The Rest Of The Story – Rene Russo

Rene Russo was born into a tough life.  Her father left her barmaid mother when Rene was just two years old, leaving her mother to raise Rene and her sister as a single mother.  In junior high school, Rene was struck by scoliosis and had to wear a full body brace for support.  She was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder at a young age.  With no money and limited social skills, Rene left school in the tenth grade for a series of part time jobs.  She worked at a movie theater, as a restaurant hostess, and as a store cashier at Disneyland.  She often worked multiple jobs to make ends meet.  After this series of part time jobs, she landed a full-time job at an eyeglass laboratory inspecting contact lenses.

At the age of 17 Rene was attending a Rolling Stones concert and was seen by a talent scout.  He told her she should be a model and did a series of test shots of her.  Within a year, she had left her contact lens inspecting job and was modeling full time, and by age 20 she had appeared on many magazine covers, including Vogue.  She also made a number of TV commercials.

By the age of 30, her modeling career had slowed, as it does for many female models.  Rene had saved her money, and left behind the modeling industry to study literature and Christian theology.  But she also began to appear in theater roles in small community theaters in California.  She was noticed by some television producers.

Once again, Rene started to build up a new career as an actress, appearing in a few TV series, and a few small film roles.  Finally she had a breakthrough role in Lethal Weapon 3 as the police officer / girlfriend of Mel Gibson.  Rene Russo has built quite a career as an actress since her days inspecting contact lenses!