Kurt Russell has been in the movie industry almost his entire life. He began his career as a Disney actor – and, according to him, his name was the last thing Walt Disney said before he passed away.
Today, Kurt Russell has entered himself into film history, and his beautiful partnership with actress Goldie Hawn has pretty much become a example of how Hollywood relationships should work. The two have been together for more than 40 years – and they have no plans to change anything.
In recent years, Kurt Russell has pretty much kept to himself, going through surgery and not doing that many films. But now, the legendary actor is back – and pictures of him in his new role certainly have fans gushing!
Born on March 17, 1951, Kurt Russell was not exactly destined for a job in the acting business – in fact, based on his father’s passions, his career could easily have gone down an entirely different path altogether! Russell’s father, Bing Russell, may have technically been an actor, it was the incredible sport of baseball that was his true passion.
Kurt grew up in the Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks, and when recalling early memories, Kurt Russell remembers how baseball was an essential part of growing up.
“He loved passing on his knowledge of the game,” he recalled.
Kurt Russell – early life
“Baseball was what we were going to do. That was it. We had a batting cage in our backyard. In fact, that was our backyard. For my family, baseball was a year-round thing. Acting was a business for me like it was for my dad. I made money, but I wanted to play baseball. That was the pursuit.”
Even though baseball was a big passion for the Russell family, Kurt’s father showed his son the acting industry when he was a kid.
He appeared in shows such as The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters at age 12, and other credits included Gilligan’s Island and The Virginian. It took off as Kurt signed a 10-year deal with Disney while still in high school, but baseball was always stayed his number one priority (though, we’ll get to that in a second).
At 11, Kurt Russell got his first role in a movie, and it wasn’t just any movie. Suddenly, the young boy found himself eye-to-eye with Elvis Presley in the film It Happened At The World’s Fair. Believe it or not, one of his assignments was to kick(!) Elvis in the shins.
In the film, Presley’s character wanted to get together with a nurse and needed a modest injury to make their meeting possible. Therefore, he asked the young boy, Kurt Russell’s character, to kick him in the shins. It took 15 takes to get it right.
“One time I got close to the edge of it and he looked at me, because he really trusted me, and went ‘…stay on the pad’. What a nice guy he was. Yeah. He was 27 years old,” Russell recalled in an interview with GQ MAGAZINE.
He spent around two weeks filming with Elvis, and in between takes, they spent a lot of time together. They played catch and, of course, talked about baseball.
“He was really cool. “An incredibly nice guy,” Kurt Russell said about Elvis.
Kurt Russell’s early teenage years were hectic as he became a very popular child actor, in part due to Walt Disney himself.
