Early Years
Born in Berlin, Germany, Thaw was the only child of actress and model Evelyn Nesbit. Legally, he was the son of his mother's first husband Harry Kendall Thaw. Thaw had murdered architect Stanford White, Nesbit's former lover, at Madison Square Garden in 1906.
He was treated indifferently by Harry Kendall Thaw, who never accepted Russell as his son. Russell was born four years after Thaw was incarcerated in the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Thaw's mother, who initially testified that Russell was Harry's son, eventually gave up trying to prove Russell's paternity. Nesbit said of the matter, "A working girl could not fight the Thaw millions." Nesbit's grandchildren, however, refer to Thaw as their grandfather.
As a child, Thaw co-starred with his mother in at least five films: Threads of Destiny (1918), Redemption (1917), Her Mistake (1918), The Woman Who Gave (1918), I Want to Forget (1918), and The Hidden Woman (1922).
Read more about this topic: Russell William Thaw
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or years:
“Some men have a necessity to be mean, as if they were exercising a faculty which they had to partially neglect since early childhood.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“I’m right here to tell you, mister. There ain’t nobody gonna push me off my land. My grandpa took up this land seventy years ago. My pa was born here. We was all born on it. And some of us was killed on it. And some of us died on it. That’s what makes it ourn. Bein’ born on it. And workin’ on it. And dyin’ on it. And not no piece of paper with writin’ on it.”
—Nunnally Johnson (1897–1977)