Bing Russell

Acting • Born 1926-05-05 – Died 2003-04-08

Acting3Brattleboro, Vermont, USA

Biography

Neil Oliver "Bing" Russell (May 5, 1926 – April 8, 2003) was an American actor and Class A minor-league baseball club owner. He was the father of Hollywood actor Kurt Russell. Although best known as the deputy on Bonanza (1959) and Robert in The Magnificent Seven (1960), Russell's was also well known on a national level as the owner of the Portland Mavericks Baseball Club. Helming the only independent team in the class A Northwest League, Russell was an innovator. Before Bull Durham (1988), there were the Mavericks. Russell kept a 30 man roster because he believed that some of the players deserved to have one last season. His motto was simply one three lettered word - not WIN - although the Mavericks did just that - no, the word was FUN. He created a park that kept all corporate sponsorship outside the gates, hired the first female general manager in professional baseball, and the following year hired the first Asian American GM/Manager. That same season his team set a record for the highest attendance in Minor league history, and went on to win the pennant. Ex-major leaguers and never-weres who couldn't stop playing the game flocked to his June tryouts, which were always open to anyone that showed up. From as far away as Capetown, and France, players would head to Portland for a chance with Russell's Mavericks.

Filmography

149 credits

One Man's Way

Movie • 1964

Tom Rayburn

Elvis

Movie • 1979

Vernon Presley

Last Train from Gun Hill

Movie • 1959

Skag, Belden Hand

Good Day for a Hanging

Movie • 1959

George Fletcher

Cheyenne Autumn

Movie • 1964

Braden's Telegraph Operator (uncredited)

The Horse Soldiers

Movie • 1959

Dunker, Yankee Soldier Amputee

Journey to Shiloh

Movie • 1968

Greybeard

How the West Was Won

Movie • 1962

Man (uncredited)

A Gathering of Eagles

Movie • 1963

Captain (uncredited)

Yuma

Movie • 1971

Rol King (as Neil Russell)

A Taste of Evil

Movie • 1971

Sheriff

Attack

Movie • 1956

Medic

The Sex Symbol

Movie • 1974

Public Relations Man

Suicide Battalion

Movie • 1958

Lt. Chet Hall

Set This Town on Fire

Movie • 1973

Chuck

A Life at Stake

Movie • 1955

Bartender (uncredited)

The Magnificent Seven

Movie • 1960

Robert

The Land Unknown

Movie • 1957

Radio Operator (uncredited)

The Deadly Mantis

Movie • 1957

State Trooper

Drango

Movie • 1957

Lieutenant with Supply Wagon

Rio Bravo

Movie • 1959

Cowboy Murdered in Saloon (uncredited)

Sunset

Movie • 1988

Studio Guard

Overboard

Movie • 1987

Elk Cove: Sheriff Earl

Cult of the Cobra

Movie • 1955

Stakeout!

Movie • 1962

Joe

Cattle Empire

Movie • 1958

Douglas Hamilton

The Hallelujah Trail

Movie • 1965

Horner

A Cry in the Wilderness

Movie • 1974

Mr. Griffey

Madame X

Movie • 1966

Sergeant Riley

The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes

Movie • 1969

Angelo

Now You See Him, Now You Don't

Movie • 1972

Alfred

Bombers B-52

Movie • 1957

Operator (uncredited)

The Apple Dumpling Gang

Movie • 1975

Herm Dally

Dick Tracy

Movie • 1990

Club Ritz Patron

The Million Dollar Duck

Movie • 1971

Mr. Smith

Satan's School for Girls

Movie • 1973

Sheriff

Blackbeard's Ghost

Movie • 1968

Second Track Meet Official

The Loneliest Runner

Movie • 1976

Fred Dawkins

Tango & Cash

Movie • 1989

Van Driver

Ride a Violent Mile

Movie • 1957

Corporal Norman

The Stripper

Movie • 1963

Mr. Mulvaney

Teenage Thunder

Movie • 1957

Used-Car Salesman

Runaway!

Movie • 1973

Fireman

The Battered Bastards of Baseball

Movie • 2014

Himself (Archive Footage)

Death Sentence

Movie • 1974

Trooper

The New Daughters of Joshua Cabe

Movie • 1976

Big Leaguer

Movie • 1953

Flashing Spikes

Movie • 1962

Hogan

The Great Impostor

Movie • 1960

Morgan (uncredited)

Without Incident

Movie • 1957

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

Movie • 1957

Harry - Griffin Bartender (uncredited)

The Andy Griffith Show

TV • 1960

Mr. Burton

Maverick

TV • 1957

I Dream of Jeannie

TV • 1965

Amos Lincoln

The Munsters

TV • 1964

Route 66

TV • 1960

The Twilight Zone

TV • 1959

Ben Braden

The Twilight Zone

TV • 1959

George Cousins

The Streets of San Francisco

TV • 1972

Alias Smith and Jones

TV • 1971

Mannix

TV • 1967

Surfside 6

TV • 1960

The Mod Squad

TV • 1968

Gunsmoke

TV • 1955

Simon Fletcher

The Fugitive

TV • 1963

Sgt. Eggins

Black Saddle

TV • 1959

Lee Curry

The Fugitive

TV • 1963

Officer

Emergency!

TV • 1972

Lassie

TV • 1954

Ironside

TV • 1967

The Monroes

TV • 1966

The Monkees

TV • 1966

Rudy

Rawhide

TV • 1959

Jack Harris

Have Gun, Will Travel

TV • 1957

The Outcasts

TV • 1968

The Fugitive

TV • 1963

Matt Davis

The Virginian

TV • 1962

Sgt. Eads

The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp

TV • 1955

The Big Valley

TV • 1965

Jack Tolliver

Petrocelli

TV • 1974

Bronco

TV • 1958

The Donna Reed Show

TV • 1958

The Alaskans

TV • 1959

Black Saddle

TV • 1959

Ken Wilson

Navy Log

TV • 1955

Branded

TV • 1965

Wanted: Dead or Alive

TV • 1958

Clay

Sugarfoot

TV • 1957

Sergeant McKinnock

The Rifleman

TV • 1958

Laramie

TV • 1959

Ben Casey

TV • 1961

The Guns of Will Sonnett

TV • 1967

Dundee and the Culhane

TV • 1967

The Texan

TV • 1958

Stagecoach West

TV • 1960

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre

TV • 1956

Sam - Henchman

Tate

TV • 1960

Stoney Burke

TV • 1962

Johnny Ringo

TV • 1959

Dick Walsh

General Electric True

TV • 1962

The Man Called X

TV • 1956

Harbor Command

TV • 1957

Letter to Loretta

TV • 1953

Convict

The Fugitive

TV • 1963

Officer Westphal

The Living Christ

TV • 1951

Lazarus

Maverick

TV • 1957

Tyler Brink

Maverick

TV • 1957

TV • 1965

TV • 1959

Poindexter

Sam Benedict

TV • 1962

Len George (uncredited)

Have Gun, Will Travel

TV • 1957

Sheriff Reagan

The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp

TV • 1955

Sergeant Turner

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

TV • 1951

Assistant Director

Public Defender

TV • 1954

2nd Cop

Science Fiction Theatre

TV • 1955

Ironside

TV • 1967

Cal Bristold

Branded

TV • 1965

Sheriff Gorman

The Wonderful World of Disney

TV • 1954

Arne

Arthur Hailey's The Moneychangers

TV • 1976

Timberwell

The Guns of Will Sonnett

TV • 1967

Chet

Hondo

TV • 1967

Thompson