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Kurt Vogel Russell (born March 17, 1951) is an American actor. Russell started acting as a child in Hollywood films during the 1960s, and has continued appearing in a wide variety of roles since, including Escape from New York, Stargate, Backdraft, Tombstone and most recently Grindhouse. This child star found an adult career playing tough, athletic heroes and anti-heroes since the 1980s. Kurt Russell began acting at age nine as a stock player for Disney's film and TV projects. After several TV guest spots, he starred in his own Western series, "The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters" (ABC, 1963-64), also featuring Charles Bronson and the very young Osmond brothers. Russell was likable in a string of Disney family features through the mid-70s, including "Follow Me, Boys!" (1966), as a boy scout, "The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit" (1968), "The Barefoot Executive" and "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" (both 1970) and "The Strongest Man in the World" (1975). During his long and generally enjoyable stint as a studio star, Russell also found time for some additional TV guest spots ("Lost in Space", "Gilligan's Island") and occasional non-Disney features, including "Fools' Parade,” a 1971 Western starring James Stewart. In most of these films, Russell was not the typical adorable kid, but rather a tough, thoughtful and sometimes pugnacious youngster. He also spent several years as a minor-league ballplayer. ssell was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, 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. As he entered his 20s, Russell became aware that he couldn't—and didn't want to—continue playing teens and male ingénues indefinitely. He tried two series, "The New Land" (ABC, 1974) and "The Quest" (NBC, 1976). In 1975, he shed his nice kid image with a chilling portrayal of mass-murderer Charles Whitman in the TV-movie "The Deadly Tower" (NBC). A few years later, Russell began the most important collaboration of his career playing the title role in writer-director John Carpenter's TV biopic, "Elvis" (ABC, 1979), which garnered him an Emmy nomination. Russell finally became a bankable, adult Hollywood star in the 80s. He started the decade with a fine performance as a fast-talking charmer in Robert Zemeckis' raucous, under-appreciated comedy, "Used Cars" (1980). He experienced greater popular success by reuniting with John Carpenter for several sci-fi-tinged action flicks: "Escape From New York" (1981), in which he delivered a passable Clint Eastwood impression in a dark, futuristic, prison-like metropolis; the gory remake of "The Thing" (1982), as a tough guy; and "Big Trouble in Little China" (1986), doing a hilarious John Wayne turn in Carpenter's special effects-laden take on Hong Kong action films. Russell started his film career at the age of ten in an uncredited part in Elvis Presley's It Happened at the World's Fair. He played "Ugly Child". At the age of twelve he landed a big part for a juvenile actor: the lead role as the orphan Jaimie in the TV western The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1963–1964). Based on a book by Robert Lewis Taylor, this series also starred Dan O'Herlihy, John Maloney, Charles Bronson, and the young Osmond Brothers. Russell also played the role of Jungle Boy on an episode of Gilligan's Island that aired on February 6, 1965. 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."[3] Russell starred in many Disney films, such as Follow Me, Boys! (1966), The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968) with newcomer Goldie Hawn, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), and The Strongest Man in the World (1975). Russell also had a baseball career (his father also having been a baseball player). 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 but the injury forced his retirement from baseball in 1973 and led to his return to acting. Russell, like Nick Nolte and others, screen-tested for the role of Han Solo for Star Wars. Russell was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Special (1979) for the made-for-television film Elvis. This would be his first pairing with John Carpenter, the director of Halloween. Over the next decade, Russell would team with Carpenter several times, and help create some of his best-known roles, usually as anti-heroes, including the infamous Snake Plissken of Escape from New York and its sequel. 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 was also similar in that it has since gained a cult audience. Russell proved adept at more conventional comedy in Jonathan Demme's "Swing Shift" (1984), as the airplane worker who woos Goldie Hawn away from soldier Ed Harris, and as Touchstone's crusty "Captain Ron" (1992) to Martin Short's put-upon straight man. He flexed his dramatic acting muscles co-starring as Meryl Streep's co-worker and lover in Mike Nichols' "Silkwood" (1983) and as a stalwart firefighter in Ron Howard's "Backdraft" (1991). Russell continued to be convincing as a leading man in "Tequila Sunrise" (1988), opposite Mel Gibson and Michelle Pfeiffer, fighting rogue cop Ray Liotta in "Unlawful Entry" (1992), and as Wyatt Earp in "Tombstone" (1993), a retelling of the shootout at the O.K. Corral. "Stargate" (1994), meanwhile, combined the action and sci-fi roles in a quite conventional manner, with a macho Russell teamed with a nerdy James Spader as they explore another world reached through use of an ancient cosmic traveling device. He teamed with Steven Seagal in the thriller "Executive Decision" (1996), about a hijacked airplane and followed up with the sequel "John Carpenter's Escape from L.A." (1996), with Russell not only reprising his role as Snake Plissken but also co-writing and co-producing (with Debra Hill). Formerly married to actress Season Hubley, Russell has co-starred twice with Goldie Hawn, his companion since 1982 (in the romantic comedies "Swing Shift" and "Overboard" 1987). The two first met in 1968, when Hawn was a dancer in Russell's Disney film "The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band.”<[>Russell starred next in the surprisingly well done thriller "Breakdown," (1997) as a man searching for his wife after his car breaks down in the middle of the desert. His next choice of role wasn't quite as lucky when he starred opposite Kevin Costner in the disgraceful "3000 Miles to Graceland" in 2001, a stinker of a caper film in which Russell revisited his Elvis roots by playing one of a team of ex-cons posing as Elvis impersonators to pull off a heist at Las Vegas' Riveira Hotel & Casino. That same year Russell redeemed himself somewhat playing a morally upright psychiatrist (with shades of Gregory Peck's "To Kill a Mockingbird" character) attempted to help Tom Cruise in "Vanilla Sky," director Cameron Crowe's American adaptation of the Spanish film "Open Your Eyes." In 2003, Russell costarred in the emotionally charged "Dark Blue" (with a story by noir master James Ellroy) as streetwise, corrupt police veteran in Los Angeles during the 1992 riots. Russell delivered a captivating and commanding performance in the controversial, gray-shaded role and carries the movie on his shoulders, until the plot gives way and turns from intense drama to conventional thriller --Nevertheless, the actor's fiery turn demonstrated that as a performer he hadn't lost a step. He again had a strong turn in "Miracle" (2004) playing Herb Brooks, the real-life coach of the United States Olympic hockey team of 1980, the Cinderella team that pulled off a near-unimaginable defeat of the dominating Soviet and Czech teams of the era. Russell, an avid hockey enthusiast himself, practically channeled the complicated Brooks and delivered another knockout performance. Russell's next effort was not as winning, though he did deliver his trademark charm in the superhero spoof "Sky High" (2005) in which he played Captain Stronghold, a super-powered father who sends his non-powered son to a secret academy for superhero offspring. He then had a turn in the family film "Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story" (2005), playing a once gifted horseman who is given a lame horse and, through the unwavering faith and determination of his young daughter (Dakota Fanning), takes the mare on a quest to win the Breeders Cup Classic. He next starred in the larger-than-life remake, “Poseidon” (2006), playing a middle-aged father struggling to escape a capsized ocean liner with a ragtag group of passengers who must rely on and trust one another despite their differences. 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 also provided the voice of Elvis for a scene in the Oscar-winning film Forrest Gump. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture (1984) for his performance opposite Meryl Streep in 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.) After “Poseidon” sank at the box office, Russell made a return to drier land, playing a sadistic stunt driver named Stuntman Mike in the Quentin Tarantino-Robert Rodriguez double bill “Grindhouse” (2007), a role that echoed such badass characters like Snake Plissken from “Escape from New York” and MacReady from “The Thing.” A compilation of two 90-minute horror flicks from both directors, “Grindhouse” was a throwback to the days of bloody, sex-fueled, low-rent double features that played in seedy 42nd Street theaters in New York City. In Tarantino’s offering, a slasher-cum-road rage flick called “Death Proof”. In 2006, Kurt Russell revealed that he did all the directing for Tombstone and not George P. Cosmatos, as credited.[] According to Russell, Cosmatos was recommended by Sylvester Stallone and was, in effect, a ghost director, just 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 involved in that originally. Russell most recently 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 furious over the casting of Gerard Butler for his signature character, Snake Plissken. In late October 2007, Gerard withdrew from the Escape From New York remake due to creative differences. Russell married actress Season Hubley, whom he had met on the set of Elvis in 1979 and they had a son, Boston Oliver Grant 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. The couple also filmed the comedy Overboard together in 1987. They had a son, Wyatt, in 1986. Hawn's son and daughter with Bill Hudson, actors Oliver and Kate Hudson, consider Russell to be their father. Russell is a prominent member of the United States 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. He plays for the University of Alabama in Huntsville Chargers. Former Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Franco is his nephew. Russell is an FAA licensed private pilot holding single/multi-engine and instrument ratings. He is known to be a New England Patriots football fan, as he was seen at Super Bowl XLII in a skybox with Robert Kraft, owner of the Patriots team. |
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