Lillian Case Russell

Lillian was born in rural Yankton, South Dakota, to Lucian and Agnes Case.[1] She graduated from Yankton High School in 1893.[2] She worked as a schoolteacher in her hometown before moving to New York to pursue a career as a writer; she wrote for a number of newspapers and magazines around the turn of the century.[3]

She married actor John Lowell Russell in Manhattan in 1901; they had two children, future cinematographer John L. Russell and future actress Evangeline Russell.[4] By 1925, they had relocated to Los Angeles, where he worked as an actor and she wrote scripts for Vitagraph.[5]

She'd write more than 30 scripts between 1914 and 1926; many of her films were for Blazed Trail Productions, which specialized in Westerns.[3] She enjoyed fostering young talent in the industry, and wrote two of the earliest books on screenwriting.[6]

She was found dead in the pool at her son John's house in North Hollywood, California, in 1947; the cause of death was listed as drowning.[7]

• The Big Show (1926)
• Red Love (1925)
• Floodgates (1924)
• The Broken Violin (1923)
• Lost in a Big City (1923)
• Ten Nights in a Bar Room (1921)
• The Wakefield Case (1921)
• Cousin Kate (1921)
• The Heart of Big Dan (1920)
• The Clouded Name (1919)
• Fruits of Passion (1919)
• The Water Lily (1919)
• Merely Players (1918)
• Tempered Steel (1918)
• The Life Mask (1918)
• The Light Within (1918)
• To the Death (1917)
• Somewhere in Georgia (1917) (short)
• The Soul of a Magdalen (1917)
• The Black Butterfly (1916)
• The Two Edged Sword (1915)
• All for a Girl (1915)