LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Rene Russo
built 654 days ago
Former model Rene Russo's first dramatic role of note was on the 1987 TV series Sable, in which she played Eden Kendall, the literary agent to a children's author-turned-crimefighter. Her breakthrough theatrical feature was Major League (1989), wherein the statuesque blonde actress was saddled with portraying the "misguided" heroine who foolishly prefers marriage with a stable, secure lawyer over a relationship with boozing, philandering ballplayer Tom Berenger. Since then, happily, the message conveyed by Russo's characters has been "Don't mess with me: I can cope." In One Good Cop (1991), she played the strongly supportive wife of police officer Michael Keaton, for whom she successfully tackles the sudden responsibility of caring for the surly children of Keaton's late partner. In Lethal Weapon 3 (1993), Russo could be seen as the karate-chopping cop who wins the confidence (and the love) of "loose cannon" Mel Gibson by proudly showing off her line-of-duty wounds and evincing a fascination with the Three Stooges. In In the Line of Fire (1992), Russo was once more partnered on an equal basis with the leading man, in this case Secret Service agent Clint Eastwood; one of her best scenes featured her wired for sound -- despite a most revealing evening gown -- at a Washington social affair.
Source:
In Line of Fire (1992), Rene Russo was paired opposite Clint Eastwood, and played the role with great ease. In Get Shortly (1995), she starred as a B-grade movie actress. Later she re-teamed with Mel Gibson in Ron Howard’s crime thriller Ransom (1996).She has received considerable acclaim both from movie goers and film critics for her work . Her memorable role in Tin Cup (1996), won her great admiration. In this movie she was paired with Kevin Costner. In remake of Thomas Crown Affair, opposite Pierce Brosnan she generated oomph and grace on screen.
Source:
A tall and sexy actress in the Geena Davis mold, Rene Russo has made a career out of playing brainy-but-nutty love interests in Hollywood action films and comedies. She began as a model, appearing in ads for Revlon cosmetics and in magazines such as Vogue in the 1970s and 1980s. Russo shifted to acting in the late 1980s and made a strong debut as the catcher's ex-girlfriend in the cult baseball comedy Major League (1989, starring Charlie Sheen). Her heyday was the early 1990s, when she co-starred with a glamour lineup of leading men in quick succession : Mel Gibson (Lethal Weapon III, 1992), Clint Eastwood (In the Line of Fire, 1993), John Travolta (Get Shorty, 1995) and Kevin Costner (Tin Cup, 1996). She had the leading role in the strange zoological biopic Buddy (1997), then matched chiseled forty-something physiques with Pierce Brosnan in the 1999 remake of The Thomas Crown Affair (with Russo in the role created by Faye Dunaway). She rang in the new century by playing nefarious Natasha Fatale in The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000).
Source:
Although they are all household names now, Rene Russo and her slate of leading men over the years all had to get their start somewhere. Click HERE to test your knowledge of the early days of Russo, Eastwood, Costner, Gibson and Travolta.
Source:
Rene Russo permanently implanted herself in the memory banks of fans last year when she doffed her clothes and showed just how fabulous a 40-year-old woman can be in The Thomas Crown Affair. While some critics marveled at the mere fact that an actress in her 40s would have the nerve to do a nude scene, Russo's fans simply gave thanks for the opportunity to get a closer look at this thinking-man's actress. Even before that... Russo had made her mark, thanks to a certain confidence and sense of humor that made her more than a match for such leading men as Mel Gibson (Lethal Weapon 3), Clint Eastwood (In the Line of Fire), Kevin Costner (Tin Cup) and John Travolta (Get Shorty). Russo began her show-biz career as a model, when she was discovered at 16 at a Rolling Stones concert. According to the actress, being told she should model came as a surprise, because she had spent four years of her pre-teen and teen life in a body cast to correct scoliosis (or curvature of the spine). Her latest film features her as cartoon character Natasha Fatale, the villain (along with Jason Alexander's Boris Badenov) in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle.
Source:
Rene Russo doesn't know why, but she seems to be Hollywood's choice for the babe in the buddy film. Russo, 48, who's been the love interest for action heroes including Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood, Pierce Brosnan and John Travolta, can add another movie legend to her list: she stars with Robert De Niro in "Showtime," opening this week. In a press conference on Wednesday, reports Reuters, the actress discussed her latest co-stars, among other things. In the new film, Russo plays a heard-hearted producer of a reality cop show who lassoes two policeman to star on the show, one a camera-shy "regular" cop, played by De Niro, and one a camera-hogging braggart played by Eddie Murphy. "I loved the chemistry between De Niro and Murphy. Eddie is alive and so facile and so good at improvising while De Niro is so dry and he can get such looks," she said.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Rene Russo