Kurt Russell

About Kurt Russell

Kurt Vogel Russell (born March 17, 1951) is an Emmy Award- and Golden Globe-nominated American actor. He started acting as a child in Hollywood films during the 1960s, and has continued appearing in a wide variety of films since, including Escape from New York, Silkwood, Stargate, Backdraft, Tombstone and Grindhouse.

Russell was born in Springfield, MA, the son of Louise Julia (née Crone), a dancer, and Bing Russell, a character actor known as Deputy Clem Foster on Bonanza. Russell considers Rangeley, Maine, to be his hometown. Graduate of Thousand Oaks High School in the mid-sixties, Thousand Oaks, California.

Russell began his film career at the age of ten in an uncredited part in Elvis Presley's It Happened at the World's Fair. He played "Ugly Child". At twelve, he landed a big part for a juvenile actor: the lead role as the orphan Jaimie in the TV western The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1963–1964). Based on a book by Robert Lewis Taylor, the series also starred Dan O'Herlihy, John Maloney, Charles Bronson, and the young Osmond Brothers. Russell played the role of Jungle Boy on an episode of Gilligan's Island that aired on February 6, 1965. In a March 1966 episode of the TV series Lost in Space titled "The Challenge", he also played Quano, the son of a planetary ruler. The young actor was soon signed to a ten-year contract with the Walt Disney Company, where he became, according to Robert Osborne, the "studio's top star of the '70s." Russell starred in many Disney films, such as Follow Me, Boys! (1966), The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968) with newcomer Goldie Hawn, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), and The Strongest Man in the World (1975). He auditioned for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars (1977) but lost the role to Harrison Ford.