Having been in the industry since he was a child, Kurt Russell has some great Hollywood stories to tell.
The Overboard actor made his screen debut in 1963, with an uncredited role in It Happened at the World’s Fair, playing a boy who kicked a pilot, who just so happened to be played by Elvis Presley.
Among his other earlier works was the TV Western The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, which he worked on when he was 12 years old, and which led to a friendship with its lead star Charles Bronson.
Back in 2018, Kurt, during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, was asked about the best gift he has ever given, and he told the story of the “most interesting” one he has given, which was to his former co-star Charles, before he “became a big movie star.”
He remembered Charles, who passed away aged 81 in 2003, as having had a bit of a “notorious reputation,” suggesting he wasn’t necessarily known for his warmth. “I heard it was his birthday, so I went out thinking [about] what I could get him, and I got him a remote control airplane,” he then said.
Kurt then revealed: “I gave it to him, and he just kind of looked at me, looked at the ground, and then walked away.”
© Getty ImagesThe TV show crew then consoled him, noting Charles’ signature, seemingly icy persona, however just a few minutes later, the assistant director went up to Kurt to say Charles wanted to see him in his room.
“He couldn’t really look at me,” he said of when he showed up at his door, before revealing that Charles went on to share that nobody had “ever” gotten him a gift before, hence his surprise.
“What came out of that, a little bit later, he knew that I liked skateboarding, and he got these fantastic skateboards for himself and myself, and he started skateboarding,” he went on.
© Getty ImagesCharles not only returned the favor when it came to gift giving, but became a guardian of sorts for Kurt on set.
© Getty ImagesHe further shared the story about how someone eventually reprimanded Kurt for skateboarding around the MGM lot, and when Charles asked him why he wasn’t skateboarding, and was told he’d been asked to stop, he took him to the head of the studio’s office to inform them that they would in fact be skateboarding around the lot.
Following his work on The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, which was based on Robert Lewis Taylor’s eponymous novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1959, Kurt went on to sign a 10-year contract with Walt Disney Productions, becoming one of the studio’s top stars of the 1970s.
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