Kurt Russell
While it would be better to just read my novel for a good explanation of why Kurt Russell is on my list of heroes, I will provide a brief story here.
In the spring of 1975, my parents decided to take me to my first movie and at the time, our only theater was the drive-in kind, which is in short supply today, sadly. In the back seat of our Oldsmobile with a brown grocery sack full of home-popped pop corn and a sixteen ounce bottle of RC Cola, I watched my first, full-length, actual Hollywood film (remember, in 1975 there was no such thing as cable, let alone VCRs or DVDs).
The feature presentation: Walt Disney’s The Strongest Man in the World, which stared Kurt Russell, Caesar Romero, and Even Arden, about a college student who volunteers for an experiment and comes away with super human strength. The rest, as they say, is history.
Since that date, I have seen every film and TV special Kurt Russell has ever done, except a few old Bonanza episodes (his father was on the show) but only because I haven’t gotten around to them yet.
To say that Kurt Russell is my hero does not do justice to the kind of role he plays in my life. And let me squelch the thought of stalker or obsessed fan right now because I don’t know much about his personal life, for example. I know he has a son named Wyatt with Goldie Hawn, and that he was going to pitch in the majors before he tore up his elbow.
Kurt Russell is more like a family member to me than a hero because I simply do not judge him the way most do actors. I don’t judge his work at all, actually. Since I’ve known him since I was five, he’s more like an older brother I never had. For example, he has made some very poor career choices in his life, notably Escape from L.A. and Soldier. But these poor excuses for films do not prevent me from watching them any more than a pathetic attempt at Hello Dolly by our high school drama department would prevent me from watching my sister in the lead role. No, I don’t judge him or even make claims about his abilities because I’m too close. I’m inside. I can not make an objective statement about his acting or directing any more than I can make an objective or neutral statement about my mother. Mothers are not good or bad: they simple are. So too is Kurt Russell for me.
StarPulse’s Info: http://www.starpulse.com/Actors/Russell,_Kurt/
The Ultimate Kurt Russell Pages: http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/mansion/6468/