Bing Russell (May 5, 1926 - April 8, 2003) was an American actor and baseball club owner. He was the father of Golden Globe-nominated actor Kurt Russell and grandfather of ex-major league baseball player Matt Franco.

Personal life

Russell was born Neil Oliver Russell in Brattleboro, Vermont, the son of Ruth Stewart (née Vogel) and Warren Oliver Russell. He always wanted to become an actor and studied drama at Brattleboro High School. As a boy, he was dubbed an unofficial mascot of the New York Yankees, becoming good friends with the likes of Lefty Gomez and Joe DiMaggio. Also, Lou Gehrig, who was already weakened by illness, gave him the last bat he used to hit a home run before his retirement. At one point in the 50's, Bing ran Teddy's Restaurant where employee Alfreda Couitt (Barney) introduced Bing to his future wife, Louise.

Career

Russell made his debut in the film Cavalry Patrol, and had some uncredited roles in his early career.

Best known as Deputy Clem Foster on Bonanza (1959) and Robert in The Magnificent Seven (1960), he guest starred in episodes of many television series, including Playhouse 90, Highway Patrol, Wagon Train, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, The Loretta Young Show, Johnny Ringo, Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, The Rifleman, Maverick, Zane Grey Theater, Route 66, Rawhide, Ben Casey, The Untouchables, Hazel, The Andy Griffith Show, The Twilight Zone, The Donna Reed Show, The Munsters, Combat!, Branded, The Fugitive, The Monkees, I Dream of Jeannie, Ironside,The Big Valley, Death Valley Days, Adam-12, The Virginian, Alias Smith and Jones, Mod Squad, Mannix, The Rockford Files, The Streets of San Francisco, Emergency!, and Little House on the Prairie.

In 1963, he was cast as John Quigley, a Chicago mobster, in the episode "Five Tickets to Hell" of Jack Webb's CBS anthology series, GE True. In the story line, Quigley travels to Chihuahua, Mexico, where he robs the mint of $500,000 and kills seven men in the commission of the crime. Police Lieutenant Juan Garcia (Carlos Romero) tracks down Quigley and his three accomplices. Barbara Luna also appears in the episode.

In another 1963 appearance in the episode "The Measure of a Man" on the syndicated western series Death Valley Days, Russell plays the outlaw Burt Alvord, who is promised a lenient sentence if he will surrender and reveal the location of the notorious bandit Augustine Chacon (Michael Pate). Rory Calhoun was cast as the Arizona Ranger Burt Mossman who convinces a reluctant Alvord to set a trap to catch Chacon. Mossman has Chacon handcuffed and orders Alvord to toss away the key. Chacon is hanged thereafter for a past conviction of which he had escaped.

Russell much later played Vernon Presley to his son Kurt's Elvis Presley in the 1979 television movie, Elvis.

Russell owned the Portland Mavericks, the only independent team in the Class A Northwest League. Russell kept a 30-man roster because he believed that some of the players deserved to have one last season. His motto was fun. He created a park that kept all corporate sponsorship outside the gates, hired the first female general manager, Lanny Moss, in professional baseball, and named the first Asian American GM/Manager. His team set a record for the highest attendance in minor league history, but lost the 1977 pennant to the Bellingham Mariners. Subsequently, Major League Baseball regained interest in Portland and resurrected the Portland Beavers minor league franchise. The Portland area was recovered but paid Russell the highest payout in history for a minor league territory after Russell took the matter to arbitration. Ex-major leaguers and never-weres who could not stop playing the game flocked to his June try-outs, which were always open to anyone who showed up. The team and archival footage of Russell were featured in the 2014 documentary The Battered Bastards of Baseball.

Death

Russell died from complications of cancer on April 8, 2003 in Thousand Oaks, California.

Filmography

• Dick Tracy (1990) - Club Ritz Patron
• Tango & Cash (1989) - Van Driver
• Sunset (1988) - Studio Guard
• Overboard (1987) - Sheriff Earl (Elk Cove)
• Elvis (1979/I) (TV) - Vernon Presley
• The Loneliest Runner (1976) (TV) - Fred Dawkins
• Arthur Hailey's the Moneychangers (1976) (mini TV Series) - Timberwell
• The New Daughters of Joshua Cabe (1976) (TV)
• Little House on the Prairie (1976) (TV series) - Len Coty
• Petrocelli (1975) (TV series) - John Miller
• Emergency! (1973-1975) (TV series) - Capt Wilson
• The Streets of San Francisco (1973-1975) (TV series) - Dan Riggs
• The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975) - Herm Dally
• Mannix (1970-1974) (TV series) - George Enright
• The Rockford Files (1974) (TV series) - Lieutenant
• Death Sentence (1974) (TV) - Trooper
• The Sex Symbol (1974) (TV) - Public Relations Man
• A Cry in the Wilderness (1974) (TV) - Mr. Griffey
• Gunsmoke (1956-1974) (TV series) - Ed Shelby
• Runaway! (1973) (TV) - Fireman
• Satan's School for Girls (1973) (TV) - Sheriff
• The Mod Squad (1973) (TV series)
• Set This Town on Fire (1973) (TV) - Chuck
• Bonanza (1961-1973) (TV series) - Deputy Clem Foster
• Now You See Him, Now You Don't (1972) - Alfred
• Longstreet (1972) (TV series)
• Alias Smith and Jones (1972) (TV series) - Sheriff
• O'Hara, U.S. Treasury (1971) (TV series) - Bob Rasmussen
• A Taste of Evil (1971) (TV) - Sheriff
• The Million Dollar Duck (1971) - Mr. Smith
• Yuma (1971) (TV) (as Neil Russell) - Rol King
• The Young Lawyers (1970) (TV series) - McCracken
• Adam-12 (1969-1970) (TV series) - Johnson
• The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969) - Angelo
• The Virginian (1962-1969) (TV series) - Donovan
• Death Valley Days (1961-1969) (TV series) - Jack Alvord
• The Big Valley (1965-1969) (TV series) - Clint
• The Outcasts (1969) (TV series) - Grainer
• The Guns of Will Sonnett (1967-1969) (TV series) - Bartender
• The Love Bug (1968) (uncredited) - Race Track Starter
• Ironside (1968) (TV series) - Cal Bristold
• Journey to Shiloh (1968) - Greybeard
• Blackbeard's Ghost (1968) (uncredited) - Second Official
• Hondo (1967) (TV series) - Thompson
• Dundee and the Culhane (1967) (TV series) - H.P. Graham
• Ride to Hangman's Tree (1967) (uncredited) - Keller
• I Dream of Jeannie (1967) (TV series) - Amos Lincoln
• Run for Your Life (1966) (TV series) - Deputy
• The Monkees (1966) (TV series) - Rudy Gunther
• The Monroes (1966) (TV series)
• Billy the Kid versus Dracula (1966) - Dan 'Red' Thorpe
• Madame X (1966) - Police Sgt. Riley
• The Fugitive (1963-1966) (TV series) - Davis
• Incident at Phantom Hill (1966) (uncredited) - General's Aide
• Branded (1965-1966) (TV series) - Sheriff Gorman
• A Man Called Shenandoah (1965) (TV series) - Clem
• The Hallelujah Trail (1965) - Horner (miner)
• Combat! (1965) (TV series) - Gaines
• The Munsters (1965) (TV series) - The Second Ranger
• The Donna Reed Show (1964) (TV series) - Bill Gayley
• Cheyenne Autumn (1964) (uncredited) - Braden's Telegraph Operator
• One Man's Way (1964) - Tom Rayburn
• The Twilight Zone (1961-1963) (TV series) - Ben Braden
• The Stripper (1963) - Mr. Mulvaney
• G.E. True (1963) (TV series) - John Quigley
• Sam Benedict (1963) (TV series) - Len George
• Laramie (1960-1963) (TV series) - Reeves
• Stoney Burke (1963) (TV series) - Neeley
• The Andy Griffith Show (1963) (TV series) - Mr. Burton
• Stakeout! (1962) - Joe
• The Untouchables (1961-1962) (TV series) - Cavanaugh
• Have Gun - Will Travel (1958-1962) (TV series) - Andy Dawes
• Ben Casey (1962) (TV series) - John

• Alcoa Premiere (1962) (TV series) - Hogan
• Rawhide (1962) (TV series) - Jack Harris
• Bronco (1959-1962) (TV series) - Jeb Thomas
• The Blue Angels (1961) (TV series) - Denton in episode "The Duster"
• Surfside 6 (1961) (TV series) - Ron Kaslow
• The Brothers Brannagan (1961) (TV series) - Fenner in "Tough Guy"
• Saint of Devil's Island (1961)
• Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater (1956-1960) (TV series) - Cole
• Maverick (1957-1962) (TV series) - Luke Storm
• The Magnificent Seven (1960) - Robert, (Henry's traveling companion)
• The Rifleman (1959-1960) (TV series) - Hode Evans & Sanchez
• Tate (1960) (TV series)
• Wrangler (1960) (TV series) - Ritter
• Shotgun Slade (1960) (TV series) - Deputy U.S. Marshal Benton
• Wanted: Dead or Alive (1959-1960) (TV series) - Billy Hemp
• The Alaskans (1960) (TV series) - Edward Carse
• Tales of Wells Fargo (TV series) - Captain Maynard
• Texas John Slaughter (1959) (TV series) - Arne
• Disneyland (1959) (TV series) - Arne
• Johnny Ringo (1959) (TV series) - Dick Walsh
• Black Saddle (1959) (TV series) - Ken Wilson
• The Texan (1959) (TV series) - Larry Boland
• Last Train from Gun Hill (1959) - Skag, Belden Hand
• The Horse Soldiers (1959) - Dunker, Yankee Soldier Amputee
• Colt .45 (1958-1959) (TV series) - Jack Lowden
• Rio Bravo (1959) (uncredited) - Cowboy murdered in saloon
• Good Day for a Hanging (1959) .... George Fletcher
• Northwest Passage (1958) (TV series) - Pvt. Ben Smith
• The Lineup (1958) (TV series) - Theodore
• Cattle Empire (1958) - Douglas Hamilton
• Sugarfoot (1958) (TV series) - Sergeant McKinnock
• The Loretta Young Show (1955-1958) (TV series) - Convict
• Suicide Battalion (1958) - Lt. Chet Hall
• The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1958) (TV series) - Sergeant Turner
• Flight (TV series)
• Suspicion (1957) (TV series) - Mechanic
• Ride a Violent Mile (1957) - Norman
• Tombstone Territory (1957) (TV series) - Ollie Williams
• Bombers B-52 (1957) (uncredited) - Operator
• Wagon Train (1957) (TV series) - Private Cullen
• Casey Jones (1957) (TV series) - Baylor
• Harbor Command (1957) (TV series)
• The Walter Winchell File (1957) (TV series)
• The Land Unknown (1957) (uncredited) - Radio operator
• The Web (1957) (TV series) - Police Officer
• Drango (1957) - Lieutenant with Supply Wagon
• Beau James (1957) (uncredited) - Reporter
• Playhouse 90 (1957) (TV series)
• The Deadly Mantis (1957) (uncredited) - State Trooper at Train & Bus Wrecks
• Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) (uncredited) - Harry (Griffin bartender)
• The Silent Service (1957) (TV series) - Lieutenant Jackson
• The Ford Television Theatre (1957) (TV series) - Lieutenant Young
• Navy Log (1956-1957) (TV series) - Bob Harris
• Fear Strikes Out (1957) (uncredited) - Ballplayer Holding Trophy
• The True Story of Jesse James (1957) (uncredited) - Jayhawker Sergeant
• Teenage Thunder (1957) - Used-car salesman
• Highway Patrol (1956-1957) (TV series)
• Science Fiction Theatre (1956) (TV series)
• Behind the High Wall (1956) (uncredited) - Guard
• The Price of Fear (1956) (uncredited) - Maxie
• Cavalry Patrol (1956) (TV) - Jenner
• You Are There (1953-1955) (TV series) - Disheartened Soldier
• Soldier (1953) (TV series) - Sgt. Corbett
• Tarantula (1955) (uncredited) - Deputy
• Lucy Gallant (1955) (uncredited) - One of Casey's Air Force Buddies
• Kiss Me Deadly (1955) (uncredited) - Police Detective
• Crashout (1955) (uncredited) - Young Man with Girl in Bar
• The Public Defender (1954) (TV series) - 2nd Cop
• Big Leaguer (1953)
• The Living Christ Series (1951)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]