Hollywood’s cult action hero of yesteryears, American actor Kurt Russell’s net worth is estimated to be $70 million.
Born to dancer Louise Julia Crone and actor Bing Russell, on March 17, 1951 in Springfield, Massachusetts, Kurt Vogel Russell began acting in 1962, debuting on TV in Dennis the Menace (uncredited). He went on to appear in The Dick Powell Show (1962), Our Man Higgins (1963), The Eleventh Hour (1963), special episodes of the defunct Rin Tin Tin (1963) and the Elvis Presley movie It Happened at the World’s Fair (1963).
How did Russell make his millions?
Kurt Russell got his breakthrough with the title role in the western TV series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1963-64).
More TV roles followed with The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964-1965), The Virginian (1964-1965), The Legend of Jesse James (1965), Daniel Boone (1965-1969), Laredo (1966), Lost in Space (1966), Disneyland (1967-1972), The Road West (1967), Guns in the Heather (1969), Then Came Bronson (1969), The High Chaparral (1970) and Gunsmoke (1974).
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Russell soon landed movie roles with Guns of Diablo (1965), Follow Me Boys (1966), The Horse in the Grey Flannel Suit (1968) and The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968, where he met Goldie Hawn) followed by starring roles in the movies The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), Fools’ Parade (1971), The Barefoot Executive (1971), Now You See Him, Now You Don’t (1972), The Strongest Man in the World (1975), The Deadly Tower (1975, TV film) and Search for the Gods (1975, TV film).
In 1966, Walt Disney’s dying wish lassoed Russell into The Walt Disney Company for a 10-year period, making him the “studio’s top star of the 1970s”.
Completing his schooling in 1969, he took up competitive baseball, playing the minor leagues and for his dad’s team, Portland Mavericks, before a right shoulder injury forced Russell to renounce the game in 1973.
Taking up full-time acting, he starred in the series The New Land (1974), Police Story (1974-75) and The Quest (1976).
Russell’s film accolades include an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in Elvis (1979, TV film), a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor in Silkwood (1983) and The Disney Legends Award (1998).
A collaboration with American director John Carpenter during the 1980s resulted in Russell’s famous cult movies Escape from New York (1981), its sequel Escape from L.A. (1996, which he also wrote and directed; salary: $10 million), The Thing (1982) and Big Trouble in Little China (1986).
His Escape from New York character, Snake Plissken, was recreated in the comic books The Adventures of Snake Plissken (1997) and John Carpenter’s Snake Plissken Chronicles (2003).
Other major films of his include The Captive: The Longest Drive 2 (1976), Used Cars (1980), The Fox and the Hound (1981, voice-acting), Swing Shift (1984), The Mean Season (1985), Overboard (1987), Tequila Sunrise (1988), Tango & Cash (1989), Unlawful Entry (1992), Captain Ron (1992), Forrest Gump (1994, voice of Elvis Presley), Stargate (1994; salary: $7 million), Executive Decision (1996; salary: $7.5 million), Breakdown (1997; salary: $15 million), Dreamer (2005), Poseidon (2006), Bone Tomahawk (2015), Furious 7 (2015), Deepwater Horizon (2016) and Fate of the Furious (2017).
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Russell’s most memorable roles are in Backdraft (1991), Tombstone (1993, actually directed by Russell and not George P. Cosmatos), Soldier (1998; salary: $15 million), 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001), Miracle (2004), Death Proof (2007) and The Hateful Eight (2015).
In 2014, Russell appeared in a documentary about Portland Mavericks and his father titled The Battered Bastards of Baseball.
Russell lives with actress Goldie Hawn on his 72-acre Home Run Ranch near Aspen, Colorado. The couple owns many properties: a house in Palm Desert, California (bought for $3.615 million in 2003) and a bluff-top residence nearby (bought in early 2011 for $5.7 million); a vacation home on Muskoka Lake, Ontario; a vineyard in the Santa Ynez Valley; and a Midtown Manhattan penthouse (bought for $3.85 million in 1997). They sold their Pacific Palisades home for $6.9 million last year.
The gun enthusiast, hunter and FAA-licensed private pilot is among the cast of the soon to be released Marvel comics film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017).
