- Born
- Died
- Sol Smith Russell was the son of a Missouri preacher and the nephew of renowned actor, Sol Smith (1801-1869). Shortly before the outbreak of the American Civil War his family moved to Cairo, Illinois, where at the age of 14 Russell found work at a local theater as a bit actor, singer and drummer. Russell had been a drummer boy for a Cairo juvenile military organization and for a brief time served as a drummer boy for the 10 Illinois Infantry. Before he had turned eighteen, Russell joined a traveling theater group that would ultimately lead him to the theaters of New York. In 1874 he began a working relationship with the great Broadway producer Augustin Daly. Russell eventually formed his own acting company and became successful performing such plays as: "Edgewood Folks", "Felix McCusick", "A Poor Relation" and "Peaceful Valley".
In an 1894 interview, Russell revealed that his grandfather had been a drummer boy at the Battle of Bunker Hill and that another relative had served as a drummer boy aboard the frigate USS Constitution.
In 1876 Russell married Alice Adams (1856-1923), the daughter of author William Taylor Adams (1822-1897), who as Oliver Optic, became a successful writer of juvenile fiction.
On the morning of 26 February, 1891, one of the two office buildings he owned in Minneapolis burned to the ground. Upon receiving the news he refused to let it affect his comedic performance in that night's showing of "A Poor Relation". Sol Smith Russell was not only one of the greatest comic actors of his day, he was also one of the shrewdest. With an estate worth between two and three million dollars he had managed to become at the relatively young age of 54, one of the wealthiest entertainers in American. This success came despite the fact that, even though he was very popular throughout America, he never achieved a major success on the New York stage.
Sol Smith Russell died on 28 April, 1902 while staying at the Richmond Hotel in Washington, D.C. In December of the previous year he was forced to retire from the stage after being diagnosed with the disease Locomotor ataxia. His first symptoms appeared in 1899 when he broke down during a performance in Chicago and was unable to go on. Russell was survived by his wife Alice, daughter Alice and son, Robert. Both Russell and his wife are interned at the Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C. After his death, the city of Brunswick, Missouri renamed a city auditorium, the Russell Opera House (later the Russell Theater), in his honor.- IMDb Mini Biography By: John F. Barlow
- SpouseAlice Adams(1876 - 1902) (his death, 2 children)
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