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Russell was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, the son of Louise Julia (nee Crone), a dancer, and Bing Russell, a character actor known as Deputy Clem Foster on Bonanza. Russell considers Rangeley, Maine, to be his hometown. Graduate of Thousand Oaks High School in the mid-sixties, Thousand Oaks, California.

Russell began his film career at the age of ten in an uncredited part as "Ugly Child" in Elvis Presley's It Happened at the World's Fair and two extra episodes, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the then closed series 'Rin Tin Tin. On April 24, 1963, Russell guest starred in the ABC series Our Man Higgins, starring Stanley Holloway as an English butler to an American family. Later in 1963, he landed a big part for a juvenile actor: the lead role as the orphan Jaimie in the TV Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1963-1964). Based on a book by Robert Lewis Taylor, the series also starred Dan O'Herlihy, John Maloney, Joe Baldassare, and the young Osmond Brothers. In 1964, he guest-starred in "Nemesis", an episode of the popular series The Fugitive in which, as the son of police Lt. Gerard, he is unintentionally kidnapped by his father's quarry Doctor Richard Kimble.

On February 6, 1965, Russell, not quite fourteen, played the role of Jungle Boy on an episode of CBS's Gilligan's Island. In a March 1966 episode of the TV series Lost in Space titled "The Challenge", he played Quano, the son of a planetary ruler. The young actor was soon signed to a ten-year contract with the Walt Disney Company, where he became, according to Robert Osborne, the "studio's top star of the '70s." Russell starred in many Disney films, such as Follow Me, Boys! (1966), The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968) with newcomer Goldie Hawn, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), and The Strongest Man in the World (1975). He auditioned for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars (1977) but lost the role to Harrison Ford.

In the fall of 1976, Russell appeared with Tim Matheson in the 15-episode series The Quest, the story of two young men in the American West seeking the whereabouts of their sister, a captive of the Cheyenne.

Russell, like his father before him, had a baseball career. In the early 1970s, Russell played second base for the California Angels (now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim) Double-A minor league affiliate, the El Paso Sun Kings. During a play, he was hit in the shoulder by a player running to second base; the collision tore the rotator cuff in Russell's right/throwing shoulder. Before his injury, he was leading the Texas League in hitting, with a .563 batting average. The injury forced his retirement from baseball in 1973 and led to his return to acting.

In 1979, Russell was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Special for the made-for-television film Elvis. This would be his first pairing with John Carpenter, the director of Halloween. Over the next decade, Russell would team with Carpenter several times, helping create some of his best-known roles, usually as anti-heroes, including the infamous Snake Plissken of Escape from New York and its sequel, Escape from L.A.. Among their collaborations was 1982's John Carpenter's The Thing, based upon the short story Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr., which had been interpreted on film before, albeit loosely, in 1951's The Thing from Another World. In 1986, the two made Big Trouble in Little China, a dark kung-fu comedy/action film in which Russell played a truck driver caught in an ancient Chinese war. While the film was a financial failure like The Thing, it was also similar in that it has since gained a cult audience.

Elvis Presley has had a presence in his career. Aside from appearing as a child in one of Presley's films and giving a convincing portrayal of the singer in the 1979 television biopic, Russell starred as an Elvis impersonator involved in a Las Vegas robbery in 3000 Miles to Graceland and provided the voice of Elvis for a scene in the Oscar-winning film Forrest Gump.

He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for his performance opposite Meryl Streep in the 1984 film, Silkwood. His portrayal of U.S. Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks in the film, Miracle, won the praise of critics. "In many ways," wrote Claudia Puig of USA Today, "Miracle belongs to Kurt Russell." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times wrote, "Russell does real acting here." Elvis Mitchell of the The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Russell's cagey and remote performance gives Miracle its few breezes of fresh, albeit methane-scented, air." (Mitchell's use of the word "remote" here is not a criticism of Russell's acting so much as a description of Russell's portrait of an emotionally reserved man.)

In 2006, Kurt Russell revealed that he was the actual director of Tombstone, not George P. Cosmatos, as credited. According to Russell, Cosmatos was recommended by Sylvester Stallone and was, in effect, a ghost director, much as he had been for Rambo: First Blood Part II. Russell said he promised Cosmatos he would keep it a secret as long as Cosmatos was alive; Cosmatos died in April 2005. Russell owns the rights to the masters and makes reference to possibly re-editing the film, as he was not originally involved in the editing.

Russell appeared as villain Stuntman Mike in Quentin Tarantino's segment Death Proof of the film Grindhouse. After a remake of Escape from New York was announced, Russell was reportedly furious over the casting of Gerard Butler for his signature character, Snake Plissken. In late October 2007, Gerard withdrew from the Escape From New York remake due to creative differences.

Russell married actress Season Hubley, whom he had met on the set of Elvis in 1979 and they had a son, Boston Oliver Grant Russell, in 1980. In 1983, in the middle of his divorce from Hubley, Russell re-connected with Goldie Hawn on the set of the film Swing Shift and they have been in a relationship ever since. They had a son, Wyatt, in 1986. The couple filmed the comedy Overboard together in 1987. Hawn's son and daughter with Bill Hudson, actors Oliver and Kate Hudson, consider Russell to be their father.

Russell is a prominent member of the Libertarian Party. He claims that he was often an outcast in Hollywood because of his libertarian views, so he and Hawn moved to an area outside Aspen, Colorado where he has tried his hand at writing (he co-wrote the screenplay for Escape from L.A.). In February 2003, Russell and Hawn moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, so that their son could play hockey. Russell is an FAA licensed private pilot holding single/multi-engine and instrument ratings.

• It Happened at the World's Fair 1963 Boy who kicks Mike
• Guns of Diablo 1964 Jamie McPheeters
• Follow Me, Boys! 1966 Whitey
• The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band 1968 Sidney Bower
• The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit 1968 Ronnie Gardner
• Guns in the Heather 1969 Rich
• The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes 1969 Dexter Riley
• The Barefoot Executive 1971 Steven Post
• Fools' Parade 1971 Johnny Jesus
• Now You See Him, Now You Don't 1972 Dexter Riley
• Charley and the Angel 1973 Ray Ferris
• Superdad 1973 Bart
• The Strongest Man in the World 1975 Dexter Riley
• The Deadly Tower 1975 Charles Whitman
• Elvis 1979 Elvis Presley
• Used Cars 1980 Rudolph "Rudy" Russo
• Escape from New York 1981 Snake Plissken
• The Fox and the Hound 1981 Adult Copper
• The Thing 1982 R.J. MacReady
• Silkwood 1983 Drew Stephens
• Swing Shift 1984 Mike "Lucky" Lockhart
• The Mean Season 1985 Malcolm Anderson
• Big Trouble in Little China 1986 Jack Burton
• The Best of Times 1986 Reno Hightower
• Overboard 1987 Dean Proffitt
• Tequila Sunrise 1988 Det. Lt. Nicholas 'Nick' Frescia
• Winter People 1989 Wayland Jackson
• Tango & Cash 1989 Gabriel "Gabe" Cash
• Backdraft 1991 Stephen 'Bull' McCaffrey / Dennis McCaffrey
• Unlawful Entry 1992 Michael Carr
• Captain Ron 1992 Captain Ron
• Tombstone 1993 Wyatt Earp
• Stargate 1994 Col. Jonathan "Jack" O'Neil
• Forrest Gump 1994 voice of Elvis
• Executive Decision 1996 Dr. Phil David Grant
• Escape from LA 1996 Snake Plissken
• Breakdown 1997 Jeffrey "Jeff" Taylor
• Soldier 1998 Todd
• 3000 Miles To Graceland 2001 Michael Zane
• Vanilla Sky 2001 McCabe
• Interstate 60 2002 Capt. Ives
• Dark Blue 2003 Eldon Perry
• Miracle 2004 Herb Brooks
• Sky High 2005 Steve Stronghold / The Commander
• Dreamer 2005 Ben Crane
• Poseidon 2006 Robert Ramsey
• Grindhouse 2007 Stuntman Mike
• Death Proof 2007 Stuntman Mike McKay
• Cutlass 2007 Dad
• The Lost Eagles 2008 John Holloway