Kurt Russell shot to mainstream attention as the ruggedly handsome lead of several classic genre movies in the 1980s, positively radiating star charisma and boasting one of the most finely coiffed hairstyles of an era almost entirely defined by them. However, as hard as it seems to imagine given his chiseled features and twinkly-eyed charm, the actor initially got his big break in the industry when he was barely into his teens.
The young Russell scored his first credited role for three episodes of The Dick Powell Show all the way back in 1962, before signing a ten-year contract with Disney in 1966. In fact, in a bizarre bit of trivia, the final words ever written down by Walt Disney himself were ‘Kurt Russell,’ which he scrawled on a piece of paper shortly before he died.
Once he grew out of being a teen idol, Russell went on to build a filmography jam-packed with enduring favorites from John Carpenter’s Escape from New York, The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China to cult classics Tango & Cash, Tombstone and Stargate. The 69 year-old recently told direct/writer Chris Columbus that he wanted Santa Claus to be the final role of a lengthy and distinguished career, and based on the popularity of Netflix‘s The Christmas Chronicles, the streaming service should be keeping him employed for a while yet.
Both entries in the holiday franchise are among the five most-watched titles on the platform around the world today, with the recently released sequel currently in first place ahead of the surprisingly popular Italian drama The Beast, and the original sitting in fifth. And with the festive season now in full swing, expect The Christmas Chronicles series to continue dominating the Netflix charts for at least the next couple of weeks.
