joinedthefamilybusiness—Kate
Hudson,OliverHudsonandWyatt
Russell.“Whatwerewegonnasay,
‘No,don’tdo this’?”Kurtnoteswitha
laugh.“Becausethey’dsay,‘Youguys
looklikeyou havea prettygoodlife.’ ”
That’strue,butit hasn’talways
beeneasy(seesidebar).“Goldieand
I didtrytomakethemunderstand
thatyouhavetodoit forthework,
becauseyouwantto,andnotto cre-
ategreatwealth,”explainsKurt.“If
youenjoythework,theprocessof
son, then you can have a great
time. It doesn’t get old. It’s great
work, if you can get it.”
THE QUEST
The turning point in Kurt’s ca-
reer came when director John
Carpenter cast him in a pair of
wildly divergent roles: the King
ofRock’n’Rollinthe 1979 TV
movieElvisandtheex-convict
commando Snake Plissken in
19 81’sdystopianactionf lickEs-
capeFromNewYork. “I realized
hecando anything,”saysCarpenter.
“He canplayanybody.He’sa mimic,
and a geniusat it.”SaysKurt,“Myca-
reerwouldhavebeencompletelydif-
ferentwithouthim.”
Whata brilliantcareerit hasbeen,
asKurthascareenedfromrom-coms
(1987’sOverboard, withGoldie)to
ultra-violentTarantinofilmslike
TheHatefulEight. “Therearen’t
manyactorswithhislongevity—
that’snoteasyforanybody,”raves
RonHoward,whodirectedKurtas
a fi refighterin1991’shitBackdraft.
“Therearen’tmanyguyswhostart
askidsandbecomeleadingmen.
Plus,he’salwaysbeena strikingly
good-lookingguy.”
EvenKurtis amazedat hiscareer
longevity.“Actorswhohavedoneit a
longtime—I’mconvincedwe have
somekindof condition,”he cracks.
“Aftera while,you think:Haven’tyou
doneit enough?Butthere’ssome-
thingyoudon’tgetanywhereelse,
thatyoukeepcomingbackfor,that
getsyou excitedaboutdoingit.”
—BruceFretts
H
e made his movie
debut at 12, kick-
ing Elvis Presley
in the shins in
1963’s It Happened
at the World’s Fair.
Yet Kurt Russell didn’t set out to be
a movie star. His dream was to play
baseball, but a torn rotator cuff end-
ed his career in the minors. “It took a
while to adjust to not identifying my-
self as a ballplayer,” says Kurt, 68. “I
couldn’t put ‘actor’ on my passport
for a long time.”
Still, Kurt toiled on TV (he played
“Jungle Boy” in a 1965 episode of Gil-
ligan’s Island) and in Disney movies
(The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes)
all through his teens and 20s. Now
he’s reliving that era with a role in
Kurt. “When I was doing
and my friends in the
late ’60s and early ’70s.
I grew up in that world.”
That’s also where
he met his longtime
love, Goldie Hawn. The
duo both appeared in the
1968 Disney musical The
One and Only, Genuine, Origi-
nal Family Band but didn’t start
dating until they co-starred again
in 1984’s Swing Shift. “If you’re lucky
enough to have someone like Goldie
Hawn come along and feel the way
she feels, you’re just lucky,” Kurt
gushes. “Thirty-six years have gone
by in a f lash. I’m still in love. That
doesn’t mean we don’t have to pay
attention and work at it.”
Kurt’s work ethic was instilled in
him by his father, actor Bing Russell,
who played Deputy Clem Foster on
Bonanza, a show young Kurt guested
on twice. “You’re being paid a man’s
salary, so you should do a man’s job,”
Bing told him. “Know your lines, be
ready to work.” Agrees Kurt, “Really,
that applies to anything in life.”
It’s a lesson Kurt has passed along
to his and Goldie’s kids who have
RUSSELL-ING UP ROLES
“That’sa
deeply funny
id ea,”Kurtsays
ofthe chimp-
turned-genius-
TV-scheduler
in1971’sDisney
Kurt
passedon the
opportunity
toauditionfor
LukeSkywalker
orHanSoloin
StarWarstodo
theshort-lived
’7 6 TV Western
The Quest(with
Ti mMatheson).
to be typecast,
Kurt ditched
his Disney
imageto play
mass shooter
Charles
Whitman
in 1975’sTV
movieThe
DeadlyTower.
Viewers were all shook up when Kurt
played the King in the ’79 TV movie Elvis.
Kurt (circled) first met his future love
Goldie Hawn (not pictured) in 1968’s
Disney musical The One and Only, Genuine,
Original Family Band.
