Frank A. Russell was educated at Castlemaine Grammar School and graduated with a law degree from the University of Melbourne. He was admitted to the Bar in 1908. Russell contributed to the Sydney Bulletin and other newspapers. He visited the United States in 1915 and was rejected for active service the next year. Russell engaged in munition work in England. On his return to Australia he joined the staff of the Melbourne Herald. In 1931 Russell toured the United States and Europe for the Herald and contributed interviews.
Russell also wrote The Eucharistic Congress Sydney 1928 (1928), first published in the Melbourne Herald and Prohibition Does Work : an Australian investigator's opinion (1930) on behalf of the Victorian Temperance League. He had a contribution in Romance : Australian fiction magazine (1923).