In the late 1960s, he signed a ten-year contract with The Walt Disney Company, where he starred as Dexter Riley in films such as The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), Now You See Him, Now You Don't (1972), and The Strongest Man in the World (1975).

[2] Russell was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for his performance in Mike Nichols's Silkwood (1983).

[13] From 1969 to 1975, Russell served in the California Air National Guard and belonged to the 146th Tactical Airlift Wing, then based in Van Nuys.

[14] Russell made his film debut with an uncredited part for It Happened at the World's Fair, playing a boy who kicked a pilot (Elvis Presley) in the leg.

[15] On April 24, 1963, Russell guest-starred in the ABC series Our Man Higgins, starring Stanley Holloway as an English butler in an American family.

[17] In 1964, Russell guest-starred in "Nemesis", an episode of the ABC series The Fugitive in which, as the son of police Lt. Phillip Gerard, he is unintentionally kidnapped by his father's quarry, Doctor Richard Kimble.

[18] Russell played a similar role as a kid named Packy Kerlin in the 1964 episode "Blue Heaven" for the Western series Gunsmoke.

He, Jay C. Flippen and Tom Tryon appeared in the episode "Charade of Justice" of the NBC Western series The Road West starring Barry Sullivan.

[22] While filming the Sherman Brothers musical The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968), Russell met his future partner Goldie Hawn.

[24] Later, he guest-starred in an episode of Room 222 as an idealistic high school student who assumed the costumed identity of Paul Revere to warn of the dangers of pollution.

He did not return to El Paso, but was a designated hitter for the independent Portland Mavericks in the Northwest League late in their short season.

Russell was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Special for the 1979 television film Elvis, in which his then-wife Season Hubley played Priscilla.

[38] He returned to Disney to provide the voice of Copper as an adult for The Fox and the Hound (1981) then reunited with Carpenter for The Thing (1982), based upon the short story Who Goes There?

He starred in The Mean Season (1986) and The Best of Times (1986), then played an antihero truck driver caught in an ancient Chinese war in Big Trouble in Little China, another Carpenter film which, like The Thing, was initially a critical and commercial disappointment but has since gained a cult audience.

Russell played Lt. Stephen "Bull" McCaffrey in Backdraft (1991), Wyatt Earp in Tombstone (1993) and Colonel Jack O'Neil in the military science fiction film Stargate (1994).

"[42] Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Russell's cagey and remote performance gives ''Miracle'' its few breezes of fresh air.

'[45][46] Russell appeared in The Battered Bastards of Baseball, a documentary about his father and the Portland Mavericks, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014.

They have a son, Wyatt Russell (born July 10, 1986), and have owned homes in Vancouver, British Columbia;[54][23] Snowmass Village, Colorado;[55] Manhattan, New York;[56] Brentwood[57] and Palm Desert, California.

[62] He is also an FAA-licensed private pilot holding single/multi-engine and instrument ratings, and is an Honorary Council Member of the humanitarian aviation organization Wings of Hope.