Harold Russell

Russell and Cathy O'Donnell in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Harold Russell was born in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada and moved to Massachusetts with his family in 1921,[3] after his father's death in 1920.[4]

At the time of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, he was living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working at a food market. In his 1949 autobiography, Victory In My Hands, he wrote that he rushed to enlist in the United States Army because he considered himself a failure.[5]

On June 6, 1944, while he was an Army instructor teaching demolition work with the U.S. 13th Airborne Division at Camp Mackall, North Carolina, a defective fuse detonated TNT explosives he was handling.[6] He lost both hands and was given two hooks to serve as hands. After his recovery while attending Boston University, Russell was featured in Diary of a Sergeant, an Army film about rehabilitating war veterans.

When film director William Wyler saw the film on Russell, he cast him in The Best Years of Our Lives with Fredric March and Dana Andrews. Russell played the role of Homer Parrish, a United States Navy sailor who lost both hands during the war.

For his role as Parrish, Russell won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1947. Earlier in the ceremony, he was awarded an honorary Oscar for bringing hope and courage to veterans. The special award had been created because the board of governors wanted to salute Russell, a non-professional actor, but assumed he had little chance for a competitive win.[7] It was the only time in Oscar history that the academy awarded two Oscars for the same performance.[8]

Upon completion of the film, Russell returned to Boston University and graduated with a business degree in 1949.

Russell authored two autobiographies, Victory in My Hands (1949) and The Best Years of My Life (1981).

Russell appeared in two films after his debut, Inside Moves in 1980 and Dogtown in 1997. He also appeared in an episode of Trapper John, M.D. in 1981 and a two-part episode of the television series China Beach in 1989.

Russell became active in AMVETS, serving three terms as National Commander. As such, he wrote to President Truman in 1951 supporting his decision to dismiss General MacArthur.

From the early 1960s to the late 1980s, Russell served as chairman of the President's Commission on Employment of the Handicapped, an unpaid position.

In 1965, Russell received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[9]

In 1992, in a controversial decision, Russell consigned his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor to Herman Darvick Autograph Auctions, and on August 6, 1992, in New York City, the Oscar sold to a private collector for $60,500. Russell defended his action by saying he needed money for his wife's medical expenses.[5] However, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences disputed that motivation by determining Russell wanted the money to take his wife on a cruise.[10]

Russell died of a heart attack on January 29, 2002 and is buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Wayland, Massachusetts.[5]

• Harold Russell at IMDb
• Harold Russell at Find a Grave