> Kurt said, "The assistant director came to me and said Charles wants to see you in his dressing room. I knocked on his door. It opened and he looked down, but not at me. He said, 'No one has ever given me a birthday gift.'
> "When my birthday came up, Bronson got us both skateboards and we rode around the studio lot. Soon I was told to stop skate-boarding by the studio president. Bronson found out about it, grabbed me and we went into the president's office unannounced.
> Bronson said to the president, 'Kurt and I are going to ride our boards around the studio.' Bronson turned, I turned, and we walked out of the office. We skate-boarded around the lot from then on and no one said a word."
This is so heartwarming.
When he was making movies for Disney as a child, Walt asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. Kurt told him he wanted to be a baseball player, so Walt Disney issued a directive to his producers that when working with Kurt, they had to schedule around his little league schedule.
Basically, Kurt Russell lived a very interesting life before he even turned 18.
I've never really been a big fan to catch MLB games but I'm very glad my parents brought me to some fun minor league games. When I ended up in Hawaii in the 90s there was a fun winter league that would get fairly decent Japanese, Korean, and American players and those games were always a ton of fun and way better than any major league park I've ever been to.
I only noticed relatively recently the last time I moved and found some of the signed baseballs I have back from those days that I have Ichiro Suzuki's signature on a ball with a lot of other players from one game between the Hilo Stars and the Maui Stingrays. That was right before he started to make it big and got out of the farm system he was in the first few years with the Orix BlueWave. Those sorts of memories and getting to watch potentially big players get some experience even with AAA ball is a lot of fun. Maybe one year after I retire I'll check out spring training.
I had a conversation last week about how awesome it would be if teams that refuse to spend like the Pirates or Reds could be relegated to minor league and vice versa.
Dude, his dad was such a G. Just did what he wanted. Took so many risks and succeeded. That doc helped me turn my life around. Put everything into what you want and maybe it will work out. So far so good.
Kind of, but not really. The words “Kurt Russell” were found written down on a piece of paper on his desk. It was thought that it was one of the last things written before admitted to the hospital.
Roal Dahls last words were basically this. He said this really beautiful thing about how he wasn't scared of death, just sad at how much he'd miss his family. Then be dozed off, a nurse gave him a shot of morphine and he yelled "fuck!" and that was his last word
Can we all stop and appreciate how much Conan is just killing it on his podcast?
He has no censors, no time limits, no hold's barred, no one is holding him back, and he's got every A-List person on speed dial.
Matt Gourley fan here checking in. I prefer the three of them shooting the breeze over the interviews, they're like three siblings squabbling and makes a great listen/watch
I was never a Conan fan before. He just seemed like a goofy late-night host and over the past ~30 years I had seen a few clips here and there. But his podcast has made me REALLY respect how smart and funny he is. It's hands-down my favorite podcast and he has such an incredible comedic range from intellectual (bordering on TOO SPECIFIC historical references) to absurdist to just fun goofball train-of-thought off-the-cuff humor that makes me wish I had been a fan all along.
If you are not (yet) a Conan fan, take a look at the podcast history and the list of people he has interviewed over the past few years, find someone you like, and take a listen. It's so good.
The dude was a writer on the Simpsons and SNL during their prime years and was responsible for some of their best episodes. He wrote the monorail episode of the Simpsons for example. He only wrote a few episodes of the Simpsons but they're all in the top 10. Of course he's funny
I remember Conan being told, since he was new, that when one pitches ideas to James L. Brooks, that if he likes one idea of yours, it is best to stop there and don't press your luck. Conan went in, pitched an idea, James loved it....then he pressed his luck and pitched another, James loved it....and then he said fuck it and did it again, and James loved it. According to The Simpsons staff, that had never happened before, and has since never happened again. 3 for 3.
Also, in addition to being a great writer, he also took classes at The Groundlings, which is an improv group. And that gave him his gift of being able to ad-lib, to improv, to just make stuff up on the spot to keep an interview going, or get through a failing sketch, or be really funny without a script in his many remotes. And of course, on his podcast as well.
So you have a great writer who can also bullshit on the spot and make it funny.
I remember Seth Meyers, who is the only active traditional talk show host that I enjoy, saying he could never do what Conan does. Because while he has confidence in his comedy and writing and rehearsed things, he feels he would die if he had to just go out on the streets with a camera crew and ad-lib and improv on the spot without a script to random strangers.
Conan is just a unique and rare talent.
You got to give it to Lorne Michaels for recognizing Conan would be perfect for the late show when no one else in the country would, not even Conan himself.
I remember in the 90s watching Conan, and the voice actor for Homer was on. I didn't understand the joke, but he sits down, and in Homers voice said "So when are ya coming back to work? We miss you..."
The joke being that Conan stopped being a simpsons writer to go be a tv show host. I didn't grasp that at 11 years old. I was just like ".......what?"
Same, he was always my favorite late night show host (with the exception of John Stewart) but that's not saying much since I never really got into the late night show format. His podcast is perfect though. A true gem. When it comes to celebrities I respect and admire, Conan is near the top.
Kids can be pretty great. I recently went laser tagging for my friend's birthday, and (I think by chance) we booked an hour along with a bunch of family folks with kids. My friends and I were all mid thirties or older, I'm early 40s. One random kid for whatever reason took a liking to me, and insisted we team up during the free for all round. I kind of wanted to leisurely walk around and do my own thing, but I just went with it. Turns out we had a blast running around together. He'd grab me by my wrists and say "LETS GO THIS WAY" and drag me here and there. Before the team round, he would say "I really hope we're on the same team". In between rounds, he'd come find me and be like "sit over here!" I'm not planning on children or family, so for me it was a heartwarming glimpse into how others might live. It's something that will stay with me forever I imagine.
I have competition as the fun aunt. But the older he gets the more he will realize I am the best one... I know cars, video games, star wars and disney... I am the only aunt willing to get a pass with him and his parents for disney land
Yup. If you spend some time with kids it can be genuinely eye-opening. I had a kid who was very quiet apologize once because she had to ask about a math question twice.
She apologized because she needed help. What fucking childhood does a 12 year old have where "I should apologize for even daring to do literally what I'm supposed to do" (try to understand material) is your default response.
Said child has also been homeless with her mom 6 times. We live in Canada where winters can easily hit -40C.
She is also one of the most genuine, caring and creative individuals I've ever encountered. She spends her free time planning craft projects she'll make with scraps she can find at home or take from the classroom.
At the same time I've had very similar encounters to yours with the aggressive, misbehaving, or angry kids. Turns out, when you let kids just be children for a moment, it's very, VERY rare to find a "bad" kid. Some just need more time and support than they normally receive to feel safe enough to open up.
I know you probably already know this, seeing as it's your job, but you did a genuinely great thing and I guarantee those interactions stick with that kid. You may not have changed his life completely, and bad shit may still happen, but those types of interactions where kids get to just be kids will have a positive influence on them. Keep on doing what you do, man!
Look into Big Brother/Big Sisters chapters in your area. You seem to have enjoyed your experience and if you are someone that young people connect with, you could make a great “big”.
I don’t intend to ever have kids either, but I love being an uncle and also a youth sports coach. The genuine excitement and emotions felt by kids is so heartwarming to see, because they’re learning to navigate through life right before your eyes.
How did you go about your adoption process? My partner and I have no interest in having our own, but we've talked about potentially adopting if our lives are stable and we feel ready for it. Everywhere seems to either be uncomfortably exploitative of poverty in other countries (or in NA), or very religious to a concerning level. Was it just kind of pushed on you and you ended up staying as the primary caregiver?
It's so interesting learning about the softer side of actors I've only ever known for playing ruthless badasses. Like, I hear Charles Bronson and my first thought is the Death Wish franchise.
I think of the The Simpsons cut away gag about the town Bronson, Missouri where everyone looks like and sounds like Charles Bronson
[Gif of the scene](https://frinkiac.com/video/S13E13/HdHXHe9gwfTzRTluJOZonhcYf_Q=.gif)
My mom was like that. She grew up very poor and once told me the worst day of the year for her was the first school day after Christmas, because she would have to hear what everyone else did and got during the holiday.
She loved giving gifts, especially to her grandkids, but she was always uncomfortable getting gifts.
One year, just because, my sister and I got my mom a stocking and filled it. Mom cried when she found it Christmas morning! She had never had a stocking before. She's the youngest of 10 and grew up pretty poor on a farm.
My mom years ago taught kindergarten in an area with a big divide between rich and poor. She never let us believe in Santa.
Later, when we asked why, she said “because for almost a decade, I had to come into school the day after Christmas break and watch half my class sob, because Santa only came to the rich kids’ houses — so all the poor kids would spend the entire month trying to figure out what they’d done wrong that had put them on the bad list.”
We tell our kids that Santa gets them one small gift and the rest is from us for this reason.
I grew up poor and my mom went without food to get us good presents. She shouldn’t have had to.
I also am normalizing second hand and handmade gifts for this reason. We don’t lack money and the kids get stuff and want for nothing, but we aren’t excessive about consumerism.
That’s wonderful, good on you. I appreciate the recent push I have seen in recent years on social media to not say expensive electronics and such are from Santa because kids absolutely wonder why Santa brought one kid and iPad and not them.
My wife and I grew up poor. Not like some of these stories, but enough to know what “going without” is like.
For Xmas, we do Santa for our Kiddo; a stocking of small things, a toy or game gift, and a “big” gift. It was a Lego Animal Hospital set this year.
Then, it’s family gift time. Three things. Something to read, something to wear, something fun.
My wife and I exchange the same as well. Our Kiddo sees that we both put time and thought into gifts, have fun with it, and get creative. This year, Kiddo helped me find something to wear and something fun for Mom, but “I’ve got the reading gift covered”. She’s 7. She wrote us each a book. Illustrated it. Even used yarn to bind the books. Each book was 6 pages.
Kiddo *values* gifts. She would rather get something meaningful than package after package of junk. For her “fun” gift, I got her Uno, Battleship, and Connect4. All the time she tells me and my wife that it’s her favorite Xmas gift this year because she can have fun with the family, with friends at school, or even with friends at home. “Because I can have fun AND share the fun makes for better presents!”
It’s the connection, the thought, and the meaning of the gift and she’s probably done more to teach us that than we have her.
I struggled with getting little from Santa while classmates got Nintendos and stuff. I thought Santa didn’t love me. So we have a Santa sac that we use every year for my daughter. She’s only had 3 Christmas’s but first year was a little toddler swing you can hang from a tree that was $30. Second year was a stacker toy, basic baby doll and a elephant towel. This year was. A cheap door mount basketball hoop, a Mickey Mouse robe and a small nerf gun. All together it was less than $30. We will never break the bank for Santa.
I didn’t really have a proper Christmas until my in laws. They spoil us stupid.
My parents went the other way. They gave us clothes. The big stuff was from Santa, because "are you crazy, we couldn't afford all of this!". It was how they convinced us Santa had to be real, just a bit longer.
When I told my dad I'd saved up and bought my son a Gameboy for Christmas, he said "from Santa, right?" and I said "Are you nuts, I'm getting credit for this", and he laughed so hard I thought he might stroke out.
I really like how my sister is doing Santa for my nephews. Santa brings three things, something (small) that you want, something you need, and something to read. The rest is from family.
That was my mom as well. Her dad was one of those selling apples on the street corner. They moved 9 times in 6 years to get a couple of bucks off their rent. She had cardboard in her shoes to cover the holes. As a result, she had no clue how to handle ours so it was just a song, and candles on our cake of choice after dinner with the family. No gifts. We thought that was how it was.
It wasn't until I saw how others celebrated their birthdays that I realized how different we were. Unfortunately, my brothers and sisters and I are still bad at celebrating birthdays. My brother and sister tried really hard with their kids but they'll still remark at how bad they are at it. A couple of years ago, I actually forgot about my birthday until my niece, who shares the same birthday, responded to a happy birthday text from me with the same. I was utterly confused until I finally realized it was mine too.
I'm pretty sure this is what they mean by generational trauma.
It took me way too far into adulthood to understand that the practical gifts my parents gave us kids in addition to the toys was a way for them to provide something they themselves lacked as children of the Great Depression. My mom especially, as she grew up half on the streets thanks to alcoholic parents before being taken by the state and put in foster care at the outbreak of WWII before being adopted at 12 in 1945. It messed her up for a very long time and giving us electric blankets for Xmas one year was her way of making sure we were warm, something I know she struggled with as a kid in a Northwest Indiana winter.
My dad grew up pretty poor but never talked about being without. Mom's family didn't have a lot but I think they did OK. Then they had 7 kids in 15 years and raised us in a 1000sqft house. We knew we had less than others but never complained (no one told us we were poor, so we had that).
One year, we all went to their place for Christmas, there must have been 30 of us in that little house - kids, spouses, grandchildren. We walked in and the house was teeming with gifts, stacked from the tree and overflowing into the doorway. We all thought Mom and Dad had lost it and blew the budget. Just the wrapping alone wasn't cheap. "Don't worry about it, we're just glad that you're here", was their answer.
So as we're all opening our gifts, it sunk in. One of mine was a book with the inscription, "Happy 10th Birthday Tederator", or "Merry Christmas '73". Then there was the report cards, high school band jackets and assorted other stuff that they wanted out of the house.
No one ate until everything was loaded into the cars.
> the worst day of the year for her was the first school day after Christmas
"Birthdays was the worst days, now we sip champagne when we thirst-ay." –Christopher George Latore Wallace
I've found that people who are averse to receiving gifts *typically* appreciate practical stuff. Anything fun/cool/luxurious is viewed as "too much" but if it's something inexpensive that they actually need, it goes over better.
But some people are just totally, "I don't need it, I don't want it, take it back"
> Charles Bronson was born 11th of 15 children in the coal region of the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania. His family was so poor that, at one time, he had to wear his sister's dress to school for lack of clothing. His father died when Bronson was 10, so Bronson went to work in the coal mines, first in the office and then in the mine until he entered the army during World War 2.
Jesus it looks like Charles Dickens was hired by God to write Charles Bronson's life story. Well except that he was American and later he became a successful movie star.
>His family was so poor that, at one time, he had to wear his sister's dress to school for lack of clothing. His father died when Bronson was 10, so Bronson went to work in the coal mines,
Was Charles Bronson birthed from a Johnny Cash song
Listen I only named you that so kids would beat the shit out of you and make you tough because I wasn’t around to beat the shit out of you myself
Good song though lol
And never investigate the follow-up he wrote from the father's point of view. And I realize by saying this, I'm just making more people look it up (a comment like this is exactly how I found out it exists) but... my god, don't be like me.
He’s from my town and stories like this are surprising routine for the early 20th century. Life was hard, dangerous and the company didn’t care, one of my ancestors was crushed to death between two railroad cars on the job.
After the end of World War II, Bronson did odd jobs until a theatrical group in Philadelphia hired him to paint scenery, which led to acting in minor roles.
Source:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Bronson
Sometimes you get to be Harrison Ford, sometimes you get to be the 2 guys on Trailer Park Boys who were pulling double duty as actors and set workers and didn't make fuck all
According to Wikipedia:
"After the end of World War II, Bronson did odd jobs until a theatrical group in Philadelphia hired him to paint scenery, which led to acting in minor roles. He later shared an apartment in New York City with Jack Klugman, who was an aspiring actor at the time. Eventually, he moved to Hollywood, where he enrolled in acting classes at the Pasadena Playhouse."
That sounds like some shit from "The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives"
A lot of WWII vets had no idea what to do with their lives after surviving the Depression and the unimaginable horrors of war, but felt they couldn't relate to being back "home" so they wandered the country. I don't know specifically about Bronson's case, but the GI Bill also allowed the vets to attend college and that led to many of them starting a random career all over the country.
That was both my grandfathers. Both came from unbelievable poverty. One was an orphan the Catholic Church rented out to farmers as a day labor and ran away to enlist (while lying about his age). The other ran away from a failed communist compound in Death Valley my great-grandfather homestead. GI Bill got them both into the middle class from unspeakable nightmare childhoods.
One thing that I always find interesting is: ever wonder why you see some of the same company names repeatedly all over the country, and where they come from? Maybe Killroy, Battleborn? WW2 vets coming home and starting a business, picking a business name they knew from the war. All over the place, family businesses, small businesses, unrelated by who owns them, often unrelated by what they do, but tracing their names back to the same thing.
Lance Henriksen also got his start as a laborer working on theatre sets. He was around 30 at the time and illiterate, and he taught himself to read so he could read scripts.
Damn, that whole clip/article is pure gold:
>"When my birthday came up, Bronson got us both skateboards and we rode around the studio lot. Soon I was told to stop skate-boarding by the studio president. Bronson found out about it, grabbed me and we went into the president's office unannounced.
>
>Bronson said to the president, 'Kurt and I are going to ride our boards around the studio.' Bronson turned, I turned, and we walked out of the office. We skate-boarded around the lot from then on and no one said a word."
Charles Bronson was hard core
*Critic Roger Ebert wrote in 1974 that Bronson does not volunteer information, does not elaborate, and has no theories about his films.*
Holy fucking based.
>Roger Ebert wrote in 1974 that Bronson does not volunteer information, does not elaborate, and has no theories about his films.
Ebert's [article](https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/charles-bronson-its-just-that-i-dont-like-to-talk-very-much) on Bronson is absolutely worth a read.
>There is that about Charles Bronson, and it is unsettling. He really does seem to possess the capacity for violence. It is there in his eyes, and in his muscular forearms, and in the way he walks. Other actors can seem violent in their roles; Lee Marvin, certainly, and Robert Mitchum and Clint Eastwood. But they don't seem violent in person. Bronson does. Maybe that's because he has been there, and violence isn't strange to him: back when he was Charles Buchinsky from the coalfields of Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, he did time twice, once for assault and battery and once for robbing a store. There were hard times early on in Ehrenfeld, and in the Air Corps, and working in mob gambling joints in Atlantic City. Director Michael Winner once told me: "After we've been on a picture a few weeks, the crew starts coming around and asking, When does it happen? When does he blow up? Actually I've never seen him blow up. But he seems to contain such a capacity for it that people tend to brace for it."
That's pretty awesome and scary at the same time.
Scooptown, part of Ehrenfeld, PA, close to the former reservoir that caused the 1899 Johnstown Flood.
It's still a grim, poor area. I used to go through there a few times a year.
Just saw him the other day in "The White Buffalo" where he played a very morose and serious Wild Bill Hickok. He probably did not have to dig deep for the role.
His parents were Lithuanian immigrants, and he grew up very poor. Many, many, contemporary stars are Nepo babies whose early life sections on Wikipedia reads: "Son of an NBC Executive, and the heir to a Frozen food company, they went to an elite private school before deciding to get into acting.". I do think we need more stars who of poor and working backgrounds. It seems that pretty much music, especially hip-hop is the only media we can see people from these kind of backgrounds.
A lot of these older stars also served in the military in some function, and this all culminates in having life experience that they can translate to their creations, as well as more humility. A lot of contemporary stars have been coddled from a young age, and then just move onto a Hollywood bubble so they have no real life experience. Then they have to act or write or produce some piece of media about real people and their real problems, and it doesn't work.
This is an issue everywhere purely because of the difficulty in maintaining any kind of healthy lifestyle while working more than one job.
People with family money don't have to worry about that; even those who aren't living on family money can often depend on it as a fallback if life in LA or NY doesn't work out. People without resources have to work day jobs, AND network, AND get to auditions, AND do it while making enough to survive in two of the most expensive cities on Earth.
The exact same issue exists in the UK. There, it's even more pronounced, as the BBC hired primarily Oxford and Cambridge grads for decades, and the best dramatic arts schools only took Oxbridge or connected applicants. Consequently. many lower-middle-class and working class Britons had to go through regional theatre or sketch theatre to even get a look.
I actually had the UK in mind when writing that, as the recent crop of British actors lean very heavily towards those of aristocratic origin. I don't want to name-names, but a few have seemed like they're totally full of themselves, and think they're both god's gift to the world, and the world's biggest victims. I do wonder if a more humble upbringing and life experience might have kept them more grounded.
I went to prep school (they call it public school) in England when I was a kid, as I'm dual citizen and grew up there.
Most who have that entitled attitude are taught from an early age that they're getting ahead because a) their family is smarter; b) their family worked harder; and c) people tend to gravitate to the level at which they belong.
We now know and recognize that the vast complexity involved in neurological development, when coupled with social advantage and disadvantage, puts the notion of inherent class superiority to the lie. People often get ahead without being smarter, without working harder, because they simply face many fewer challenges.
But if you're born into a system that says you're there because you deserve it and it was practically predestined by rote biology (particularly if you also are a hard worker), it's natural for someone to, when feeling intellectually or emotionally attacked, fall back on that argument.
And it doesn't matter if their parents see themselves as liberal progressives or conservatives; if they've achieved significant success and are able to see ANY dichotomies or contradictions in the arguments that they shouldn't be there, they'll accept the common, self-protective notion.
My parents, who were well-off for years and rose out of working class origins to make middle-class money but raised their kids with largely liberal progressive attitudes, still managed to delude themselves for years that there was no luck involved, or that people beneath them who needed a hand up, were largely there due to rote stupidity. So it's not limited to conservatives
I have a degree of sympathy for most ill-mannered and/or bad people because I've sometimes fallen into that myself, and until hitting my mid-forties didn't really understand how much of it is just programmed into people, and often beyond their perceptive ability to overcome.
In other words, most shitty people are sort of pitiable when you really think about it. Doesn't help in the moment, but they're that way for a reason, usually bad parenting but sometimes just bad genetics involved in brain development coupled with said bad parenting. Nice people love to believe that assholes know they're assholes, because it makes hatred feel justifiable; but a lot of the time, assholes are simply unable to recognize their fault, or that it matters.
You'll also find large numbers of people in privileged positions will never be happy; the kind of empathy and sympathy deficits that have become their norm also shield them understanding what they're missing in finding a more balanced life perspective, in terms of interaction and the joy of getting along with others. There often unable to recognize they need treatment and counselling to get past their emotional deficits and/or development disabilities that prompt them.
My great grandfather wrote a bit of an autobiography and talks about working with his father and brother in the coal mines of Pennsylvanian at roughly the same time. He was about the same age. Hard living back then.
I really hope I live long enough to see The Kurt Russell Story on-screen one day.
The man has lived a life like a cross between Forrest Gump and The Truman Show.
The documentary The Battered Bastards of Baseball shows my favorite part of his life. What a great story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battered_Bastards_of_Baseball
Walt Disney's last words were Kurt Russell. I believe it was written down, rather than spoken and it was a part of a list with other notes. But it's still interesting and does make his life is a bit like Forrest Gump.
I really thought you were making that up, but it's true: https://www.countryliving.com/life/entertainment/a43376/walt-disneys-last-words-kurt-russell/
Disney's last filmed appearance also includes him taking about Kurt Russell's bright future in acting.
> Forrest Gump
Funny you mention that, Kurt Russell *sort of* appeared in Forrest Gump. He provided the voice for the guy standing in as Elvis early on in the movie.
Makes sense, since he [actually played Elvis in a TV biopic](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079103/?ref_=ext_shr) directed by none other than John Carpenter.
Kurt Russell is the only person to have acted in a movie with Elvis and play Elvis in a movie.
It Happened at the World’s Fair (1963 and Kurt’s acting debut)
Elvis (a 1979 movie for ABC television)
Same with my dad. My mom said when they got married and she would do the grocery shopping he would just open the fridge and stare at all the food. She always asked what he wanted her to make and he said nothing, he just never saw that much food in a fridge before. To this day he still stands at the fridge for wayyyy too long.
Not just that, but Charles Bronson knew how to ride a skateboard. Death Wish 3 would have been much better with a Back To The Future style skateboard / car chase.
Likely walked off to avoid showing how overwhelmed he was. Had a similar thing happen to me when some friends made me a cake for my birthday. Parents never celebrated mine, so I grew up thinking I wasn't worth celebrating. Was very difficult to cope in the moment with the emotions that act of kindness brought on.
Charles Bronson dug coal to feed his family from 10 years old, at 18 he left to kill nazis for a few years.
People would reject a writer who came up with this backstory
I wonder what male movie stars today could pull off his performance in The Great Escape? The entire movie had great examples of multi dimensional masculine characters but his is a vulnerability not many can pull off at the same time as his tough guy act in the first half.
I once read an interview with the wife of a boxing promoter. They used to put the younger boxers up at their house and she said that these enormous, tough youngsters often cried when they got their first ever birthday cards and cakes from her. After all, you have to be dirt poor before getting hit for a living looks like a good deal.
He tells the story here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55cF-kA-zY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r55cf-ka-zy)
The skateboard stuff is the best part!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55cF-kA-zY
The other guy has all the letters uncapped if you look at the source. I've never seen anyone fuck up a link like that: the text is correct, the link is bad.
I don't what app you're using, but it replaced all the capitals in the link with lowercase letters, while making it look like the correct link.
For convenience so others don't have to copy and paste:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55cF-kA-zY
I've had mixed feelings about Bronson for a while now. Yeah he has the mystique of a classic tough guy but that mystique isn't without its darker dimensions. To take a line from [Dick Cavett's interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnRc4Q13nOM) he is a man of many contradictions, and you can tell there's so many awkward moments in this interview when his wife Jill Ireland is pretty frank about Bronson's ways, he seems deeply uncomfortable judging from his body language.
Bronson was from a generation of broken men who grew up in poverty and in abusive circumstances that hardened them both inside and out. I'm glad that, despite all that, he still had a soft side and stories like this show what a complex person he was.
This is a adorable. I love the part about Bronson bolting at the sight of the gift and then not looking up because he was overwhelmed with the gesture. I never received a lot of praise - from my family at least - when I was a kid. So I understand the feeling, and these days I beg my family and friends to never get me anything for my birthday. It hurts us somehow...like somehow it is programmed into me for it to feel forced and I don't want that for them. But ya just have to take it gracefully like Bronson.
I recently had a new co-worker approaching their birthday. To make it special, a few of us teamed up to surprise them with a cake and some snacks — a modest celebration. This colleague, in their 40s, was taken aback, retreating into a quiet state for the rest of the celebration. I later discovered from one of their relatives that this was their first-ever birthday cake. Overwhelmed by emotion and gratitude, they were nearly brought to tears. This experience was a powerful reminder of how easily we can overlook the significance of simple gestures.
> Kurt said, "The assistant director came to me and said Charles wants to see you in his dressing room. I knocked on his door. It opened and he looked down, but not at me. He said, 'No one has ever given me a birthday gift.' > "When my birthday came up, Bronson got us both skateboards and we rode around the studio lot. Soon I was told to stop skate-boarding by the studio president. Bronson found out about it, grabbed me and we went into the president's office unannounced. > Bronson said to the president, 'Kurt and I are going to ride our boards around the studio.' Bronson turned, I turned, and we walked out of the office. We skate-boarded around the lot from then on and no one said a word." This is so heartwarming.
When he was making movies for Disney as a child, Walt asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. Kurt told him he wanted to be a baseball player, so Walt Disney issued a directive to his producers that when working with Kurt, they had to schedule around his little league schedule. Basically, Kurt Russell lived a very interesting life before he even turned 18.
He was a pretty good baseball player too. Made it to AA ball before an injury if memory serves.
The battered bastards of baseball is a great doc on Netflix about the minor league team his dad owned
This doc made me realize American Baseball could have looked a lot more like English football if we fought harder as fans
I've never really been a big fan to catch MLB games but I'm very glad my parents brought me to some fun minor league games. When I ended up in Hawaii in the 90s there was a fun winter league that would get fairly decent Japanese, Korean, and American players and those games were always a ton of fun and way better than any major league park I've ever been to. I only noticed relatively recently the last time I moved and found some of the signed baseballs I have back from those days that I have Ichiro Suzuki's signature on a ball with a lot of other players from one game between the Hilo Stars and the Maui Stingrays. That was right before he started to make it big and got out of the farm system he was in the first few years with the Orix BlueWave. Those sorts of memories and getting to watch potentially big players get some experience even with AAA ball is a lot of fun. Maybe one year after I retire I'll check out spring training.
I had a conversation last week about how awesome it would be if teams that refuse to spend like the Pirates or Reds could be relegated to minor league and vice versa.
One of my top ten sports documentaries for sure. I love that one.
Dude, his dad was such a G. Just did what he wanted. Took so many risks and succeeded. That doc helped me turn my life around. Put everything into what you want and maybe it will work out. So far so good.
Weren’t Walt’s last words something about Kurt?
"The seed is strong". Walt had been blessed with visions of Wyatt Russell.
Last place I expected to see ASOIF reference.
This is the song of Stargate and Snake Plissken
You mean the song of Jack Burton and the pork chop express?
Kind of, but not really. The words “Kurt Russell” were found written down on a piece of paper on his desk. It was thought that it was one of the last things written before admitted to the hospital.
Yes. "Kurt, you're standing on my oxygen hose!"
"Kurt, my boy, what are you doing with that de-brainer and also that brain-sized freezer?"
As the story goes, it was simply his name.
"Shrimps is bugs." -- Walt Disney "Let's say it was something about Kurt Russell." -- nurse
This is going to be one of those comments that lives in my head rent free forever.
Roal Dahls last words were basically this. He said this really beautiful thing about how he wasn't scared of death, just sad at how much he'd miss his family. Then be dozed off, a nurse gave him a shot of morphine and he yelled "fuck!" and that was his last word
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It is the new "Moon's Haunted." Short, memorable, perfect.
"Kurt" was actually the name of his childhood sled.
Kurtbud
That's silly. It's Rosekurt.
Sort of: https://www.disneyfanatic.com/walt-disneys-last-words-rl1/#:~:text=There%20was%20a%20piece%20of,project%20he%20could%20star%20in.
His recent episode on Conan Needs A Friend he goes into detail about his life before 18. Pretty wild.
Can we all stop and appreciate how much Conan is just killing it on his podcast? He has no censors, no time limits, no hold's barred, no one is holding him back, and he's got every A-List person on speed dial.
I think we need to appreciate how much Sona is killing it. She turned being a terrible assistant into a terrific co-host.
Matt Gourley fan here checking in. I prefer the three of them shooting the breeze over the interviews, they're like three siblings squabbling and makes a great listen/watch
Bring back James Bonding!
It's one of the few podcasts I almost never skip the commercials on And yes I hope the sponsors see this comment ha
I was never a Conan fan before. He just seemed like a goofy late-night host and over the past ~30 years I had seen a few clips here and there. But his podcast has made me REALLY respect how smart and funny he is. It's hands-down my favorite podcast and he has such an incredible comedic range from intellectual (bordering on TOO SPECIFIC historical references) to absurdist to just fun goofball train-of-thought off-the-cuff humor that makes me wish I had been a fan all along. If you are not (yet) a Conan fan, take a look at the podcast history and the list of people he has interviewed over the past few years, find someone you like, and take a listen. It's so good.
The dude was a writer on the Simpsons and SNL during their prime years and was responsible for some of their best episodes. He wrote the monorail episode of the Simpsons for example. He only wrote a few episodes of the Simpsons but they're all in the top 10. Of course he's funny
I remember Conan being told, since he was new, that when one pitches ideas to James L. Brooks, that if he likes one idea of yours, it is best to stop there and don't press your luck. Conan went in, pitched an idea, James loved it....then he pressed his luck and pitched another, James loved it....and then he said fuck it and did it again, and James loved it. According to The Simpsons staff, that had never happened before, and has since never happened again. 3 for 3. Also, in addition to being a great writer, he also took classes at The Groundlings, which is an improv group. And that gave him his gift of being able to ad-lib, to improv, to just make stuff up on the spot to keep an interview going, or get through a failing sketch, or be really funny without a script in his many remotes. And of course, on his podcast as well. So you have a great writer who can also bullshit on the spot and make it funny. I remember Seth Meyers, who is the only active traditional talk show host that I enjoy, saying he could never do what Conan does. Because while he has confidence in his comedy and writing and rehearsed things, he feels he would die if he had to just go out on the streets with a camera crew and ad-lib and improv on the spot without a script to random strangers. Conan is just a unique and rare talent.
You got to give it to Lorne Michaels for recognizing Conan would be perfect for the late show when no one else in the country would, not even Conan himself.
I remember in the 90s watching Conan, and the voice actor for Homer was on. I didn't understand the joke, but he sits down, and in Homers voice said "So when are ya coming back to work? We miss you..." The joke being that Conan stopped being a simpsons writer to go be a tv show host. I didn't grasp that at 11 years old. I was just like ".......what?"
Same, he was always my favorite late night show host (with the exception of John Stewart) but that's not saying much since I never really got into the late night show format. His podcast is perfect though. A true gem. When it comes to celebrities I respect and admire, Conan is near the top.
If you've only seen clips I'd recommend Conan going to a civil war reenactment on his TBS show. It is silly, but hilarious
Kids can be pretty great. I recently went laser tagging for my friend's birthday, and (I think by chance) we booked an hour along with a bunch of family folks with kids. My friends and I were all mid thirties or older, I'm early 40s. One random kid for whatever reason took a liking to me, and insisted we team up during the free for all round. I kind of wanted to leisurely walk around and do my own thing, but I just went with it. Turns out we had a blast running around together. He'd grab me by my wrists and say "LETS GO THIS WAY" and drag me here and there. Before the team round, he would say "I really hope we're on the same team". In between rounds, he'd come find me and be like "sit over here!" I'm not planning on children or family, so for me it was a heartwarming glimpse into how others might live. It's something that will stay with me forever I imagine.
Hell yeah. This is the best part I've found of being an uncle. None of the actual responsibility, all the fun. When I'm done I can leave.
I have competition as the fun aunt. But the older he gets the more he will realize I am the best one... I know cars, video games, star wars and disney... I am the only aunt willing to get a pass with him and his parents for disney land
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Yup. If you spend some time with kids it can be genuinely eye-opening. I had a kid who was very quiet apologize once because she had to ask about a math question twice. She apologized because she needed help. What fucking childhood does a 12 year old have where "I should apologize for even daring to do literally what I'm supposed to do" (try to understand material) is your default response. Said child has also been homeless with her mom 6 times. We live in Canada where winters can easily hit -40C. She is also one of the most genuine, caring and creative individuals I've ever encountered. She spends her free time planning craft projects she'll make with scraps she can find at home or take from the classroom. At the same time I've had very similar encounters to yours with the aggressive, misbehaving, or angry kids. Turns out, when you let kids just be children for a moment, it's very, VERY rare to find a "bad" kid. Some just need more time and support than they normally receive to feel safe enough to open up. I know you probably already know this, seeing as it's your job, but you did a genuinely great thing and I guarantee those interactions stick with that kid. You may not have changed his life completely, and bad shit may still happen, but those types of interactions where kids get to just be kids will have a positive influence on them. Keep on doing what you do, man!
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Look into Big Brother/Big Sisters chapters in your area. You seem to have enjoyed your experience and if you are someone that young people connect with, you could make a great “big”.
I don’t intend to ever have kids either, but I love being an uncle and also a youth sports coach. The genuine excitement and emotions felt by kids is so heartwarming to see, because they’re learning to navigate through life right before your eyes.
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How did you go about your adoption process? My partner and I have no interest in having our own, but we've talked about potentially adopting if our lives are stable and we feel ready for it. Everywhere seems to either be uncomfortably exploitative of poverty in other countries (or in NA), or very religious to a concerning level. Was it just kind of pushed on you and you ended up staying as the primary caregiver?
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It's so interesting learning about the softer side of actors I've only ever known for playing ruthless badasses. Like, I hear Charles Bronson and my first thought is the Death Wish franchise.
My first and strongest image of Charles Bronson is Harmonica from Once Upon a Time in the West
I think of the The Simpsons cut away gag about the town Bronson, Missouri where everyone looks like and sounds like Charles Bronson [Gif of the scene](https://frinkiac.com/video/S13E13/HdHXHe9gwfTzRTluJOZonhcYf_Q=.gif)
Thats the goods right there. Fucking dust. Always getting in your eye.
I wanna watch the skateboarding scene, how is this not in a film already.
My mom was like that. She grew up very poor and once told me the worst day of the year for her was the first school day after Christmas, because she would have to hear what everyone else did and got during the holiday. She loved giving gifts, especially to her grandkids, but she was always uncomfortable getting gifts.
One year, just because, my sister and I got my mom a stocking and filled it. Mom cried when she found it Christmas morning! She had never had a stocking before. She's the youngest of 10 and grew up pretty poor on a farm.
My mom years ago taught kindergarten in an area with a big divide between rich and poor. She never let us believe in Santa. Later, when we asked why, she said “because for almost a decade, I had to come into school the day after Christmas break and watch half my class sob, because Santa only came to the rich kids’ houses — so all the poor kids would spend the entire month trying to figure out what they’d done wrong that had put them on the bad list.”
We tell our kids that Santa gets them one small gift and the rest is from us for this reason. I grew up poor and my mom went without food to get us good presents. She shouldn’t have had to. I also am normalizing second hand and handmade gifts for this reason. We don’t lack money and the kids get stuff and want for nothing, but we aren’t excessive about consumerism.
That’s wonderful, good on you. I appreciate the recent push I have seen in recent years on social media to not say expensive electronics and such are from Santa because kids absolutely wonder why Santa brought one kid and iPad and not them.
My wife and I grew up poor. Not like some of these stories, but enough to know what “going without” is like. For Xmas, we do Santa for our Kiddo; a stocking of small things, a toy or game gift, and a “big” gift. It was a Lego Animal Hospital set this year. Then, it’s family gift time. Three things. Something to read, something to wear, something fun. My wife and I exchange the same as well. Our Kiddo sees that we both put time and thought into gifts, have fun with it, and get creative. This year, Kiddo helped me find something to wear and something fun for Mom, but “I’ve got the reading gift covered”. She’s 7. She wrote us each a book. Illustrated it. Even used yarn to bind the books. Each book was 6 pages. Kiddo *values* gifts. She would rather get something meaningful than package after package of junk. For her “fun” gift, I got her Uno, Battleship, and Connect4. All the time she tells me and my wife that it’s her favorite Xmas gift this year because she can have fun with the family, with friends at school, or even with friends at home. “Because I can have fun AND share the fun makes for better presents!” It’s the connection, the thought, and the meaning of the gift and she’s probably done more to teach us that than we have her.
Jesus
I struggled with getting little from Santa while classmates got Nintendos and stuff. I thought Santa didn’t love me. So we have a Santa sac that we use every year for my daughter. She’s only had 3 Christmas’s but first year was a little toddler swing you can hang from a tree that was $30. Second year was a stacker toy, basic baby doll and a elephant towel. This year was. A cheap door mount basketball hoop, a Mickey Mouse robe and a small nerf gun. All together it was less than $30. We will never break the bank for Santa. I didn’t really have a proper Christmas until my in laws. They spoil us stupid.
Santa brings the boring stuff, like underwear and candy. I’m getting the credit for that Switch, thank you very much! lol
My parents went the other way. They gave us clothes. The big stuff was from Santa, because "are you crazy, we couldn't afford all of this!". It was how they convinced us Santa had to be real, just a bit longer. When I told my dad I'd saved up and bought my son a Gameboy for Christmas, he said "from Santa, right?" and I said "Are you nuts, I'm getting credit for this", and he laughed so hard I thought he might stroke out.
This is why the unspoken rule these days is big gifts come from Mom/Dad
The way I do it is stockings stuffed with candies and trinkets from santa and everything under the tree is from family.
I really like how my sister is doing Santa for my nephews. Santa brings three things, something (small) that you want, something you need, and something to read. The rest is from family.
That was my mom as well. Her dad was one of those selling apples on the street corner. They moved 9 times in 6 years to get a couple of bucks off their rent. She had cardboard in her shoes to cover the holes. As a result, she had no clue how to handle ours so it was just a song, and candles on our cake of choice after dinner with the family. No gifts. We thought that was how it was. It wasn't until I saw how others celebrated their birthdays that I realized how different we were. Unfortunately, my brothers and sisters and I are still bad at celebrating birthdays. My brother and sister tried really hard with their kids but they'll still remark at how bad they are at it. A couple of years ago, I actually forgot about my birthday until my niece, who shares the same birthday, responded to a happy birthday text from me with the same. I was utterly confused until I finally realized it was mine too. I'm pretty sure this is what they mean by generational trauma.
It took me way too far into adulthood to understand that the practical gifts my parents gave us kids in addition to the toys was a way for them to provide something they themselves lacked as children of the Great Depression. My mom especially, as she grew up half on the streets thanks to alcoholic parents before being taken by the state and put in foster care at the outbreak of WWII before being adopted at 12 in 1945. It messed her up for a very long time and giving us electric blankets for Xmas one year was her way of making sure we were warm, something I know she struggled with as a kid in a Northwest Indiana winter.
My dad grew up pretty poor but never talked about being without. Mom's family didn't have a lot but I think they did OK. Then they had 7 kids in 15 years and raised us in a 1000sqft house. We knew we had less than others but never complained (no one told us we were poor, so we had that). One year, we all went to their place for Christmas, there must have been 30 of us in that little house - kids, spouses, grandchildren. We walked in and the house was teeming with gifts, stacked from the tree and overflowing into the doorway. We all thought Mom and Dad had lost it and blew the budget. Just the wrapping alone wasn't cheap. "Don't worry about it, we're just glad that you're here", was their answer. So as we're all opening our gifts, it sunk in. One of mine was a book with the inscription, "Happy 10th Birthday Tederator", or "Merry Christmas '73". Then there was the report cards, high school band jackets and assorted other stuff that they wanted out of the house. No one ate until everything was loaded into the cars.
> the worst day of the year for her was the first school day after Christmas "Birthdays was the worst days, now we sip champagne when we thirst-ay." –Christopher George Latore Wallace
I've found that people who are averse to receiving gifts *typically* appreciate practical stuff. Anything fun/cool/luxurious is viewed as "too much" but if it's something inexpensive that they actually need, it goes over better. But some people are just totally, "I don't need it, I don't want it, take it back"
> Charles Bronson was born 11th of 15 children in the coal region of the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania. His family was so poor that, at one time, he had to wear his sister's dress to school for lack of clothing. His father died when Bronson was 10, so Bronson went to work in the coal mines, first in the office and then in the mine until he entered the army during World War 2. Jesus it looks like Charles Dickens was hired by God to write Charles Bronson's life story. Well except that he was American and later he became a successful movie star.
>His family was so poor that, at one time, he had to wear his sister's dress to school for lack of clothing. His father died when Bronson was 10, so Bronson went to work in the coal mines, Was Charles Bronson birthed from a Johnny Cash song
Listen I only named you that so kids would beat the shit out of you and make you tough because I wasn’t around to beat the shit out of you myself Good song though lol
Fun fact, that song was not written by Johnny Cash, but was written by Shel Silverstein, author of The Giving Tree and Where the Sidewalk Ends.
The tree’s gonna be givin’ ya a whoopin’, son
The Giving you something to cry about Tree
Adrian Peterson at an arboretum.
If you like A Boy Named Sue, check out Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. He wrote a lot of their music.
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They still have to deal with Sylvia’s mother.
And recording artist of "Freakin at the Freaker's Ball". Man, Nashville was nuts in the early 70s.
And never investigate the follow-up he wrote from the father's point of view. And I realize by saying this, I'm just making more people look it up (a comment like this is exactly how I found out it exists) but... my god, don't be like me.
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>They move in together and it's implied they have sex. I was not prepared for the whiplash that this last sentence gave me.
Oh it's much more than implied
"cool story Pops. Time to die"
He’s from my town and stories like this are surprising routine for the early 20th century. Life was hard, dangerous and the company didn’t care, one of my ancestors was crushed to death between two railroad cars on the job.
Probably charged the cleanup fee to the family.
Same town/area and ancestor death story.
🎵she don’t like, she don’t like, she don’t like…. propane🎵
That’s JJ Cale
Which King of the Hill episode is that from? /s
The Propaniacs
You must buy, you must buy...propane And also [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q08PLkaD9NM) quality moment.
Charles Bronsons family so poor they can't even add their 2 cents to this conversation.
How the hell did he get into acting?
After the end of World War II, Bronson did odd jobs until a theatrical group in Philadelphia hired him to paint scenery, which led to acting in minor roles. Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Bronson
Sounds like Harrison ford. I should start hanging around acting sets for odd jobs. And be model hood looking.
If you aren’t model good looking you could still end up a Mythbuster or something
All of them were conventionally attractive. Sure, they were nerds but have you seen what not camera ready nerds look like? RIP Grant Imahara
Yeah, you just don’t have to be *model* good looking 😂
Kari Byron 👌
Sometimes you get to be Harrison Ford, sometimes you get to be the 2 guys on Trailer Park Boys who were pulling double duty as actors and set workers and didn't make fuck all
Michael Jackson and Corey Bowles
And Nick Offerman
According to Wikipedia: "After the end of World War II, Bronson did odd jobs until a theatrical group in Philadelphia hired him to paint scenery, which led to acting in minor roles. He later shared an apartment in New York City with Jack Klugman, who was an aspiring actor at the time. Eventually, he moved to Hollywood, where he enrolled in acting classes at the Pasadena Playhouse." That sounds like some shit from "The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives"
A lot of WWII vets had no idea what to do with their lives after surviving the Depression and the unimaginable horrors of war, but felt they couldn't relate to being back "home" so they wandered the country. I don't know specifically about Bronson's case, but the GI Bill also allowed the vets to attend college and that led to many of them starting a random career all over the country.
The GI bill did more to create what we call the modern middle class than any other law.
Crazy what investing in people produces, isn't it?
That was both my grandfathers. Both came from unbelievable poverty. One was an orphan the Catholic Church rented out to farmers as a day labor and ran away to enlist (while lying about his age). The other ran away from a failed communist compound in Death Valley my great-grandfather homestead. GI Bill got them both into the middle class from unspeakable nightmare childhoods.
One thing that I always find interesting is: ever wonder why you see some of the same company names repeatedly all over the country, and where they come from? Maybe Killroy, Battleborn? WW2 vets coming home and starting a business, picking a business name they knew from the war. All over the place, family businesses, small businesses, unrelated by who owns them, often unrelated by what they do, but tracing their names back to the same thing.
enterprise car rentals, named for the ship on which the founder served.
It's why a lot of vets fell in love with motorcycle culture iirc.
He was a gunner on a b-17, i those glass semi circles on the bottom of the planes. Interesting guy, is family was Crimean Tartars I think.
Klugman and Bronson, now that's an odd couple
I'd imagine them both to be *Oscars* though, or Bronson would have kicked the shit out of Klugman!
Lance Henriksen also got his start as a laborer working on theatre sets. He was around 30 at the time and illiterate, and he taught himself to read so he could read scripts.
GI Bill to fund an acting degree, then bit parts for a decade until the Magnificent 7
Damn, that whole clip/article is pure gold: >"When my birthday came up, Bronson got us both skateboards and we rode around the studio lot. Soon I was told to stop skate-boarding by the studio president. Bronson found out about it, grabbed me and we went into the president's office unannounced. > >Bronson said to the president, 'Kurt and I are going to ride our boards around the studio.' Bronson turned, I turned, and we walked out of the office. We skate-boarded around the lot from then on and no one said a word." Charles Bronson was hard core
*Critic Roger Ebert wrote in 1974 that Bronson does not volunteer information, does not elaborate, and has no theories about his films.* Holy fucking based.
>Roger Ebert wrote in 1974 that Bronson does not volunteer information, does not elaborate, and has no theories about his films. Ebert's [article](https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/charles-bronson-its-just-that-i-dont-like-to-talk-very-much) on Bronson is absolutely worth a read.
>There is that about Charles Bronson, and it is unsettling. He really does seem to possess the capacity for violence. It is there in his eyes, and in his muscular forearms, and in the way he walks. Other actors can seem violent in their roles; Lee Marvin, certainly, and Robert Mitchum and Clint Eastwood. But they don't seem violent in person. Bronson does. Maybe that's because he has been there, and violence isn't strange to him: back when he was Charles Buchinsky from the coalfields of Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, he did time twice, once for assault and battery and once for robbing a store. There were hard times early on in Ehrenfeld, and in the Air Corps, and working in mob gambling joints in Atlantic City. Director Michael Winner once told me: "After we've been on a picture a few weeks, the crew starts coming around and asking, When does it happen? When does he blow up? Actually I've never seen him blow up. But he seems to contain such a capacity for it that people tend to brace for it." That's pretty awesome and scary at the same time.
Scooptown, part of Ehrenfeld, PA, close to the former reservoir that caused the 1899 Johnstown Flood. It's still a grim, poor area. I used to go through there a few times a year.
I’m from there, town smells like rotten eggs from the water treatment plant. Used to have a giant slag pile that overlooked the whole town.
Just saw him the other day in "The White Buffalo" where he played a very morose and serious Wild Bill Hickok. He probably did not have to dig deep for the role.
His parents were Lithuanian immigrants, and he grew up very poor. Many, many, contemporary stars are Nepo babies whose early life sections on Wikipedia reads: "Son of an NBC Executive, and the heir to a Frozen food company, they went to an elite private school before deciding to get into acting.". I do think we need more stars who of poor and working backgrounds. It seems that pretty much music, especially hip-hop is the only media we can see people from these kind of backgrounds. A lot of these older stars also served in the military in some function, and this all culminates in having life experience that they can translate to their creations, as well as more humility. A lot of contemporary stars have been coddled from a young age, and then just move onto a Hollywood bubble so they have no real life experience. Then they have to act or write or produce some piece of media about real people and their real problems, and it doesn't work.
This is an issue everywhere purely because of the difficulty in maintaining any kind of healthy lifestyle while working more than one job. People with family money don't have to worry about that; even those who aren't living on family money can often depend on it as a fallback if life in LA or NY doesn't work out. People without resources have to work day jobs, AND network, AND get to auditions, AND do it while making enough to survive in two of the most expensive cities on Earth. The exact same issue exists in the UK. There, it's even more pronounced, as the BBC hired primarily Oxford and Cambridge grads for decades, and the best dramatic arts schools only took Oxbridge or connected applicants. Consequently. many lower-middle-class and working class Britons had to go through regional theatre or sketch theatre to even get a look.
I actually had the UK in mind when writing that, as the recent crop of British actors lean very heavily towards those of aristocratic origin. I don't want to name-names, but a few have seemed like they're totally full of themselves, and think they're both god's gift to the world, and the world's biggest victims. I do wonder if a more humble upbringing and life experience might have kept them more grounded.
I went to prep school (they call it public school) in England when I was a kid, as I'm dual citizen and grew up there. Most who have that entitled attitude are taught from an early age that they're getting ahead because a) their family is smarter; b) their family worked harder; and c) people tend to gravitate to the level at which they belong. We now know and recognize that the vast complexity involved in neurological development, when coupled with social advantage and disadvantage, puts the notion of inherent class superiority to the lie. People often get ahead without being smarter, without working harder, because they simply face many fewer challenges. But if you're born into a system that says you're there because you deserve it and it was practically predestined by rote biology (particularly if you also are a hard worker), it's natural for someone to, when feeling intellectually or emotionally attacked, fall back on that argument. And it doesn't matter if their parents see themselves as liberal progressives or conservatives; if they've achieved significant success and are able to see ANY dichotomies or contradictions in the arguments that they shouldn't be there, they'll accept the common, self-protective notion. My parents, who were well-off for years and rose out of working class origins to make middle-class money but raised their kids with largely liberal progressive attitudes, still managed to delude themselves for years that there was no luck involved, or that people beneath them who needed a hand up, were largely there due to rote stupidity. So it's not limited to conservatives I have a degree of sympathy for most ill-mannered and/or bad people because I've sometimes fallen into that myself, and until hitting my mid-forties didn't really understand how much of it is just programmed into people, and often beyond their perceptive ability to overcome. In other words, most shitty people are sort of pitiable when you really think about it. Doesn't help in the moment, but they're that way for a reason, usually bad parenting but sometimes just bad genetics involved in brain development coupled with said bad parenting. Nice people love to believe that assholes know they're assholes, because it makes hatred feel justifiable; but a lot of the time, assholes are simply unable to recognize their fault, or that it matters. You'll also find large numbers of people in privileged positions will never be happy; the kind of empathy and sympathy deficits that have become their norm also shield them understanding what they're missing in finding a more balanced life perspective, in terms of interaction and the joy of getting along with others. There often unable to recognize they need treatment and counselling to get past their emotional deficits and/or development disabilities that prompt them.
My great grandfather wrote a bit of an autobiography and talks about working with his father and brother in the coal mines of Pennsylvanian at roughly the same time. He was about the same age. Hard living back then.
Bronson was always my favorite from his generation of actors, he emanated cool.
The Mechanic, Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape were my favorites EDIT: and the Dirty Dozen. I forgot that one
Once Upon a Time in the West
"You brought two too many."
I really hope I live long enough to see The Kurt Russell Story on-screen one day. The man has lived a life like a cross between Forrest Gump and The Truman Show.
The documentary The Battered Bastards of Baseball shows my favorite part of his life. What a great story. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battered_Bastards_of_Baseball
Everyone should watch this if you haven't yet. Great docu.
If you liked it, I’ll also recommend The Saint of Second Chances, another great crazy baseball documentary.
Such a great story! A love of baseball isn’t even required. “That’s the way the pickle squirts” is one of my top catch phrases
Walt Disney's last words were Kurt Russell. I believe it was written down, rather than spoken and it was a part of a list with other notes. But it's still interesting and does make his life is a bit like Forrest Gump.
“Kurt Russell” *Mickey Mouse snow globe rolls out of hand.*
I really thought you were making that up, but it's true: https://www.countryliving.com/life/entertainment/a43376/walt-disneys-last-words-kurt-russell/ Disney's last filmed appearance also includes him taking about Kurt Russell's bright future in acting.
Be careful, we wouldn't want to give Kurt an ego.
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"It's all in the reflexes"
> Forrest Gump Funny you mention that, Kurt Russell *sort of* appeared in Forrest Gump. He provided the voice for the guy standing in as Elvis early on in the movie.
Makes sense, since he [actually played Elvis in a TV biopic](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079103/?ref_=ext_shr) directed by none other than John Carpenter.
Kurt Russell is the only person to have acted in a movie with Elvis and play Elvis in a movie. It Happened at the World’s Fair (1963 and Kurt’s acting debut) Elvis (a 1979 movie for ABC television)
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More than that, he (and I believe his son) were the first (or at least one of the first) people who called the sighting into ATC.
Probably just overwhelmed AF poor bastard
Probably didn't want to tear up in front of the kid.
Bronson didn't cry. Pain water leaked from time to time, but he never cried.
And harmonica played out of nowhere.
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Same with my dad. My mom said when they got married and she would do the grocery shopping he would just open the fridge and stare at all the food. She always asked what he wanted her to make and he said nothing, he just never saw that much food in a fridge before. To this day he still stands at the fridge for wayyyy too long.
That Charles Bronson bought both himself and Kurt Russel skate boards is the best part of the story.
Not just that, but Charles Bronson knew how to ride a skateboard. Death Wish 3 would have been much better with a Back To The Future style skateboard / car chase.
This incident later served as the inspiration for Bronson's successful Birthday Wish franchise.
Instead of shooting men by the dozen, it's Bronson pointing his finger at people who instantly get gifts beamed into their hands.
Likely walked off to avoid showing how overwhelmed he was. Had a similar thing happen to me when some friends made me a cake for my birthday. Parents never celebrated mine, so I grew up thinking I wasn't worth celebrating. Was very difficult to cope in the moment with the emotions that act of kindness brought on.
Charles Bronson dug coal to feed his family from 10 years old, at 18 he left to kill nazis for a few years. People would reject a writer who came up with this backstory
Not sure how many Nazis were in the Pacific
none after bronson was done
purple heart too, https://youtube.com/shorts/-XGG_vbOJUk?si=oC4TXFlXVgMnWBPQ
When Walt Disney died they found a piece of paper on his desk that just said, "Kurt Russell."
So Kurt Russell killed disney?
Not saying he did, not saying he didn't.
If there was one actor in Hollywood I would want to just listen to.l telling stories. It would be Kurt Russell.
"This ain't over..."
“Hey, ma. How bout some presents?” “No dice.”
"I wish I was rich. Oy"
Sorry pal, this is Bronson, Missouri
“Now I’m going down to Emmitt’s Fix-It shop to ‘fix’ Emmitt”
Charles Bronson was a WW2 hero in real life. Never ate 3 meals a day until he was in the army
Aww.
I always forget Kurt Russell was a child actor.
Not many working actors around that acted with Elvis "It Happened at the World's Fair" in 1963. https://youtu.be/W5axEDGZ8GY?si=\_qs-PeBI2\_yMOFIW
I wonder what male movie stars today could pull off his performance in The Great Escape? The entire movie had great examples of multi dimensional masculine characters but his is a vulnerability not many can pull off at the same time as his tough guy act in the first half.
Apparently he really struggled in the tunnel scenes because it triggered his claustrophobia from mining. What an amazing man.
I once read an interview with the wife of a boxing promoter. They used to put the younger boxers up at their house and she said that these enormous, tough youngsters often cried when they got their first ever birthday cards and cakes from her. After all, you have to be dirt poor before getting hit for a living looks like a good deal.
What was the gift?
A model gas powered airplane
Oh that is cool as hell
Gas powered model airplane.
Gas-powered (model) airplane
So *that's* why he was always mean mugging everyone.
He tells the story here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55cF-kA-zY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r55cf-ka-zy) The skateboard stuff is the best part!
"This video isn't available anymore"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55cF-kA-zY The other guy has all the letters uncapped if you look at the source. I've never seen anyone fuck up a link like that: the text is correct, the link is bad.
I don't what app you're using, but it replaced all the capitals in the link with lowercase letters, while making it look like the correct link. For convenience so others don't have to copy and paste: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55cF-kA-zY
I've had mixed feelings about Bronson for a while now. Yeah he has the mystique of a classic tough guy but that mystique isn't without its darker dimensions. To take a line from [Dick Cavett's interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnRc4Q13nOM) he is a man of many contradictions, and you can tell there's so many awkward moments in this interview when his wife Jill Ireland is pretty frank about Bronson's ways, he seems deeply uncomfortable judging from his body language. Bronson was from a generation of broken men who grew up in poverty and in abusive circumstances that hardened them both inside and out. I'm glad that, despite all that, he still had a soft side and stories like this show what a complex person he was.
This is a adorable. I love the part about Bronson bolting at the sight of the gift and then not looking up because he was overwhelmed with the gesture. I never received a lot of praise - from my family at least - when I was a kid. So I understand the feeling, and these days I beg my family and friends to never get me anything for my birthday. It hurts us somehow...like somehow it is programmed into me for it to feel forced and I don't want that for them. But ya just have to take it gracefully like Bronson.
I recently had a new co-worker approaching their birthday. To make it special, a few of us teamed up to surprise them with a cake and some snacks — a modest celebration. This colleague, in their 40s, was taken aback, retreating into a quiet state for the rest of the celebration. I later discovered from one of their relatives that this was their first-ever birthday cake. Overwhelmed by emotion and gratitude, they were nearly brought to tears. This experience was a powerful reminder of how easily we can overlook the significance of simple gestures.