Hollywood screen siren Jane Russell dies at 89

Former Hollywood actress and sex symbol Jane Russell, star of hits including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Outlaw, has passed away at the age of 89, it has been announced.

According to her daughter-in-law Etta Waterfield, the actress died at her home in Santa Maria in California yesterday (February 28th) following a respiratory-related illness.

Breaking news of the death, she said: "She always said I'm going to die in the saddle, I'm not going to sit at home and become an old woman. And that's exactly what she did, she died in the saddle."

Discovered by eccentric billionaire and aviator Howard Hughes, who cast her in his film The Outlaw in 1943, Russell went on to become one of the biggest movie stars of the 1940s and 1950s.

Over the course of her successful movie career, she exploited her good looks by appearing in a number of movies, including His Kind of Woman, The Las Vegas Story and Gentlemen Marry Brunettes.