Kurt Russell

Walt Disney's last written note reportedly said 'Kurt Russell.' That's one way to summarize a childhood. Russell signed a 10-year Disney contract at 15 and made 12 family films. The pivot came deliberately: he played mass murderer Charles Whitman on TV in 1975, then Elvis Presley in a 1979 biopic that earned him an Emmy nomination. Neither fully broke the image. Snake Plissken did. Escape from New York (1981) was the role he needed, and he built it on Clint Eastwood's economy of movement, since Eastwood was Carpenter's first choice anyway.

Russell reportedly directed Tombstone (1993) and let someone else take the credit. George P. Cosmatos received the official directing nod while Russell mapped out shots each evening. He confirmed it only after Cosmatos died in 2005. That kind of patience explains something about a career with more longevity than most of his 1980s action contemporaries. He's still working, turning up in Fast & Furious sequels and Netflix Christmas movies, but the bigger ongoing story is 40-plus years with Goldie Hawn, no wedding ring, on purpose.

Before acting became the plan, Russell played minor league baseball through 1973 until a shoulder injury ended that career. He auditioned for Han Solo before Harrison Ford got the part, and Bull Durham was reportedly written for him before the studio went with Kevin Costner. In 1997, he was piloting a plane into Phoenix when he witnessed the 'Phoenix Lights' UFO event. He didn't mention it publicly for 20 years. Reporting it to air traffic control and saying nothing else is very Snake Plissken behavior.