Tim Russell

Tim Russell (born 1947/8) is an American radio announcer and voice actor (AFTRA/SAG) in Minneapolis – Saint Paul. He is most widely known as one of the actors on the long-running radio show, A Prairie Home Companion. As a voice-over talent and announcer, Russell also appears in radio and television commercials.

Education and radio career
Russell graduated from the University of Notre Dame and briefly attended law school at the University of Minnesota. He took broadcasting classes at Brown Institute of Broadcasting in Minneapolis.

Russell began his radio career at WDBQ-AM in Dubuque, Iowa. He began work at WCCO-FM when it went on the air in 1973. While working there he began developing character voices and doing commercials. Between 1983 and 1993, he worked at WCCO-AM. After leaving WCCO, he worked for country station KJJO-FM and "easy listening" station KLBB-AM.

In 1997, he went back to work for WCCO-AM. Russell was voted the "Outstanding Broadcast Personality" by the Minnesota Broadcasters Association. In April 2010, Russell left WCCO through a buyout after working there for 33 years.

A Prairie Home Companion
In 1994, Russell began performing on the public radio show, A Prairie Home Companion. As a radio comedy actor, he is the voice behind Dusty from "Lives of the Cowboys", Fred Farell, and many famous celebrities, including Julia Child and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Russell played "Al, the Stage Manager" in A Prairie Home Companion, the movie based on a screenplay by Garrison Keillor and filmed by Robert Altman at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota during the summer of 2005. The film was released on June 9, 2006.

Filmography
In addition to his role on the film version of A Prairie Home Companion, Russell had small parts in two films set in Minnesota, 1994's Little Big League and 2009's A Serious Man.