Filed under: Columns, Cinematical
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Kurt Russell, who turns 60 tomorrow, has played his share of tough guys on screen, including the legendary badass Snake Plissken in ‘Escape From New York’](Escape from New York (1981) - Movie | Moviefone) (and ‘Escape From L.A.’), Wyatt Earp in ‘Tombstone’](Tombstone (1993) - Movie | Moviefone) and, more recently, Stuntman Mike in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Death Proof.’](http://www.moviefone.com/movie/grindhouse-death-proof/29866/main) Of course, he’s portrayed many other types of characters in his long career (starting as a child actor), but his physicality and general intensity equip him especially well for action heroics (or anti-heroics).
Maybe that’s why we have such a fondness for Jack Burton from John Carpenter’s 1986 martial arts / action / supernatural comedy ‘Big Trouble in Little China.’](Big Trouble in Little China (1986) - Movie | Moviefone) As the wisecracking, dim-witted yet arrogant truck driver who gets involved in a gang-related kidnapping in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Russell is a complete self-spoofing hoot, the polar opposite of Plissken and his other dead-serious bad boys.