husband on April 9, 1999 to be close to her youngest son.
- She and husband Robert Waterfield adopted a 15-month-old British boy, Tommy Kavanaugh, in December 1952.
- In 1955, she and husband Robert Waterfield formed Russ-Field Productions. Under this banner, they made Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), The King and Four Queens (1956), Run for the Sun (1956) and The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (1957).
- Jane was a tomboy as a little girl. She had four younger brothers: Tom, Kenny, James H. Russell and Wally Russell.
- In the late 1930s, she was a member of Max Reinhardt's Theatrical Workshop and attended Maria Ouspenskaya's Drama School for six months.
- She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6850 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.
- In April 2020, she was honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month.
- A longtime pro-life activist, she opposed the use of abortion in any circumstance including rape or incest.
- Received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award (1989).
- Russell filed for divorce from Robert Waterfield on February 2, 1967.
- She passed away on February 28, 2011, four months away from what would have been her 90th birthday on June 21. One month after her death, another screen legend Elizabeth Taylor died at age 79.
- She formed a traveling gospel church quartet with Della Russell (no relation), Beryl Davis, and Connie Hines. They called themselves simply The Four Girls and were soon known as the most beauteous quartet of hymn singers ever assembled. Rhonda Fleming replaced Della in 1954.
- Her brother James H. Russell had a small role in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).
- She was a member of America's Future.
- Has eight grandchildren and ten great-grand children.
- Profiled in "Killer Tomatoes: Fifteen Tough Film Dames" by Ray Hagen and Laura Wagner (McFarland, 2004).
- Had been a vocal supporter of the Iraq War since its beginning in March 2003.
- She and Raoul Walsh remained friends until his death on December 31, 1980.
- Married John Calvin Peoples in a "kaftan" ceremony in Santa Barbara, California.
- Was friends with Terry Moore.
- At one point, J. Arthur Rank wanted her for major projects, including The Blue Lagoon (1949) and The Red Shoes (1948). Both films' leads later went to Jean Simmons and Moira Shearer.
- Mentioned in She-Wolf in Hollywood: The Story of Maria Ouspenskaya as one of Ouspenskaya's acting students.
- She was born on the same day as Academy Award winning actress Judy Holliday.
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