Harold Russell | |
|---|---|
 Russell in 1946 | |
| Born | Harold John Avery Russell (1914-01-14)January 14, 1914 North Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada |
| Died | January 29, 2002(2002-01-29) (aged 88) Needham, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Resting place | Lakeview Cemetery Wayland, Massachusetts |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Service |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1941–1945 |
| Rank | Sergeant |
| Unit | 13th Airborne Division |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
Harold John Avery Russell[1][2] (January 14, 1914 – January 29, 2002) was an AmericanWorld War II veteran and actor. After losing his hands during his military service, Russell was cast in the epic drama filmThe Best Years of Our Lives (1946), which earned him theAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was the first non-professional actor to win an Academy Award for acting and the first Oscar recipient to sell his award.
Harold Russell was born inNorth Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, and moved to Massachusetts, United States, with his family in 1921,[3] after his father's death in 1920.[4]
At the time of the December 7, 1941attack on Pearl Harbor, he was living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working at a food market. In his 1949 autobiography,Victory in My Hands, he wrote that he rushed to enlist in theUnited States Army because he considered himself a failure.[5]
OnJune 6, 1944, while he was an Army instructor teaching demolition work with theU.S. 13th Airborne Division atCamp Mackall, North Carolina, a defective fuse detonatedTNT explosives that he was handling.[6] He lost both hands and was given twohooks to serve as hands. After his recovery, while attendingBoston University, Russell was featured inDiary of a Sergeant, an Army film about rehabilitating war veterans.
When film directorWilliam Wyler saw the film on Russell, he cast him inThe Best Years of Our Lives withFredric March andDana Andrews. Russell played the role of Homer Parrish, aUnited States Navy sailor who lost both hands during the war.
For his role as Parrish, Russell won theAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1947. Earlier in the ceremony, he was awarded an honorary Oscar for ''bringing aid and comfort to disabled veterans through the medium of motion pictures.''[6] The special award had been created because the board of governors wanted to salute Russell, a non-professional actor, but assumed that he had little chance for a competitive win.[7] It was the only time in Oscar history that the academy awarded two Oscars for the same performance.[8]
Wyler called it "the finest performance I have ever seen on the screen.'' However, Russell earned less than $10,000 for his performance (equivalent to $167,500 in 2023 dollars), and he did not receive any residual profits.[6]
Upon completion of the film, at the urging of Wyler, Russell returned to school,[9] earning a business degree fromBoston University.[5] Speaking with theLos Angeles Times in 1996, Russell recalled:
Wyler told me I should go back to college because there wasn't much call for a guy with no hands in the motion picture industry. I figured he was right. [In the handful of roles I've taken since then,] I always play a disabled veteran. And this is what Wyler said—'After a while they're going to run out of ideas'—and he was absolutely right. How many times can you play the same role?[9]
Russell became active inAMVETS, serving three terms as National Commander. He was first elected in 1949.[10] He was elected to his third term in 1960. He also was vice-president of the World Veterans Fund, Inc., the fundraising branch of theWorld Veterans Federation.[11]
As head of AMVETS, Russell wrote to PresidentTruman in 1951 supporting his decision to dismiss GeneralDouglas MacArthur during theKorean War. Russell's telegram to Truman cited MacArthur's "repeated insubordination in violation of basic American principles governing civil versus military authority." His telegram asserted that those were "obvious grounds" to relieve MacArthur.Erle Cocke, Jr., commander of theAmerican Legion, said that he was "shocked by the news" that AMVETS and theAmerican Veterans Committee supported MacArthur's firing.[12]
From the early 1960s to the late 1980s, Russell served as chairman of the President's Commission on Employment of the Handicapped, an unpaid position.[13]
In 1965, Russell received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement.[14]
Russell appeared in two films after his debut,Inside Moves in 1980 andDogtown in 1997. He also appeared in an episode ofTrapper John, M.D., in 1981 and a two-part episode of the television seriesChina Beach in 1989.
Russell authored two autobiographies,Victory in My Hands (1949)[15] andThe Best Years of My Life (1981).[16]
In 1992, Russell consigned his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor to Herman Darvick Autograph Auctions, and, on August 6, 1992, in New York City, the Oscar sold to a private collector for $60,500. Russell defended his action by saying that he needed money for his wife's medical expenses,[5] though this was later disputed.[17] Russell did not sell the special Oscar.[6] After his death, the unidentified collector was identified asLew Wasserman, a studio executive and talent agent, who then donated it back to the Academy.[17]
On January 29, 2002, Russell died at a nursing home in Needham, Massachusetts[5][6] and was interred in Lakeview Cemetery in the nearby town ofWayland.[18]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1945 | Diary of a Sergeant | himself | Official Film of the United States War Department |
| 1946 | The Best Years of Our Lives | Homer Parrish | Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Honorary Academy Award Golden Globes – Special Award for Non-professional acting |
| 1980 | Inside Moves | Wings | |
| 1981 | Trapper John, M.D. | Leo Hopkins | TV episode – "The Days of Wine and Leo" aka: "Harold Russell Story" |
| 1989 | China Beach | Uncle Conal | TV episodes – "The World, Pts. 1 & 2" |
| 1997 | Dogtown | Blessed William | (final film role) |
