Russell was born Helen Louise Leonard in
Clinton, Iowa, the fourth of five daughters of newspaper publisher Charles E. Leonard, and author and feminist
Cynthia Leonard, the first woman to run for mayor of New York City. Her family moved to Chicago in 1865, where she studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart from age 7 to 15 and then at the Park Institute. Her father became a partner in the printing firm of Knight & Leonard, and her mother became active in the women's rights movement. Russell, called Nellie as a child, excelled at school theatricals. In her teens, she studied music privately and sang in choirs. In December 1877, she performed in an amateur production of
Time Tries All at Chickering Hall in Chicago.
Early career '', 1882 When Russell was 18, her parents separated, and she, her mother and her younger sister moved to New York City, where her mother did suffrage work for
Susan B. Anthony. Russell studied singing under
Leopold Damrosch and considered pursuing an operatic career; her very religious mother disapproved of her working in theatre, which she considered disreputable. Russell soon began seeing the orchestra leader Harry Braham and became pregnant. They married in November when the show moved to New York theatres. She gave birth to their son Harry in June 1880. In September, Braham got a prestigious job conducting at
Tony Pastor's Theatre on Broadway. Pastor, known as the father of vaudeville, was responsible for introducing many well-known performers. In November 1880, Pastor engaged Russell for his variety shows. At his suggestion, she chose a stage name, Lillian Russell, and Pastor introduced her as an "English ballad singer". She was immediately popular with audiences and soon was acting in skits, as well as singing. In early 1881, the baby died after his nanny accidentally penetrated his stomach with a diaper pin. Braham came home to find the dying baby. The tragedy exacerbated Russell's difficult relationship with her mother and led to her divorce from Braham. In the summer of 1881, Russell toured with Pastor's company. While in London, she was engaged to create the title role in Gilbert and Sullivan's
Princess Ida (1884), but she clashed with
W.S. Gilbert and was dismissed during rehearsals. Solomon's comic operas were not highly successful in Britain, so Russell and Solomon returned to America. They had a daughter together, Dorothy Lillian Russell, in 1884, and married in New Jersey in 1885. Russell also played in New York theatres or on tour in Gilbert and Sullivan and in operettas. '', 1890s Russell continued to star in comic opera and other musical theatre. She toured with the J.C. Duff Opera Company between other engagements for two years beginning in 1886. Later the same year, she was back at the Casino Theatre in the title role of
Dorothy, and over the next several years, she continued to star in operettas and musical theatre on Broadway. Her parts at this time included the title role in
The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein, Fiorella in
The Brigands (in a translation by W.S. Gilbert), Teresa in
The Mountebanks, Marion in
La Cigale, and Rosa in
Princess Nicotine. In 1891, she opened at the
Garden Theatre as the star of the Lillian Russell Opera Company. Actress
Marie Dressler observed, "I can still recall the rush of pure awe that marked her entrance on the stage. And then the thunderous applause that swept from orchestra to gallery, to the very roof." When
Alexander Graham Bell introduced long-distance telephone service on May 8, 1890, Russell's voice was the first carried over the line. From New York City, Russell sang the saber song from
La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein to audiences in Boston and Washington, D.C. She rode a bicycle custom made for her by
Tiffany & Co. It was a gold-plated machine that displayed the jeweler's art at its most opulent and unconventional – the handlebars inlaid with mother-of-pearl and the wheel spokes featuring her initials set in diamonds. She had "a cream serge
leg-of-mutton sleeve cycling suit with the skirt shortened by three inches, which caused a sensation and set a trend." She married tenor John Haley Augustin Chatterton (known professionally as Signor Giovanni Perugini) in 1894, but they soon separated, and in 1898, they divorced.
Later years In 1899, Russell joined the
Weber and
Fields Music Hall, where she starred in their burlesques and other entertainments until 1904. Her first production there was
Fiddle-dee-dee in 1899 which also featured
DeWolf Hopper,
Fay Templeton and
David Warfield. Other favorites were
Whoop-de-doo and
The Big Little Princess. Before the 1902 production of
Twirly-Whirly,
John Stromberg, who had composed several hit songs for her, delayed giving Russell her solo for several days, saying that it was not ready. When he committed suicide a few days before the first rehearsal, sheet music for "Come Down Ma Evenin' Star" was discovered in his coat pocket. It became Russell's signature song and is the only one she is known to have recorded, although the recording was made after Russell's voice had deteriorated significantly. The same year, she made her last appearance on Broadway in Weber & Fields'
Hokey Pokey. In 1915, Russell appeared with
Lionel Barrymore in the motion picture
Wildfire, which was based on the 1908 play in which she had appeared. This was one of her few motion picture appearances. She appeared in vaudeville until 1919, when ill health forced her to leave the stage entirely, after a four-decade long career. Nonetheless, she recruited for the U.S. Marine Corps during World War I and raised money for the war effort.
Fact-finding mission and death In 1922, Russell undertook a fact-finding mission to Europe on behalf of President
Warren Harding. The mission was to investigate the increase in immigration. She recommended a five-year moratorium on immigration and a minimum of 21 years residency before making application for naturalization. Russell stated: "only the useless in the reconstruction of their countries are seeking to come to the United States ... the immigration of recent years has been from that class of people which arrests rather than aids, the development of any nation". Russell suffered apparently minor injuries on the return trip, which, however, led to complications, and she died after ten days of illness at her home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. attended by many actors and politicians; President Harding sent a wreath that was set atop her casket. She is interred in her family's private mausoleum in the
Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. ==Thoroughbred racing==