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EXPERIENCE TALKS 12/27 @ 8 AM PT
JEANNE K. RUSSELL
talks with host JOHN SEMPER JR.
Actor JEANNE K. RUSSELL is best known for playing Dennis’s playmate, Margaret Wade, in the television series Dennis The Menace, which was based on the Hank Ketcham comic strip of the same name and aired from 1959 to 1963 on CBS. She was the favored choice of Jay North, who starred in the role of Dennis, to play his nemesis playmate. She appeared in 31 of the series’ 146 episodes over the four-year run of the show. She and North still occasionally appear together at celebrity events.
Dr. Russell also appeared in other popular TV shows of the era, including, The Deputy (1959), Assignment: Underwater (1961), Death Valley Days (1961), and The Dinah Shore Show. She also provided a singing voice in the 1961 Disney movie Babes in Toyland and made an uncredited appearance in the 1963 popular suspense horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, The Birds, in which she played a school child.
Since 1978, Dr. Russell has been practicing chiropractic medicine in the North Hollywood/Toluca Lake (California) area. She also counsels and coaches patients, assisting them with intuitive eating skills to embrace a healthy lifestyle. She has also developed a powerful posture building series of movement and strengthening exercises, which draw from her career in show business. (She is also trained in ballet and jazz dance.)
Dr. Russell co-chaired the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Young Performers’ Committee for several years, and was instrumental in the positive changes made to protect child actors. To help achieve this, she worked extensively with her friend, Paul Petersen, and his group, A Minor Consideration.
Russell is the sister of Bryan Russell, who was also a child actor from 1959 to 1967. He appeared in Disney feature films and as Ann-Margaret’s younger brother in Bye Bye, Birdie.
Visit her website here.
“A Charlie Brown Christmas” is a classic musical animated television special based on the comic strip, “Peanuts,” by Charles M. Schulz. The kids who performed the voices for this and the other “Peanuts” holiday specials are grown now, with children and sometimes grandchildren of their own. 
“Worth Repeating” is a weekly feature on the EngAGE Blog that will bring you previous posts that we think are still timely, interesting, or just plain fun! From 12/19/13:
