Catherine Russell (American actress)

Russell grew up in New Canaan, Connecticut.^[3] In 1970, at the age of 14, Russell appeared in The Diary of Anne Frank.^[4]

She earned her Bachelor of Arts at Cornell University in 1977 and an MA from New York University in 1980.^[5][6]

Russell made her Off-Broadway debut in 1980 as Nicola Davies in Stephen Poliakoff's City Sugar.^[7] She has since appeared Off-Broadway in productions such as Miss Shumann's Quartet, A Resounding Twinkle, The Award And Other Plays and Creeps.^[7]

Russell has played the character of Margaret Thorne Brent in the late Warren Manzi's Off-Broadway play Perfect Crime since its opening in 1987.^[1] She has missed only four performances, the last in 1995 to attend her brother's wedding.^[8] In 2008, Russell was awarded the Guinness World Record for most performances as the same character.^[2] She celebrated her 15,000th performance in that role in December 2024.^[9]

Russell's understudy was Andrea Leigh, who also served as assistant stage manager on the production.^[10]

Russell is the general manager of The Theater Center which she built in 2005.^[11] There she was a lead producer of The Fantasticks from 2006 to 2017.^[12]

Russell teaches educational theater as an adjunct faculty member at NYU Steinhardt since 1981 and has taught writing at Baruch College since 1980.^{[5][13][14][15][6]}

Russell was married to Patrick Robustelli, who owned the Times Square pizzeria, Patzeria, until his death in 2019.^[16][6] Identifying as a Christian Scientist,^[17][16] Russell's favorite play is Three Sisters by Anton Chekov.^[18]