Pages

Friday, February 18, 2011

DRIVING SNAKE PLISSKEN- KURT RUSSELL

Kurt Russell
Back in 1986, I was down in LA visiting my buddy Mike. The Long Beach Grand Prix was going on that week and he managed to get us volunteer gigs. Our job was to drive Race Officials around in golf carts, in the vast paddock area inside the track, so naturally I felt like a big shot. The entire morning I only gave one ride to a race official, he talked on his walkie-talkie the whole time and ignored me...I guess there's a caste system in place among racing big shots. And the ride was an entire 200 yards.
So I just drove around...Soon, up ahead I saw a guy with two little blond kids. He waved at me like he was hailing a taxi, so I pulled up and he looked familiar. "Hey bud, can you give us a ride?"
"Sure, hop in!"
He put the little girl, about 6, in the back seat, which faced toward the back, so she put her knees on the seat and faced forward.
"Hang on, okay?"
"okay"
He got in the front seat with the boy, about 3 or 4, on his lap. That's when I recognized him, oh my god that's Kurt Russell!
"Thanks for the lift, I appreciate it! Can you take us to Danny Sullivan's trailer?"
"Sure, uhh..." I had no idea where his trailer was.
"Oh, it's on the other side of the arena, that way."
So off we went. Since I was in 'bigshot' mode, I wasn't as intimidated as I normally would have been, and he had an easygoing manner, like they say, just a 'regular guy'...so I was bold enough to ask, "are you enjoying the race?"
"Hell yeah! it's one big party! ha!"
Neither of us acknowledged that he was a 'movie star' so I just blurted out, "I enjoy your movies, I'm a big fan!"
"Aww thanks, well it's a livin'"
"Working on anything now?"
"Well there's a script we're looking at, an 'Escape' sequel."
"Oh cool!" I couldn't believe I was talking shop in such a casual way with this guy. And the two kids must have been Goldie Hawn's.
"You played ball didn't you?" which was true, he was a minor league baseball player in the 60's.
"Oh yeahhh well, that didn't last. Tore my shoulder, so that was that."
"Bummer"
We arrived at the trailer area, where driver Danny Sullivan was outside, mingling with fans. "C'mon kids!" they all piled out and headed for the trailer. He turned and waved, "Thanks again eh?"
"Sure!" That's when I got out my camera and snapped a picture, he saw me take it and just smiled and waved again. I thought aww jeez now he thinks I'm just another gawking fan, which I was.
It was only later I realized the little girl grew up to be an actress herself, Kate Hudson.
DANG

1 comment:

  1. He does a mean Elvis too! When he was a Disney kid he met Elvis and on an interview he talked about the King and did a really good impersonation of him.

    ReplyDelete