Ah, the strange existence of a child actor. When Russell appeared on “Today” to promote his return as “Mr. Nobody” in 2017’s “The Fate of the Furious,” the hosts took the opportunity to show the actor some footage from his “Gilligan’s Island” appearance 52 years earlier. A visibly game Russell played along, quipping that he “Can’t deny it” before explaining: 

“What’s weird about our careers [as actors] is that we look at it from the inside. For me, that was, like, three weeks ago. I still remember some of my lines. I didn’t have very many.” 

While Russell didn’t elaborate upon his experience shooting the episode, he did touch briefly on what his life was like in the immediate aftermath:

“When you’re 13-years-old and you gotta do ‘Gilligan’s Island’ in a loincloth, and you gotta go back to your public school afterwards, you would’ve had to handle yourself pretty quickly.”

No doubt, his time on “Gilligan’s Island” taught Russell to have a sense of humor about his job from a young age. He would need it, too; the ’60s and ’70s saw the actor starring in some of the most ridiculous Disney comedies ever, including “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes” (where he plays a himbo whose brain is turned into a computer) and “The Barefoot Executive” (where he plays a lowly mailroom clerk who climbs the ladder at a TV network thanks to his prodigious pet chimpanzee). 

It’s no wonder he signed off on the infamous surfing scene in John Carpenter’s “Escape From L.A.” years later. Only someone with the particular combination of Russell’s background and natural charisma could hang 10 with Peter Fonda on a tsunami as Snake Plissken and somehow come out the other side looking just as cool as he did before.