
Betsy Russell
Acting
Biography
Elizabeth "Betsy" Russell (born September 6, 1963) is an American actress who is best known for her roles in Private School (1983), Tomboy (1985), and as Jill Tuck, one of the primary characters of the Saw film series from 2006 to 2010. Russell was born in San Diego, California, the daughter of Constance (née Lerner) and Richard Lion Russell, a stock analyst, and the granddaughter of journalist and educator Max Lerner. Her father and maternal grandfather were Jewish. Russell wanted to be an actress since the age of eight and started acting in school plays. She appeared in a Pepsi commercial that was taped locally while in high school. After graduating from Mission Bay High School in 1981, she moved to Los Angeles and began taking acting classes before landing her first role. She did a masters program in Spiritual Psychology at the University of Santa Monica and is a certified hypnotist and life coach, also from the University of Santa Monica. Russell's first role was in the 1982 film Let's Do It! That same year, she landed roles on T. J. Hooker, Family Ties, and The Powers of Matthew Star. In 1983, Russell's breakout role came as Jordan Leigh-Jensen in the sex comedy Private School. While shooting the action film Avenging Angel, she was offered to audition for the 1985 film Silverado but turned it down. She said in an interview, "Everything happens for a reason. I always believe my career would have been different had I done that part. I can't say if it would have been better or worse. I’ve had a great run." She went on to star in a series of B movies in the 1980s, including the comedy Tomboy and the slasher film Cheerleader Camp. Russell also appeared on TV series such as The A-Team, Murder, She Wrote, 1st & Ten, and an episode of Superboy, which was a reunion with her Tomboy co-star Gerard Christopher. Russell resides in Malibu, California. In August 1988, Russell was engaged to actor Vincent Van Patten, son of Dick Van Patten. They were married nine months later on May 27, 1989, in North Hollywood. Their wedding reception was at Van Patten's father's Sherman Oaks home which was attended by numerous A-list celebrities. They divorced in 2001 and have two sons: Richard Van Patten (March 1993) and Vincent Van Patten, Jr. (September 3, 1995) Russell was previously engaged to film producer Mark Burg. After a brief retirement from acting, Russell appeared in a small role in Saw III playing John Kramer's ex-wife, Jill Tuck. She went on to star in the sequels, Saw IV, Saw V, Saw VI, and Saw 3D. She played a role in the 2010 film Chain Letter, the SyFy film Mandrake, and My Trip Back to the Dark Side. Description above from the Wikipedia article Betsy Russell, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For

An unassuming mystery writer turned sleuth uses her professional insight to help solve real-life homicide cases.
Murder, She Wrote

A fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel work as soldiers of fortune while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit."
The A-Team

Former 1960s flower children Steven and Elyse Keaton raise their conservative son Alex, daughters Mallory and Jennifer, and later, youngest child Andrew.
Family Ties

Sergeant Thomas Jefferson Hooker is a tough-as-nails veteran police officer with the LCPD who turns his back on a gold badge and goes back to patrolling the streets and training recruits. Along with his young partners in blue, Hooker take on Lake City's toughest criminals.
T. J. Hooker

As a deadly battle rages over Jigsaw's brutal legacy, a group of Jigsaw survivors gathers to seek the support of self-help guru and fellow survivor Bobby Dagen, a man whose own dark secrets unleash a new wave of terror.
Saw 3D

Jigsaw has disappeared. Along with his new apprentice Amanda, the puppet-master behind the cruel, intricate games that have terrified a community and baffled police has once again eluded capture and vanished. While city detectives scramble to locate him, Doctor Lynn Denlon and Jeff Reinhart are unaware that they are about to become the latest pawns on his vicious chessboard.
Saw III

Superboy is a half-hour live-action television series based on Kal-El's early years as Superboy. It depicted Superboy's adventures during his college years, his meetings with Lex Luthor and his romance with Lana Lang. The series was brought to the screen by executive producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind, who were the producers of the first three Superman movies and the 1984 Supergirl movie.
Superboy

Special Agent Strahm is dead, and Detective Hoffman has emerged as the unchallenged successor to Jigsaw's legacy. However, when the FBI draws closer to Hoffman, he is forced to set a game into motion, and Jigsaw's grand scheme is finally understood.
Saw VI

Despite Jigsaw's death, and in order to save the lives of two of his colleagues, Lieutenant Rigg is forced to take part in a new game, which promises to test him to the limit.
Saw IV

Following Jigsaw's grisly demise, Detective Mark Hoffman is commended as a hero, but Agent Strahm is suspicious, and delves into Hoffman's past. Meanwhile, another group of people are put through a series of gruesome tests.
Saw V

Private-school student Christine loves Jim. But her classmate, Jordan, is also vying for Jim's attention and trying to end his relationship with Christine. Meanwhile, Jim's friend Bubba embarks on a series of sexual escapades, including dressing up as a woman to access the girls' locker room. Despite Jim and Christine's efforts to spend some time alone, various shenanigans and schemes interfere.
Private School

Platypus Man is an American sitcom that aired on UPN in 1995. Starring comedian Richard Jeni, the television series was based on an hour-long HBO special of Jeni's filmed in 1992. The series lasted for only one season, with a total of thirteen episodes. Platypus Man premiered January 23, 1995. The concept of a "Platypus Man", the concept of a "cooking show for guys" and the scenes involving the main character's social life were drawn from Jeni's stand-up routines. The show, paired with Pig Sty, followed Star Trek: Voyager on UPN's Monday schedule. Both Pig Sty and Platypus Man were canceled in July 1995.
Platypus Man

The definitive documentary on the history of nudity in feature films from the early silent days to the present, studying the changes in morality that led to the use of nudity in films while emphasizing the political, sociological and artistic changes that shaped that history. Skin will also study the gender inequality in presenting nude images in motion pictures and will follow the revolution that has created nude gender equality in feature films today.
Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies

Mysterious emotional thriller about a woman who, after being left at the altar, has a brief liaison with a handsome stranger on a plane which ultimately puts her – and everyone else on the flight – in terrible danger.
Non-Stop

Six friends receive a mysterious chain letter via text messaging and in their email accounts from a maniac who's hunting down teenagers who fail to forward his online chain letter. Who knew they should take the threats in the chain letter seriously? Or that chain letters using the teens' favorite technologies to track them can kill? This maniacal game pits friend against friend as they race to beat rules that seem impossible to escape. Break the chain, lose a life. Do you pass it on? Does friendship mean anything?
Chain Letter

Molly Stewart, now a law student at UCLA, is determined to leave her prostitute past behind. After learning that the detective who helped save her life has been murdered, she quickly finds herself pitted against an underworld of mob figures who might be more than she's bargained for...
Avenging Angel

A washed-up tennis pro begins coaching a hopeful teen, Joel Robbins, whose overbearing father wants to discourage him from playing.
The Break

A budding female race-car driver finally meets her racing idol and unbelievably they fall in love...a love that's quickly put to the test when, having received the chance to show her racing talents, the two find themselves in a race for a multi-million dollar sponsorship contract.
Tomboy

Saul Schwartz, a married successful businessman, is bored with his life and decides he has had enough. So he gets a divorce, quits his job, and goes off to pursue his dream, in Hollywood to be a movie star. Only becoming a movie star isn't as easy as he thought. Nobody wants an overweight, 50 year old, New Yorker who looks like a lawyer. He's going to have to make a few adjustments.
Amore!

The naked floodgates burst open in the Saucy 70s and the 80s continued the trend. Welcome to the 80s, Jerry Falwell, Reagan conservatism, VCRs, pay tv, big hair and AIDS. Drive-ins and grindhouses were replaced by multiplex theaters, but the VCR and Pay TV came to the rescue with a flood of direct to video sexy features. Remember trying to watch scrambled Pay TV looking for some skin?