(24 April 1943 - 30 July 1968) (divorced) 3 children
Bob Waterfield, (a UCLA All American, Cleveland Rams quarterback, Los Angeles Rams quarterback, Los Angeles Rams head coach, and Pro Football Hall of Fame member (married on April 24, 1943, then divorced in July 1968)
In 1955, she and husband Bob Waterfield formed Russ-Field Productions. Under this banner, they made Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), The King and Four Queens (1956), Run for the Sun (1956) and The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (1957).
She and husband Bob Waterfield adopted a 15-month-old British boy, Tommy Kavanaugh, in December 1952.
She and husband Bob Waterfield adopted a baby girl, Tracy, on February 15, 1952.
On February 2, 1967, Russell filed for divorce from Bob Waterfield; it was granted in July 1968.
At age 18, she became pregnant while dating her high school sweetheart, Bob Waterfield, who in 1943 became her first husband. Russell went to a back-street abortionist. "I had a botched abortion and it was terrible. Afterwards my own doctor said: 'What butcher did this to you?' I had to be taken to hospital. I was so ill I nearly died." The abortion left her infertile and for the remainder of her life she believed that abortion was wrong under any circumstances, even rape or incest. She described herself as "vigorously pro-life".
In February 1952, she and Waterfield adopted a baby girl, Tracy. In December 1952, they adopted a fifteen-month-old boy, Thomas, whose birth mother, Hannah McDermott had moved to London to escape poverty in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, and, in 1956, she and Waterfield adopted a nine-month-old boy, Robert John. In 1955 she founded World Adoption International Fund (WAIF), an organization to place children with adoptive families and which pioneered adoptions from foreign countries by Americans. At the height of her career, Russell started the "Hollywood Christian Group", a weekly Bible study at her home which was attended by many of the leading names in the film industry.