Lillian Case Russell


Lillian Case Russell, often credited as L. Case Russell, was an American screenwriter during Hollywood's silent era. She was married to actor John Lowell Russell.

Biography

Lillian was born in rural Yankton, South Dakota, to Lucian and Agnes Case. She graduated from Yankton High School in 1893. She worked as a schoolteacher in her hometown before moving to New York to pursue a career as a writer; she wrote for a number of newspapers and magazines around the turn of the century.
She married actor John Lowell Russell in Manhattan in 1901; they had two children, future cinematographer John L. Russell and future actress Evangeline Russell. By 1925, they had relocated to Los Angeles, where he worked as an actor and she wrote scripts for Vitagraph.
She'd write more than 30 scripts between 1914 and 1926; many of her films were for Blazed Trail Productions, which specialized in Westerns. She enjoyed fostering young talent in the industry, and wrote two of the earliest books on screenwriting.
She was found dead in the pool at her son John's house in North Hollywood, California, in 1947; the cause of death was listed as drowning.

Selected filmography