Kurt Russell

Kurt Russell
Russell at the premiere of Grindhouse in Austin, Texas, March 2007 (Photo by Jeff Balke)
Born	Kurt Vogel Russell
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1957–present
Spouse	Season Hubley (1979-1983)
Partner	Goldie Hawn (1983-present)

Kurt Vogel Russell (born March 17, 1951) is an American actor. He started acting as a child in Hollywood films during the 1960s, and has continued appearing in a wide variety of films since, including Follow Me, Boys!, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The Barefoot Executive, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Escape from New York, Silkwood, The Fox and the Hound, Dark Blue, Stargate, Tango & Cash, Backdraft, Tombstone, Vanilla Sky, Poseidon and Grindhouse: Death Proof.

Early life

Russell was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, a descendant of William Russell and Martha Davies, who came to MA from England c. 1640 and settled in what is now Arlington, MA. He is the son of Louise Julia (née Crone), a dancer, and Bing Russell, a character actor known as Deputy Clem Foster on Bonanza. Russell considers Rangeley, Maine, to be his hometown. In the mid-sixties, Russell graduated from Thousand Oaks High School in Thousand Oaks, California.

Career

Russell began his career with an appearance as a child in the pilot of the ABC western television series Sugarfoot with Will Hutchins. His film career began at the age of eleven in an uncredited part as "Ugly Child" in Elvis Presley's It Happened at the World's Fair and two extra episodes, celebrating the tenth anniversary of the then defunct series 'Rin Tin Tin. On April 24, 1963, Russell guest starred in the ABC series Our Man Higgins, starring Stanley Holloway as an English butler in an American family. He appeared in 1963 as Peter Hall in the episode "Everybody Knows You Left Me" on the NBC medical drama about psychiatry The Eleventh Hour.

Later in 1963, he landed a big part for a juvenile actor: the lead role as the orphan Jaimie in the ABC Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1963–1964). Based on a book by Robert Lewis Taylor, the series starred Dan O'Herlihy, John Maloney and the young Osmond Brothers. Charles Bronson became a semi-regular in the series. In 1964, he guest-starred in "Nemesis", an episode of the popular ABC series The Fugitive in which, as the son of police Lt. Phillip Gerard, he is unintentionally kidnapped by his father's quarry, Doctor Richard Kimble.

On February 6, 1965, Russell, not quite fourteen, played the role of Jungle Boy on an episode of CBS's Gilligan's Island. He guest starred on ABC's western The Legend of Jesse James. In 1967, he, Jay C. Flippen, and Tom Tryon appeared in the episode "Charade of Justice" of the NBC western series The Road West starring Barry Sullivan.

In a March 1966 episode of CBS's Lost in Space entitled "The Challenge", he played Quano, the son of a planetary ruler. The young actor was soon signed to a ten-year contract with the Walt Disney Company, where he became, according to Robert Osborne, the "studio's top star of the '70s." Russell starred in many Disney films, such as Follow Me, Boys!, The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band with newcomer Goldie Hawn, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, and The Strongest Man in the World. He auditioned for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars but lost the role to Harrison Ford.

In the autumn of 1976, Russell appeared with Tim Matheson in the 15-episode NBC series The Quest, the story of two young men in the American West seeking the whereabouts of their sister, a captive of the Cheyenne.

Russell, like his father before him, had a baseball career. In the early 1970s, Russell played second base for the California Angels' (now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim) Double-A minor league affiliate, the El Paso Sun Kings. During a play, he was hit in the shoulder by a player running to second base; the collision tore the rotator cuff in Russell's right/throwing shoulder. Before his injury, he was leading the Texas League in hitting, with a .563 batting average. The injury forced his retirement from baseball in 1973 and led to his return to acting.

In 1979, Russell was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Special for the made-for-television film Elvis. This would be his first pairing with John Carpenter, the director of Halloween. Although Russell did not perform the singing vocals in the series - which were provided by country music artist Ronnie McDowell - he would later go on to provide the voice of Elvis Presley in the 1994 film Forrest Gump. Over the next decade, Russell would team with Carpenter several times, helping create some of his best-known roles, usually as anti-heroes, including the infamous Snake Plissken of Escape from New York and its sequel, Escape from L.A.. Among their collaborations was 1982's John Carpenter's The Thing, based upon the short story Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr., which had been interpreted on film before, albeit loosely, in 1951's The Thing from Another World. In 1986, the two made Big Trouble in Little China, a dark kung-fu comedy/action film in which Russell played a truck driver caught in an ancient Chinese war. While the film was a financial failure like The Thing, it has since gained a cult audience.

Elvis Presley has had a presence in his career. Aside from appearing as a child in one of Presley's films and giving a convincing portrayal of the singer in the 1979 television biopic, Russell starred as an Elvis impersonator involved in a Las Vegas robbery in 3000 Miles to Graceland and provided the voice of Elvis for a scene in Forrest Gump.

He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for his performance opposite Meryl Streep in the 1984 film, Silkwood. His portrayal of U.S. Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks in the film, Miracle, won the praise of critics. "In many ways," wrote Claudia Puig of USA Today, "Miracle belongs to Kurt Russell." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times wrote, "Russell does real acting here." Elvis Mitchell of the The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Russell's cagey and remote performance gives Miracle its few breezes of fresh, albeit methane-scented, air." (Mitchell's use of the word "remote" here is not a criticism of Russell's acting so much as a description of Russell's portrait of an emotionally reserved man.)

In 2006, Russell revealed that he was the director of Tombstone, not George P. Cosmatos, as credited. According to Russell, Cosmatos was recommended by Sylvester Stallone and was, in effect, a ghost director, much as he had been for Rambo: First Blood Part II. Russell said he promised Cosmatos he would keep it a secret as long as Cosmatos was alive; Cosmatos died in April 2005. Russell owns the rights to the masters and makes reference to possibly re-editing the film, as he was not originally involved in the editing.

Russell appeared as villain Stuntman Mike in Quentin Tarantino's segment Death Proof of the film Grindhouse. After a remake of Escape from New York was announced, Russell was reportedly upset with the casting of Gerard Butler for his signature character, Snake Plissken, as he believed the character 'was quintessentially [...] American.'

Russell in 2005

Personal life

Russell married actress Season Hubley, whom he had met on the set of Elvis in 1979 and they had a son, Boston Russell, in 1980. In 1983, in the middle of his divorce from Hubley, Russell re-connected with Goldie Hawn on the set of the film Swing Shift and they have been in a relationship ever since. They had a son, Wyatt, in 1986. The couple filmed the comedy Overboard together in 1987. Hawn's son and daughter with Bill Hudson, actors Oliver and Kate Hudson, consider Russell to be their father. Russell is the uncle of former Major League Baseball player Matt Franco.

Russell is a prominent member of the Libertarian Party. He claims that he was often an outcast in Hollywood because of his libertarian views, so he and Hawn moved to an area outside Aspen, Colorado where he has tried his hand at writing (he co-wrote the screenplay for Escape from L.A.). In February 2003, Russell and Hawn moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, so that their son could play hockey. Russell is an FAA licensed private pilot holding single/multi-engine and instrument ratings.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1962	Nick Barlow: My Biggest Headache	Nick Barlow
1963	It Happened at the World's Fair	Boy who kicks Mike	uncredited
1964	Guns of Diablo	Jamie McPheeters
1966	Follow Me, Boys!	Whitey
1968	The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band	Sidney Bower
	The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit	Ronnie Gardner
1969	Guns in the Heather	Rich
	The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes	Dexter Riley
1971	The Barefoot Executive	Steven Post
	Fools' Parade	Johnny Jesus
1972	Now You See Him, Now You Don't	Dexter Riley
1973	Charley and the Angel	Ray Ferris
	Superdad	Bart
1975	The Strongest Man in the World	Dexter Riley
	The Deadly Tower	Charles Whitman	Made For TV Movie
1979	Elvis	Elvis Presley	Nominated - Emmy Award
1980	Used Cars	Rudolph "Rudy" Russo
1981	Escape from New York	Snake Plissken
	The Fox and the Hound	Adult Copper	voice
1982	The Thing	R.J. MacReady
1983	Silkwood	Drew Stephens	Nominated - Golden Globe
1984	Swing Shift	Mike "Lucky" Lockhart
	Terror in the Aisles		archival footage
1985	The Mean Season	Malcolm Anderson
1986	Big Trouble in Little China	Jack Burton
	The Best of Times	Reno Hightower
1987	Overboard	Dean Proffitt
1988	Tequila Sunrise	Det. Lt. Nicholas 'Nick' Frescia
1989	Winter People	Wayland Jackson
	Tango & Cash	Gabriel "Gabe" Cash
1991	Backdraft	Stephen 'Bull' McCaffrey / Dennis McCaffrey
1992	Unlawful Entry	Michael Carr
	Captain Ron	Captain Ron
1993	Tombstone	Wyatt Earp
1994	Stargate	Col. Jonathan "Jack" O'Neil
	Forrest Gump	voice of Elvis	uncredited
1996	Executive Decision	Dr. David Grant
	Escape from L.A.	Snake Plissken	also co-writer
1997	Breakdown	Jeffrey "Jeff" Taylor
1998	Soldier	Todd
2001	3000 Miles To Graceland	Michael Zane
	Vanilla Sky	McCabe
2002	Interstate 60	Capt. Ives
2003	Dark Blue	Eldon Perry
2004	Miracle	Herb Brooks
2005	Sky High	Steve Stronghold / The Commander
	Dreamer	Ben Crane
2006	Poseidon	Robert Ramsey
2007	Grindhouse	Stuntman Mike McKay	segment "Death Proof"
	Cutlass	Dad
2010	War of The Freedom	Mustafa Kemal Ataturk	Pre-production

References

Dec. 18, 2009. Newspaper 'Northwest Gore Exposer' states 'The Thing From Another World' remake may be in the works and being looked at my Universal. The synopsis and actual screenplay are on the site thethingfromanotherworld.webs.com The story is an original remake/sequal to 'both' 50's/80's versions of 'The Thing'. James Arness makes a cameo along with starring actors 'Childs' Keith David, and 'MacReady' Kurt Russell. There are 4 major twists in one scene at the end. The story is written by an unknown Andy Ray Patton from Hammond, Indiana.[1]

External links

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