Kurt Vogel Russell (born March 17, 1951) is an American actor. He began acting on television, at the age of 12, in a lead role in the western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1963–1964).
Russell made his film debut with an uncredited part for It Happened at the World's Fair, playing a boy who kicked a pilot (Elvis Presley) in the leg. On April 24, 1963, Russell guest-starred in the ABC series Our Man Higgins, starring Stanley Holloway as an English butler in an American family.
In 1966, the last thing Walt Disney wrote were the words "Kurt Russell" on a piece of paper. That same year, Russell was signed to a ten-year contract with The Walt Disney Company, where he became, according to Robert Osborne, the "studio's top star of the '70s". He starred as Dexter Riley in Disney films such as The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), Now You See Him, Now You Don't (1972), and The Strongest Man in the World (1975).
He starred in other Disney movies including The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit (1969), Guns in the Heather (1969), The Barefoot Executive (1971), Charley and the Angel (1973), and Superdad (1973), to name a few.
In 1979, Russell was nominated for an Emmy Award for the made-for-television film Elvis. In the 1980s, he starred in several films directed by John Carpenter, including anti-hero roles such as army hero-turned-robber Snake Plissken in the futuristic action film Escape from New York (1981) and its sequel Escape from L.A. (1996), the horror film The Thing (1982), and the kung-fu comedy action film Big Trouble in Little China (1986). Russell was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for his performance in Mike Nichols' Silkwood (1983).
Russell starred in several other notable films, including Used Cars (1981), The Best of Times (1986), Overboard (1987), Tango & Cash (1989), Backdraft (1991), Tombstone (1993), Stargate (1994), Executive Decision (1996), Vanilla Sky (2001), Miracle (2004), Sky High (2005), Death Proof (2007), The Hateful Eight (2015) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).
He also appeared in The Fast and the Furious franchise as Mr. Nobody, having starred in Furious 7 (2015), The Fate of the Furious (2017) and F9 (2021), portrayed Ego in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) installments Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) and What If...? (2021), and subsequently portrayed Santa Claus in The Christmas Chronicles (2018) and The Christmas Chronicles 2 (2020).
Life-loving, people-centric thrill seekers, the ESFP personality type is interested in people and experiences throwing themselves into relationships and life in general, they have a genuine interest in others and their dislike of rules and routine, are justified by their view that their reason for existing is to bring harmony, sympathy and support to peoples' lives so they may slide out of regulations or obligations on the grounds that: 'I just had to do something to help.' The keywords here are 'do' and 'help;' caring and practical in equal measure. The ESFP has an ability to make others feel so special. Down to earth and practical, ESFPs live in the here and now preferring to take life as it comes with the optimistic view that it’s bound to be good, (and if it isn’t then there’s always next time!).
If there is a crisis, the ESFP will be there, taking charge, offering support, revelling in their ability to help, loving the drama. Their energies and infectious enthusiasm, mean that other people will like them, and they will build relationships easily and often. The ability of the ESFP to drop everything and provide immediate, practical support may come at the expense of an ability to plan, schedule and prioritise. However, those on the receiving end will be grateful and left feeling really special. This may also cause a blurring between social time and work time, and the immediacy of the issue will, for the ESFP, be paramount and so it may be difficult to put an issue to 'one side' until a task is completed, or it is time to go home, etc.
The ESFP is not naturally good at follow-through, and will impulsively follow only their own urges, which tend to be the needs of others. Through meeting the needs of others, their own needs are also met; there is a paradoxical self-indulgence in indulging others. On the positive side the ESFP has an ability to make others feel so special, be excellent 'glue' for a team, and good at maintaining morale. As their decisions will be emotional and values-based, people will feel that they are valued and special and, whilst meetings may last longer than average, and little planning gets done, everyone leaves feeling part of something good and indeed feeling good.
The desire to make work a fun place may also cause difficulties in that an ESFP may not be able to take the hard decision - they prefer harmony and fun. This pragmatic desire to help, and do so immediately, means the ESFP will not respond well to being time-bound, or locked into a project. They live primarily in the moment and longer term for the ESFP might be Saturday, probably Friday. The ESFP likes concrete, material things and will take pride in their appearance and fill their lives with lots of experiences, jumping from one to the next in a breathless flurry. This can see them over-commit and take on too much, but their carefree nature means they will tend to charm their way through. As they want (indeed need) to experience everything, the ESFP may well have trouble prioritising as their focus is only for ‘now’ and so follow through won’t come naturally, and they’ll look to leave as many options open as possible, although the ‘F’ side means they will feel genuinely guilty when they let people down. The spontaneous, impulsive nature of this character is almost always entertaining and brings a smile to even the most serious of situations.
Primarily of the moment, extraverted and people-centric ESFPs do not like logic, analysis or abstraction or even thinking too deeply as it is difficult, time-consuming and energy sapping and it takes the focus away from the boundless things to be experienced - and it’s not very much fun. So let’s party!
Choose another celebrity type to compare side by side the different approaches work, attitudes to conflict and the way they engage with others.
