Time.com feature "I'm old, but not obsolete. (I'm old, but I'm not obsolete.) Borrowing this line from the movie Terminator: Genesis, Schwarzenegger is most appropriate to evaluate Hollywood actor Kurt Russell.
He is the father of Star Lord in "Silver Guardian 2", and the father of the new "Captain America" Wyatt Russell in the American drama "Falcon and the Winter Soldier", as a former screen tough guy, Kurt Russell, who celebrated his 70th birthday on March 17 this year, is still active on the screen in recent years: playing the stunt coordinator in "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", incarnating Santa Claus in "Saving Christmas"... Even as a supporting role, the characters he portrays still have their own aura and are not covered up by the protagonist.
In the middle of the year, the "Rapid 9" in the space of the drag racing exploded the film market, the global box office has exceeded 600 million US dollars, in the film as Mr. Anonymous Mr. Kurt Russell although the role is not much, but since "Rapid Shock 7" joined the "Rapid Logging Tired", the mysterious and funny image has added a lot to the series.
Looking back at this ever-changing screen tough guy, some people say that kurt Russell in his youth was only a second-line action star and a representative of B-grade action movies, but the audience who really knows him knows that his acting skills, fame and even figure and size are not worse than Schwarzenegger and Stallone in the same period and style. He has created many characters such as Snake the One-Eyed Snake in "The Great Escape from New York", truck driver in "Demon Haunting Chinatown", and top soldier in "Soldier", etc., which are enough to enter the history of film.
Fast & Furious 7
Walt Disney's last words are related to Russell
Born in 1951, Kurt Russell appeared in Elvis Presley's "Hunting Love Song" at the age of 12, playing a small role in the film, which became his first film. Sixteen years later, in 1979, he played his childhood idol Elvis Presley in the biographical TELEVISION film Elvis Presley, and his father Bill Russell played Elvis Presley, Elvis Presley's father. In 1994, in Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks, Kurt Russell voiced Elvis Presley.
The indissoluble relationship with the role of "Elvis" also led to another relationship between Russell and director John Carpenter - the first collaboration between the two in "Elvis Presley" in 1979, and then the two collaborated on many classic B-grade action films.
Elvis Presley (1979)
Russell is undoubtedly a genius actor who "God appreciates food", and he is also a child actor who has slowly entered the eyes of animation giant Walt Disney. It is reported that after the 15-year-old Russell starred in the Disney movie "Happy Paradise" (aka "Father of Scouts") in 1966, Walt Disney was so impressed with Russell's performance that he personally signed Russell and signed a 10-year contract.
In the same year, walt Disney, an animation giant with lung cancer, died shortly after scribbling the name "Kurt Russell" on a piece of paper before his death. No one knows what Disney meant, including Russell himself. But what is certain is that Disney favored Russell at that time, intended to focus on cultivation, and he also predicted that Russell would show "great performances" in the future.
Walt Disney and Kurt Russell
At Disney, Russell starred in science fiction comedies such as "Computer Prodigy", "Charlie and the Angels", and "Magic Prodigy", during which time he also played professional baseball and later became a member of several minor league teams.
Child stars on the silver screen are also proud of the baseball stadium
As early as acting, Russell, who came from a baseball family (his father Bill Russell was a former minor league player), began playing semi-professional baseball at the age of 15. In 1971, at the age of 20, he was a second baseman for the Rainbow Baseball Team, playing a total of 110 games in four minor league seasons. If he keeps playing like this, with his talented skills, he is likely to go to major leagues to play. However, in 1973, russell's baseball career ended due to the unfortunate tearing of the rotator cuff.
If it weren't for injuries, Russell would probably have spent more time on the pitch than in the spotlights and on set. Still, a short career in professional baseball gave Russell an astonishing insight into his body and personal fitness, which was also a priceless asset for the actor.
Kurt Russell wears a Portland Mavericks jersey
The fate with sports, sports, and the arena has also been continued and presented in many of his subsequent films. In the 1986 film The Golden Years, Russell played a quarterback on a former high school football team, helping the team again many years later. In 2004's "Miracle on Ice", Russell incarnated as Herb Brooks, the ice hockey team coach of the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics in the United States, and led a group of newcomers to win the championship, staging an ice myth in the eternal pituitary sports world.
2004 Miracle on Ice
In 2005, he teamed up with Dakota Fanning to star in the family inspirational film "Dream Mercedes", which revolved around horse racing, playing a jockey whose glory of the past was added to his passion. In 2011, he co-starred with Brian Priceley and Melanie Linsky in the sports film Rugby Life, in which he played the coach of the rugby team.
What is obvious is that most of these sports films, biopics, and inspirational films appeared after 2000. Unlike Bruce Willis, Schwarzenegger and other screen tough guys, Russell, who is more than half a hundred years old after the new century, rarely appears as a tough guy in action movies with his fists and arms, and some inspirational warmth or comedy science fiction films have become his choice.
2011 Rugby Life
However, what made Russell's Hollywood status and acting style most popular with the public was the series of action films of the 80s and 90s of the last century, especially the many B-grade action films with John Carpenter, many of which are still regarded as classics today.
The B-movie tough guy almost became a box office poison
In the 1980s, when the screen tough guys were abundant, Kurt Russell's appearance was not particularly outstanding, but in the 1981 action science fiction film "New York Great Escape", Russell played lieutenant colonel Sneek Princeken as a "one-eyed snake" who was also a good and evil and lonely hero, which quickly captured a large number of fans. The distinctive anti-hero temperament made Russell become a Hollywood superstar overnight, and since then he has also had the title of "Snake" and "Uncle Snake". This role was later selected as one of the "Top 100 Film Roles in Film History" by Empire Magazine in the United Kingdom.
1981 New York Escape
With this film, russell, who came from a child actor, successfully transformed, and this film with director John Carpenter has also become a classic representative of Carpenter's B-level action films. Fifteen years later, the two collaborated on the film's sequel, Escape from Los Angeles.
During this period, the two also collaborated on works such as "Strange Shape" and "Demon Haunting Chinatown", continuing the style of Russell's screen tough guy, but "Demon Haunting Chinatown", which has a cult flavor and oriental fantasy style, has encountered word-of-mouth Waterloo. The $20 million action film, which grossed just $11 million at the North American box office when it was released in 1986, nearly became a box office poison.
However, this film was sought after by fans when it was broadcast on cable TV, causing a sensation. In 2015, another Hollywood tough guy on the screen, Dwayne Johnson, announced the renewal of "Demon Haunting Chinatown", which will regain this style-mixed, hunting B-grade action movie IP.
1986 "Demons Haunt Chinatown"
In the mid-to-late '80s, two romance films starring Russell also suffered box office failures: 1984's "Little Confused Tears of Love" and 1987's "Falling Water Marriage". The former, despite its poor box office, contributed to russell's partnership with the film's heroine, Goldie Horn, and the two became one of Hollywood's most enduring couples. In 2017, the couple, who had been in love for more than 30 years but did not get married, left their names on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Kurt Russell and Goldie Horn
As for the latter film, "Falling into the Water", it is the second film that the two have cooperated in, and it was released in Chinese mainland as a Hollywood blockbuster in that year. So, Chinese audiences actually met Russell on the big screen very early.
1987 "Falling Water Marriage"
What helped Russell out of her acting slump was also thanks to the late 80s action film "Furious Tigers and Dragons" (aka "Tango and Money"). In the film, the tough guy combination of Russell and Stallone contributed hardcore action scenes and boosted the film's box office hit. In 2017's "Silver Guardian 2", the two tough guys reunited, but this time there is no direct intersection in the film.
About the character setting of the double male protagonist and double tough guy in "Angry Tiger and Dragon", it also affected some Hollywood blockbusters after that. The writers of "Fast and Furious: Special Ops" have mentioned that the strong collision between Johnson and Statham has inspired a lot of this film.
Russell and Stallone in 1989's Furious Tigers and Dragons
By the early 1990s, "Tempering," starring Russell and directed by Ron Howard, became the highest-grossing fire-themed film in Hollywood at the time. Among the powerful stars, Russell's performance is not inferior, and the film's good reputation and box office have also helped Russell regain market confidence in him.
Later, in the mid-to-late 90s, Russell successively starred in action movies such as "Star Trek", "The Mighty Soldier", "Soldier", "The Highest Crisis" and so on, continuing his style of on-screen tough guys. Although he has also starred in some literary and artistic films such as "The Silkwood Incident" and "Tyquila Sunrise" before, the heroic image and untamed character personality in action movies are more popular with the audience and are most deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
1998 Soldier
The golden supporting role of the two series of "Silver Guardian" and "Quick Shock"
In the 1980s and 1990s, Russell teamed up with Carpenter to contribute a series of classic B-movie action films, and after 2000, Russell collaborated with Quentin on a number of crime films, including starring and brief cameos.
In the 2007 thriller King Kong Is Not Bad, Russell played "Mike the StuntMan" who committed a serial murder. In the 2015 Western crime film "Eight Wicked Men", Russell played the bounty hunter "Hangman" of the detainees. In the latest 2019 "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", Russell made a cameo appearance as a stunt coordinator.
2015 "Eight Wicked Men"
It has to be said that Russell's consistent unruly, rough and arrogant screen personality in previous B-grade action films is in line with the unique temperament of Quentin's films that are absurd and full of violence.
In addition to crime genre films, the aforementioned inspirational sports and family-related films, and disaster films like 2006's Poseidon, Russell has also starred in the MCU Silver Guardian series and The Rush series in recent years.
Although it is only a supporting role, sometimes a cameo, the proportion of the role is not large, but whether it is the star-lord father in "Silver Guardian 2", the self-conscious planet Igo, or the mr. Nameless in "Rapid 7, 8, 9" who dominates all the situations in the shadows, Russell's acting skills are enough to impress the audience. He and Van Diesel have also become actors across both series.
Guardians of the Galaxy 2 2017
The former tough guy on the screen has become a golden supporting role in Hollywood blockbusters in recent years. As he grew older, Russell starred in fewer and fewer films, especially action films, and his role in the film became lighter and lighter, and he is now almost in a semi-retired state.
Russell, who is still tough in his old age, has not yet had a new film arrangement to be screened, but in addition to the film, it is also a pleasure to pay tribute to the old man by recalling his classic works and appreciating those ever-changing screen roles.