Stebbell Russell "Russ" Saunders (January 1, 1906 - April 29, 1987) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

fullback in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

(NFL). He played with the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the th ...

during the 1931 NFL season. He was an All-American at USC and was one of the models for the

Tommy Trojan Tommy Trojan, officially known as the Trojan Shrine, is one of the most recognizable figures of school pride at the University of Southern California. The life-size bronze statue of a Troy, Trojan warrior stands in the center of campus and serves a ...

statue. He was MVP in the 1930 Rose Bowl when he led the Trojans to a 47–14 victory over the

Pittsburgh Panthers The Pittsburgh Panthers, commonly also referred to as the Pitt Panthers, are the athletic teams representing the University of Pittsburgh, although the term is colloquially used to refer to other aspects of the university such as alumni, facu ...

. After playing football, Saunders went on to a career in Hollywood. He was one of 11 All-American football players to appear in the 1930 film '' Maybe It's Love''. In 1938 he was nominated for an Oscar for best Assistant Director for ''

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''. He was assistant or Second Unit director on more than 85 films including ''

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'', ''

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'', '' Arsenic and Old Lace'', '' High Sierra'' and production manager for '' Stripes'', ''

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'' and ''

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'' among others. His first screen appearance was in the 1927 movie '' The Drop Kick'' in which the 1927 USC team appeared. In that film, Saunders appeared along with John Wayne—a teammate from the USC team—and worked on many of Wayne's movies over the following decades.

References

1906 births 1987 deaths American directors American football fullbacks Green Bay Packers players USC Trojans football players People from Ardmore, Oklahoma Players of American football from Oklahoma Male actors from Oklahoma {{runningback-1900s-stub