Kurt Russell has had quite a remarkable film career, having played numerous iconic and memorable characters while tackling a wide variety of genres. Over sixty years, he’s been directed by legendary directors such as Quentin Tarantino and John Carpenter, joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and despite the surprisingly minimal amount of work he has done within the genre, he has also become something of an icon when it comes to westerns. When people think of Russell, it’s more than likely that his role as Wyatt Earp in the 1993 classic, Tombstone, comes to mind. Many may not even be aware, however, that Russell had initially begun his career as a child actor. Starting in the mid-60s, he made his first appearances throughout various guest-starring roles on multiple TV series, but it was through his guest appearance on Gunsmoke that he got one of his first tastes of what the Western genre had to offer.
As one of the longest-running television shows of all time (20 seasons), Gunsmoke saw its fair share of celebrity guest stars, many of whom were even before their careers kicked off into superstardom, from Jodie Foster to Harrison Ford. When Kurt Russell made his first of what became only a total of two appearances on the show (playing different characters in each one), not many could have ever expected that he would ever go from playing an on-off role in one of the most beloved western shows of the time to playing one of the most iconic western characters in what is often considered to be one of the greatest western films ever made.
Kurt Russell’s Career Started Off Earlier Than Most People Realize
For those who are as familiar with Kurt Russell’s earlier work, it may be difficult to imagine the fact that he started his acting career at only age 11. He made his on-screen debut in 1963 with a bit part in the Elvis Presley film, It Happened At the World’s Fair. Before further hitting it off on the big screen with numerous Disney films, however, the beginning of his child acting career mostly consisted of smaller one-off roles on the small screen. During this time, he appeared in such hit series of the 1960s as The Fugitive, in which he played the unintentionally kidnapped son of Lt. Philip Gerard. It was through his role in The Virginian, another Western series that was considered something of a rival to that of Gunsmoke, however, that he first dipped his toe into the realm of the American Western.
In his episode of The Virginian, Rusell played a young boy When the time came for him to make his debut on Gunsmoke, he wound up playing a character that surprisingly shared quite a few similarities to his role in The Virginian.
Who Did Kurt Russell Play in Gunsmoke?
Kurt Russell was only 13 years old when he first guest-starred in Gunsmoke with the premiere episode of Season 10, “Blue Heaven”. In the episode, Russell played the role of Packy Kelrin, a young runaway boy who ends up crossing paths with Kip Gillman, a man on the run from a murder charge and robbery that he didn’t commit. As the two pose as father and son to mislead anyone looking for them, Kip manages to get Packy home to his mother, Elena, in Dodge City. Rather than leave town, however, Gillman chooses to stay and help Elena with her drinking problem and fix up their living situation. By the time Matt Dillon finds out the
p2 It’s an incredibly surreal thing to see such a legendary talent like Russell in the infancy of his career. However, it was clear that even during his childhood, before he found his proper footing in the industry, he had not only had all the makings of a movie star, but one that was more than suited for westerns.
Since His Start on Gunsmoke, Kurt Russell Has Became Something of a Western Icon
As surprising as it may be to learn, despite having been so associated with the genre at a young age and being so well known for having played Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, Kurt Russell hasn’t done many other Western films. In the years since Tombstone, he’s only taken on two other Western-related roles. In 2015, it returned to the genre with two movies, both of which received high critical acclaim. The first was Bone Tomahawk, a film that leaned slightly towards horror, in which Russell played a small-town sheriff who leads a posse on a rescue mission to save three people from a Native American clan of cave-swelling cannibals. The second, The Hateful Eight, saw him teaming up once again with frequent directorial collaborator Quentin Tarantino as he took on the role of ruthless bounty hunter John Ruth (aka “The Hangman”).
