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Russell Hantz (born October 10, 1972) is an American television personality most well known for his three appearances on the CBS reality program, Survivor. He placed second in Survivor: Samoa, in which he built his reputation as one of the most notorious contestants to ever play the game. He maintained this reputation in Survivor: Heroes Vs. Villains, in which he played with a similar strategy and placed third. However, he was not so fortunate in Survivor: Redemption Island, in which he was the third person voted out, second eliminated from the game, and first eliminated from his tribe. Although he has repeatedly stated that he does not plan to play Survivor again, he is expected to appear in A&E's house-flipping program, Flipped Off, in a leading role.

Personal Life

Russell resides in Dayton, Texas, where he provides for his four children and manages an oil company that he built from the ground up.

Survivor: Samoa

Russell made his Survivor debut in the series' nineteenth installment, set in Upolu, Samoa, as a member of the yellow Foa Foa tribe. He planned from the very beginning to be a mischievous and deceitful player. His first night in Samoa, he made his mark by secretly emptying water canteens belonging to his tribemates and burning a sock belonging to his ally, Jaison Robinson. Nonetheless, he quickly formed alliances with most of his tribe. In the second episode, he became the first contestant to find a hidden immunity idol without any clues. He was largely vindictive about the individuals he chose to vote off, more often or not choosing to eliminate people who didn't trust him fully. Despite him having total control over the Foa Foa tribe, they won only one out of seven immunity challenges before the merge in episode 8.

It was after the four remaining members of Foa Foa merged with their opponents, the eight survivors of the purple Galu tribe, that Russell began to make history. Russell's tribemate, Natalie White, convinced the former Galus to blindside one of their own before voting out a Foa Foa. However, just to be safe, Russell played his immunity idol. In episode 9, Russell committed what he still calls his biggest move on Survivor by finding another idol without any clues and playing it at the next tribal council, in which the seven votes against him were nullified and Kelly Sharburgh was voted out. After this vote, Russell solidified his alliance with Galu member Shannon "Shambo" Waters, meaning that the "Foa Foa Four" became an allince of five, against the alliance of five loyal to Galu. Before the next vote, Russell convinced former Galu member John Fincher to change his vote to eliminate his ally Laura Morett in order to avoid a tie. After Laura was voted out, Russell's alliance of five took control of the game eliminated all of the former Galu tribe except for Shambo and Brett Clouser. Though Brett's individual immunity streak forced Russell to betray Shambo and Jaison, Russell defeated Brett in the final immunity challenge and voted him out.

This put Russell in the final tribal council on day 39 alongside Natalie and Mick Trimming. Though Russell was proud of the way he played and insisted that his strategy on Survivor didn't represent his lifestyle outside the game, the jury refused to reward his aggressive and deceitful gameplay and elected Natalie the winner of the game. Russell only recieved votes from Shambo and Fincher. Despite being extremely bitter about this, he admitted that, based on the jury's speeches at the last tribal council, he knew before the votes for the winner were cast that he wasn't going to win. However, the American public was far more receptive of his gameplay, which showed when they awarded Russell the title, "Sprint Player of the Season," along with the $100,000 that went with it.

Survivor: Heroes Vs. Villains

Russell returned for Survivor's twentieth season as a member of the Villains tribe. He resorted to many of his prior tactics early on, suHch as hiding the hatchet, searching for the idol, and forming early alliances with Danielle DiLorenzo and Parvati Shallow. However, he alienated himself so severely by searching for the idol that he became the primary target of the tribe leader, "Boston" Rob Mariano. Before the Villains' second tribal council, Russell correctly guessed that Mariano's alliance of six would split the votes between himself and Parvati in order to overrule the idol if it was to be played. Thus, he approached Tyson Apostol, an ally of Mariano's who was told to vote for Russell, and promised an alliance with him on the condition that he voted Parvati out of the tribe. After the votes were cast that night, Russell shocked everyone by giving his idol to Parvati, nullifying any and all votes against her. Afterwards, it was revealed that Tyson kept his word to Russell and switched his vote to Parvati. This meant that, instead of a 3-3 split, Russell only recieved two votes while four were wasted on Parvati. This allowed Russell's alliance of three to vote out Tyson. This bold move won the respect of Jerri Manthey, who joined Russell's alliance and voted out her former ally, Mariano, in the next vote, putting Russell in control of the Villains tribe.

After eliminating Ben "Coach" Wade, Russell was the only man on the Villains tribe alongside all five women. Because of this, the Heroes tribe was under the incorrect assumption that the women formed an alliance and were eliminating the men in succession. Fearing for Russell's life in the game and hoping for an alliance with him after the merge, the Heroes agreed to give Russell the idol belonging to James "J.T." Thomas. J.T. secretly handed it to Russell at the next challenge. Despite instructions to keep it a secret until used against Parvati, Russell comically showed the idol and its instructions to his entire alliance, then proceeded to vote out Courtney Yates at the next tribal council.

The Heroes and Villains merged the next day. Russell approached the Heroes and reassured them that he was on their side, when, in fact, he was leading the alliance of Parvati, Jerri, Danielle, and Sandra Diaz-Twine, the last surviving member of Boston Rob's alliance, against the Heroes. Before the first tribal council of the merged tribe, Russell gave J.T.'s idol to Parvati, who, after the vote, gave it to Jerri, which resulted in J.T. being evicted from the game and put the Villains alliance in the lead. Although the Heroes almost regained the advantage after Sandra offered to vote with them, Russell persuaded the Hero Candice Woodcock to abandon the Heroes join his alliance, nullifying any motivation for Sandra to switch her vote. After Candice helped send Amanda Kimmel home, Russell backstabbed Candice in the next vote. The next day, Russell tried to pit Danielle and Parvati against each other by telling them that the other wanted her out of the game, which was, of course, false. Against Russell's expectations, Parvati confronted Danielle, and both found out the truth. At the vote that night, Danielle stated to Russell that, "I'm closer to Parvati than you think." In light of this, Russell persuaded Jerri to vote with the Heroes to eliminate Danielle. In the next few votes, Russell and his alliance picked off the last two members of the old Heroes tribe, putting himself in the final four with Parvati, Sandra, and Jerri, whom he eliminated next. At the final tribal council, the jury, again, scolded Russell for how he chose to play the game. This time, he didn't recieve any votes at all, the money instead going to Sandra. Yet, he won Sprint Player of the Season again at the reunion.

Survivor: Redemption Island

Russell returned a third time against new players, with the exception of Boston Rob, who was placed on the opposing tribe. After Russell drew the purple buff and joined the Zapatera tribe, he openly reassured everybody that he was going to play differently this time. This statement proved to be false quickly, as he quickly built a three-person alliance with Stephanie Valencia and Krista Klumpp and searched for the idol. After leading his tribe to two consecutive victories, the members of Zapatera that were not in Russell's alliance decided that he was such a nuisance that it was in their best interest to throw the following immunity challenge, go to tribal council, and vote Russell out. After losing the challenge and anticipating a split vote, Russell approached Julie Wolfe and offered to add her to his alliance in return for her switching her vote to Ralph Kiser. Though she agreed, she went against Russell at the vote, which resulted in the split between Russell, Valencia, and Kiser. In the tiebreaker, Russell was voted out for the first time in three seasons. Though he went to Redemption Island afterwards, he lost the duel against Matt Elrod and was eliminated from the season.