Kurt Russell
A former Disney child star, Kurt Russell reinvented himself through his partnership with director John Carpenter, who cast him as the eye-patched anti-hero Snake Plissken in Escape from New York (1981). That 1981 role shed his clean-cut image for good and launched him as a rugged leading man.
Disney's Boy Next Door
Kurt Vogel Russell signed with Walt Disney as a child and became one of the studio's top young stars of the late 1960s. The wholesome image would later make his action-hero turn all the more striking.
The Carpenter Collaboration
Teaming with director John Carpenter, Russell created Snake Plissken and battled the alien of The Thing. The partnership remade him as a gritty, charismatic leading man of the 1980s.
Range and Endurance
From Wyatt Earp in Tombstone to family comedies and Marvel's Ego, Russell has shown remarkable range. He remains a steadily working star and half of one of Hollywood's most enduring couples.
Career Timeline
- 1963Signs a 10-year contract with Walt Disney
- 1979Plays Elvis in Carpenter's TV biopic
- 1981Becomes Snake Plissken in Escape from New York
- 1982Stars in Carpenter's horror classic The Thing
- 1983Co-stars with Goldie Hawn in Swing Shift
- 1986Headlines cult favorite Big Trouble in Little China
- 1987Hit comedy Overboard pairs him with Hawn
- 1993Plays Wyatt Earp in the western Tombstone
- 1996Returns as Snake in Escape from L.A.
- 2015Joins Tarantino's The Hateful Eight
- 2017Plays Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Biggest Hits
- Before acting full-time he was a serious baseball prospect, playing in the minor leagues until a shoulder injury ended his playing days.
- He and partner Goldie Hawn have been together since 1983 but have never married.
Portrait: Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons