Harold Russell
(1914 - )
- actor, soldier
- born 1914, Sydney, Nova Scotia
- moved with his family to Boston in 1933
- Russell volunteered as an instructor and demolitions expert during WWII
- a defective blasting cap cost him both hands while deomonstrating how to assemble explosives
- appeared in an Army documentary, The Diary of a Sargent, depicting the rehabilitation of an amputee
- later chosen by William Wyler to play a key role in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and won the 1946 best supporting actor Academy Award for his performance as an amputee struggling to adjust to civilian life, as well as a second, special Academy Award "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans"
- only actor ever to win two Oscars for the same role
- helped organize the World Veterans Federation and served as vice president of its World Veterans Fund
- served three terms as the National Commander of the AMVETS
- in 1964 he was appointed by President Johnson as chairman of the President's Committee on Hiring the Handicapped
- annual award presented by the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities is called the Harold Russell Medal
- in 1993 he became the first Academy Award winner to auction an Oscar (for $125,000)
- lives with wife Betty in Cape Cod, Mass
- runs the Harold Russell Institute, a non-profit organization that specializes in finding jobs for people with disabilities
- autobiographies:
- Victory in My Hands (1949)
- The best years of my life (1981) written with Dan Ferullo; introduction by William Wyler
- filmography
The opening sequence of The Best Years of Our Lives. Harold Russell, Dana Andrews, and Fredric March are in the observation cone of a bomber, returning from WWII to an uncertain future.
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