The day Kurt Russell went skateboarding with Charles Bronson: “I really liked Charlie”
Kurt Russell’s childhood wasn’t like yours or mine. In fact, at 13 years old, he spent most of his time skateboarding around a Hollywood backlot with a grim-faced Charles Bronson.
As vaguely unbelievable as it is to imagine a teenage Snake Plissken flipping ollies and grinding rails alongside the star of the ultraviolet Death Wish franchise, it definitely happened. Heck, Bronson even bought Russell the skateboard for his birthday.
In 1963, a fresh-faced Russell landed the titular role in the western TV series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, which ran for one season of 26 episodes. The first 13 episodes saw the boy act primarily alongside Dan O’Herlihy, who played his father, but for the back half of the season, Bronson, who had already starred in The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape, was enlisted to add star power to the show.
Bronson, who once hilariously said his stern face looked like “a rock quarry that someone dynamited”, played wagon master Linc Murdock. Unfortunately for everyone involved, though, his steely presence wasn’t enough to extend the show’s life, thanks to it going up against stiff competition in CBS’s My Favourite Martian and the iconic The Ed Sullivan Show, so it was cancelled after its maiden season.
However, Bronson formed an unlikely bond with Russell while they worked together, which can’t be said for many who worked with the notoriously uncompromising star. “I really liked Charlie,” Russell told Vice in 2015, clearly happy to chat about a guy who supposedly terrified his Telefon co-star Lee Remick so much that she refused to touch his face in a pivotal shot.
“Charlie Bronson was a very disliked man in many corners. He was a guy that did mean things. But I liked Charlie”.
Kurt Russell
During Russell’s walk of reminiscence, he recalled the time he decided to get the man a present, just because he liked him. He bought Bronson a remote-controlled aeroplane, but when he gave it to him, the stone-faced quarry simply looked at the ground and then retreated to his trailer. “The whole crew was like, ‘Aw, Kurt. He’s just an unhappy guy’,” Russell revealed, “And I was like, ‘It’s OK’”.
Around half an hour later, though, the crestfallen boy was told, “Kurt, Charlie wants to see you’”. He trudged over to Bronson’s trailer and knocked on the door, racking his brain to figure out, “What the fuck did I do wrong?” To his shock, Bronson didn’t want to scold him. Instead, with unexpected vulnerability, the star, who suffered through an extremely tough upbringing in Pennsylvania, told the young boy, “Nobody’s ever given me a present before, so thanks”. With that, he shut the door, leaving Russell bemused and feeling warmly.
After this slightly odd yet touching interaction, things went back to normal on the Jamie McPheeters set. That is, until two months later, when Bronson found out Russell’s 13th birthday was coming up, so he bought him “an awesome Makaha skateboard”. Better yet, he also got himself one, so he and Russell could skate together between setups.
As if that wholesome image isn’t enough to put a smile on anyone’s face, Russell also revealed that Bronson had his back when he was told that MGM executives didn’t want him skating because of insurance issues. If he hurt himself, after all, the studio would be liable. Russell said, “Oh, OK, sorry”, and stopped bringing his skateboard to set. When a furious Bronson found out what had happened, though, he told the boy to grab his board because they were going to see the president of MGM.
“He walks right by the secretary,” Russell recalled with a belly laugh, “opens the door, and says, ‘This is Kurt. I got him a skateboard for his birthday. We’re gonna be riding them all over the lot. Just want to let you know’.” With that, he turned and ushered Russell out of the office, and from that day on, they skated to their heart’s content. It proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that nobody, not even the head of a major studio, wanted to mess with Charles Bronson.
