Happy 69th Birthday Kurt Russell: Looking Back At Some Of His Most Iconic Roles

Mar 17, 2020

Legendary Hollywood star Kurt Russell turns 69 years old today. 

To celebrate the renowned actor, we’re looking back at his amazing life and career throughout the decades. 

Kurt Russell was born on March 17, 1951, in Springfield Massachusetts to minor-league baseball player and actor Bing Russell and his wife, Louise.  

According to Sports Illustrated, young Kurt would spend his teenage years following in his father’s footsteps by playing minor league baseball before sustaining an injury that forced him to quit the sport. In a 2014 interview with NPR, Kurt said that although people might think of acting as the Russell family business, it was actually baseball. 

“I just happen, you know - our other business was the picture business and television,” Kurt said. That was how [Bing Russell] made his living, and that was how I later started, you know, to make my living.

“But baseball was always the family business.”

At the age of 12, Russell would get his first acting job with an uncredited role in the 1963 film It Happened at the World's Fair – in which he starred alongside Elvis Presley. 

Little did he know that 16 years later, Russell would portray Presley in the 1979 biopic, Elvis. 

The film, which was released shortly after the singer’s death, was Russells last small-screen role. His portrayal would eventually bag the actor his first Emmy award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie. 

In 1981, Russell starred in his first major role on the big screen as Snake Plissken in Escape from New York.

The movie follows Plissken, a WWII veteran hero who has turned to crime and escaped maximum-security prison. He then goes on a mission to save the President of the United States in exchange for a full pardon for his crimes. 

Russell starred in the 7th edition of the action-packed movie series Fast & the Furious in 2015. The actor starred alongside many Hollywood legends, including Dwayne Johnson and Paul Walker. 

Russell portrayed the role of Mr. Nobody, a cool and calm governmental agent on a mission to capture Mose Jakande.

Based on the thrilling novel The Poseidon Adventure, Russel stars in Poseidon as the main protagonist Robert Ramsey. The film follows Russel onboard a luxury ship with his daughter Jennifer (Emmy Rossum) and her soon-to-be fiance Christian (Mike Vogel) when a life-threatening tidal wave hits out of the blue. 

The 2006 film was released to much critical acclaim, with it even bagging a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

In the sequel to the beloved film Guardians of the Galaxy, Russel stars as the human form of planet Ego, who is also the father of Quill. 

The character is one that especially suits Russell, as it falls in line with the bad-guy persona he seems to adapt to so well in many of his films. 

What is your favorite Kurt Russell film? Let us know in the comments – and make sure you pass this along to your friends and family!