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Russell Thaw | |
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| Born | October 25, 1910 |
| Died | May 6, 1984 (aged 73) |
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| Children | 3 |
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Russell William Thaw (October 25, 1910 – May 6, 1984) was an American airplane pilot and former childhood actor. While working as the chief pilot for the Guggenheim family, he was sponsored for air races and excursions. He served during World War II in the United States Army Air Force, and later became a test pilot for the Douglas Aircraft Company in California. In 1948 he was the first person to fly the Douglas XF3D-1.
Born in Germany to American parents, Thaw was the only child of Evelyn Nesbit, a Gibson Girl model and actress and her first husband Harry Kendall Thaw. Their lives had received sensational attention after his father fatally shot architect Stanford White in 1906 in front of a large crowd. Harry Thaw spent the next several years in mental institutions, before eventually being released. The Thaw family did not accept Nesbit's claims about Russell's paternity. He grew up in California, where his mother remarried after divorcing his father. She had a prominent and lucrative acting career and Thaw appeared as a child actor with his mother in six films of the silent film era, all of which have since been lost.