Hollywood is the place where dreams come true, but not many actors and actresses can brag with decades-spanning careers in the world of film.
For someone to be on camera for over sixty years and counting, it means those people possess charm, undeniable talent, and remarkable versatility, just like the one and only Kurt Russel.
Born on March 17, 1951, Kurt Russell grew up in the Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks. As a child, baseball was essential part of his upbringing.
“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,” he once recalled.
Besides for baseball, Kurt’s father also installed the love for acting into his son. He had his acting debut back in 1963 when he landed a role in The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, making him one of the lead actors of the 70s.
Kurt turned into a very popular child actor and signed a 10-year contract with Disney, starring in many productions, including the 1966 film Follow Me, Boys!, which was his first Disney production, The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band in 1968, the 1969 film The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and Now You See Him, Now You Don’t from 1972, among others.
In fact, Walt Disney himself was one of the reasons for Kurt’s popularity.
Disney, who’s considered one of the greatest legend in the history of film died when Kurt was still a teenager, and reportedly, his last words before passing were “Kurt Russell,” the actor once revealed.
They pulled me into the office a couple years after he died, and this woman — who I don’t believe it was his secretary, but it might’ve been, I don’t know ― pointed to [something he wrote] and she said, ‘Do you know what that’s about?’ And I said, ‘No, I don’t.’ [She said], ‘Because he wrote something after it. But then he went back up and he wrote your name. That was the last thing he wrote.’ And I said, ‘Oh gee. I don’t know what it’s connected to,” Kurt Russell recalled in an interview with the Huffington Post.
“She was pointing out that that’s the last thing he wrote. That’s the only thing I know.”
“I was very comfortable around him, and I had a great time with him, great relationship, and it was very important. He said to me, ‘Baseball might not be something that you end up doing as a career.’ He said, ‘I think you might want to look at things in this business because I think you’re going to have a long career.’ So he did have a strong effect on me,” Russell added.
After trying himself as a professional baseball player, Kurt returned to acting once again and landed roles in a number of films, including Escape From New York (1981), Silkwood (1983), Tombstone (1993), and The Hateful Eight (2015).
When it comes to his private life, Kurt has been together with actress Goldie Hawn for over 40 years, although they have never married.
Kurt and Goldie first met on the set of The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band in 1966. Back then, however, it seemed there was no chemistry between them, probably because of the fact that Goldie was 21 and Kurt was still a teenager. From that movie on, both went on to have extremely successful careers.