June 23, 2009, at 6:01 am
Kurt Vogel Russell, born March 17th 1951 in Springfield Massachusetts; has been acting since he hit the age of 11 and has never turned back. When Russell turned 13 he had completed his first major Motion Picture in Guns of Diablo. After spending a long number of years on T.V. and signing a 10-year contract with Disney Kurt landed another very successful role in 1981 film Escape from New York. It was Kurt Russell’s first real leading role and the beginning of a long and successful movie career.
Following up quickly on his 1981 performance, Kurt released The Thing in 1982. Sticking with the genius of John Carpenter, Russell released another hit in 1986 with the film Big Trouble in Little China. Then one year later in ’87, Kurt Russell hooked up with Goldie Hawn in the comedy Overboard. On a side note, Russell has been with Goldie Hawn since 1983 as her domestic partner AND raised three of Goldie’s children (Including the gorgeous Kate Hudson).
Tango and Cash, Backdraft, Captain Ron, Tombstone, Stargate, Executive Decision and Escape from LA outlined the next few years of Kurt’s career. During the late 80’s and early 90’s, Russell was thought of as a top level action star and moderate level Comedy Star (Captain Ron is pretty freakin funny) and toward the late 90’s was cast more as an older action star. Finishing out his action career, Kurt Russell landed roles as a husband whose wife is kidnapped in Breakdown, a physical superior warrior in Soldier and an Elvis impersonator in 3,000 Miles to Graceland.
To close out his career, Kurt led the 1980 Men’s Hockey Team to the Gold Medal in Miracle and most recently starred in the Quentin Tarantino film Grindhouse. Sadly, it appears that Russell has closed out his acting career as he turned down a recent role in the crazy Stallone movie The Expendables and has nothing cooking for the next few years. Regardless, the 90th Greatest Actor of All-Time will always be Kurt Russell.
So, where do I begin my Kurt Russell praise? I guess for me I first noticed Kurt Russell along side Kevin Costner in 3000 Miles to Graceland. The acting wasn’t that great but the movie was awesome and I decided to look up Russell in a few more films. Executive Decision was another cool film and shocking Steven Seagal dies!!! I think I cried for weeks when I saw that happen as I kept thinking to myself “This is only a dream, this is only a dream.” Even though you won’t find the big box office hit that nearly all of the other actors on this list has, Kurt Russell brings a very enjoyable personality to the big screen that I hope will continue to show up in movies. Even though he lost the role of Han Solo to Harrison Ford, he is currently an active card carrying member of the NRA. Gotta respect that!
* Interesting Fun Fact – Kurt Russell was a start minor league baseball player in the LA Angels organization and the year he jammed his shoulder enough to ruin his career, he was batting a league record .563. (For those that don’t follow Baseball, .563 is terribly insane!)
