Jane Russell Quotes

1. Yes, Howard Hughes invented a bra for me. Or, he tried to. And one of the seamless ones like they have now. He was way ahead of his time. But I never wore it in "The Outlaw" (1943). And he never knew. He wasn't going to take my clothes off to check if I had it on. I just told him I did.



2. They held up "The Outlaw" (1943) for five years. And Howard Hughes had me doing publicity for it every day, five days a week for five years.

3. Sometimes the photographers would pose me in a low-necked nightgown and tell me to bend down and pick up the pails. They were not shooting the pails.

4. These days I am a teetotal, mean-spirited, right-wing, narrow-minded, conservative Christian bigot, but not a racist. (2003)

5. People should never, ever have an abortion. Don't talk to me about it being a woman's right to choose what she does with her own body. The choice is between life and death.


6. The only solution was to find a quack and get an abortion. I had a botched abortion and it was terrible. Afterwards my own doctor said: "What butcher did this to you?" I had to be taken to hospital. I was so ill I nearly died. I've never known pain like it. (Describing her shock at finding herself pregnant at eighteen)

7. I have always been a Republican, and when I was in Hollywood long ago, most of the people there were Republican. The studio heads were all Republican, my boss Howard Hughes was a raving Republican, and we had a motion picture code in those days so they couldn't do all this naughty stuff. We had John Wayne, we had Charlton Heston, we had man named Ronald Reagan, we had Robert Mitchum, James Stewart, Clark Gable.

8. I think they're not well. (Asked what she thinks of Hollywood liberals George Clooney, Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn)

9. The music these kids play nowadays, it's nothing but screaming and pounding drums! You can't hear the words, and that's just as well, because the words stink!

10. My son said: "Mother you can't say the word bigot because that has to do with nationalities and things." I said: "No darling, it's a verb. It means I can't stand these people who are trying to take the Ten Commandments off the wall, take prayer out of school and take prayer out of football games." It's too ridiculous. The Lord put this country together or we wouldn't be like we are.

11. The girl with the summer-hot lips... and the winter-cold heart.

12. I think the Sixties have happened between when I was there and now. A lot of the actors and actresses, their parents were Sixties people and they just have a Democratic left wing - they flipped. (Asked why modern Hollywood is so liberal)



13. Publicity can be terrible. But only if you don't have any.

14. I like a man who can run faster than I can.

15. Why did I quit movies? Because I was getting too old! You couldn't go on acting in those years if you were an actress over 30.

16. The chaperone's job is to make sure no one else has any fun. But nobody chaperones the chaperone. That's why I'm so right for this job.

17. I want to save America. I do not want a one-world order, a one-world government, at all. I think that our Founding Fathers had exactly the right idea, and we've got a great country, and let's go back to God. (2001)






18. I've been working a lot to get the Bible back in schools because I think a great deal of our loss of wisdom as a society results from the fact that a lot of children have never read the Bible. I've been helping Elizabeth Ridenour (of the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools) get the Bible back in school by going on television shows for her. She's gotten it into 38 states and 117 school districts, and as a result of this effort 60,000 children have now been able to read the Bible.

19. I liked Condoleezza Rice. And Ann Coulter was great. She was so strong and forceful. But people kept asking me: "You're from Hollywood. Why are you here?" I very much wanted to tell them, as a whole group, that in my day Hollywood was Republican. All the heads of the studios were Republicans, and we were fighting communism. You had John Wayne and Charlton Heston and myself and Bob Mitchum, and President Ronald Reagan came right out of that same group. There were a few Democrats in Hollywood, but we thought they were crazy.

20. Music has gone just as bananas as the movies. But kids are learning swing and going back to the music of the forties. There's a swing club near my home in Santa Barbara, and the kids are fantastic. There's no drinking, no smoking, just dancing all night long.

21. My father was a Republican, and he couldn't stand what Franklin D. Roosevelt was doing to the country. I always say I'm a mean-spirited narrow-minded right-wing, conservative Christian ... I start out with that, and if you don't like it, you can lump it. I am not politically correct.




22. I can't tell you how distressed I've been during the past seven years of the Clinton Administration, with one cheap and tawdry scandal erupting after another. And I thought Hollywood was bad! I was particularly disgusted by the radical feminists who tried to excuse the President's misbehavior, even as the testimony of his victims accumulated and it turned out that they weren't all "little girls from Little Rock." Apparently the poor soul doesn't know any better and just can't say no. It's been a terrible example for our young people. Even worse than the debasement of the office of the presidency and of greater concern is the damage that's been done to our national security by the Clinton Administration's lax policies and by its deliberate transfer of sensitive missile technology to China while at the same time accepting campaign contributions from that foreign power. Instead of looking forward to a century of peace at the beginning of the new millennium, we now face the very real prospect of World War III. Our military readiness has dropped fifty percent since Clinton took office and our soldiers are frantic. (2000)

23. It was always an accident; I wish I could take some of the credit. My mother used to say: "You have a path from heaven and if you fall off of it, it'll be a problem, Jane." It was always the case where no matter what way I wanted to go, the Lord wanted me to go this way.





24. I really think the 1940s were the best generation for Hollywood. Everybody was patriotic then. Nobody was talking the way they do now, against the soldiers. It was a different era, a different Hollywood then, and we respected our country, our leaders and our fighting men. Sure, I'll admit, I'm a mean-spirited, politically conservative old actress. I'm not bigoted against any race, just those idiots who want to spit on our soldiers' hard work or remove the Ten Commandments from our schools and courtroom walls.

25. She once got her life so balled up that the studio hired a full-time secretary maid for her. So Marilyn soon got the secretary as balled up as she was, and she ended up waiting on the secretary, instead of vice-versa. (on her "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" co-star Marilyn Monroe)




26. I'm a valley girl. Instead of going to an acting coach every night after we finished shooting, I'd go home and have dinner with my family.

27. I was born to be married. A family life helps everything, and also my belief in Jesus.

28. Marilyn's first husband, Jim, went to high school with me. One day he came by and said: "I want you to meet my wife". (about Marilyn Monroe)



29. She was a pretty girl, and later on I discovered that she was shy and sensitive. (about Marilyn Monroe)

30. When we made "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" together and I discovered that she was nervous about going on set, I finally went to her dressing room and said: "All right, baby, come on set with me now, we've only got a few minutes." And she said: "Ooh".

31. I remember there was this actor, Tommy Noonan, who had to do a kissing scene with her, and afterwards some guy asked: "You've just kissed Marilyn Monroe. What was it like?" And Tommy replied: "It was like being swallowed alive." Marilyn overheard that and ran crying to her dressing room. I grew up with boys, so boys didn't bother me. I knew all about them. I don't think Marilyn did. But she wasn't a dumb blonde. (about Marilyn Monroe)

32. Right before she died, she was planning to marry Joe DiMaggio, her second husband, again, and she had a new movie contract. So I don't think she killed herself. Someone did it for her. There were dirty tricks somewhere. (about Marilyn Monroe)

33. Soon after Marilyn died, I met Bobby Kennedy and he looked at me as if to say: "I am your enemy".





34. David thinks I'm his other mother. He is very giving, and I think someone was talking to Liza and saying: "He's using you", which was a bunch of crap. (about David Gest and Liza Minelli)

What do you think of Jane Russell's quotes?

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