The Most Bizarre Rumors About Kurt Russell

During his decades in the spotlight, Kurt Russell has learned that gossip comes with the territory. Speculation about his private life has been a mainstay, with one of the public's biggest fascinations being why Russell and his longtime partner Goldie Hawn never wed. While annoying, the questions are mostly harmless, and he does his best to answer them every time. However, other rumors that have done the rounds over the years are anything but benign. Russell has been the subject of bizarre speculation about his health and well-being.

Russell's political views have also been weaponized throughout recent presidential election cycles. A stream of quotes and statements has been falsely attributed to him as the internet became increasingly fractured amid America's highly charged political climate. Because he isn't liberal like most of his fellow movie stars, Russell became an easy target for fake news. This is despite Russell's reluctance to discuss politics in general, but social media users still believe the false narrative when the rumor mill churns them up.

He sees himself as an entertainer, and entertainers have no place in politics. For him, it's important that moviegoers don't come with preconceived notions about him. "As far as I'm concerned, you should step away from saying anything so that you can still be seen by the audience in any character," he told The New York Times in 2020. Unfortunately for him, his neutral stance has achieved the opposite, making him easy prey in the fake news sphere. 

The public seems really interested in spreading rumors about Kurt Russell's health — or lack thereof. In 2017, a paparazzi picture showing him with dark spots on his lower lip hit the web, with RadarOnline speculating that he may have been suffering from Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome. While the polyps associated with the genetic disorder are benign, patients are at a higher risk of developing some types of cancer. Regardless of the diagnosis, doctors were intrigued by Russell's lip sores.

"He needs to have these looked at and have a physician conduct immediate tests," Dr. Gabe Mirkin told the outlet. "They could be the result of a serious infection." Another doctor dismissed the possibility of plastic surgery. "It's not like any procedure I've ever seen," Dr. Anthony Youn added. No other publication reported the news, suggesting the photo might have been fake. That didn't stop the bizarre rumor from perpetuating. Eight years later, a Facebook page disseminated the fake information that he was suffering from PJS.

Making matters worse, the post used a photo of Russell with big bruises and cuts on his face. He was, in fact, captured walking around New Orleans looking pretty banged up in 2015, but he was in costume during the filming of "Deepwater Horizon," E! News reported. PJS wasn't the only diagnosis he had received from online strangers. On the heels of the RadarOnline story, the website New Idea speculated that Russell's sores were the result of a flesh-eating disease. None of it was ever proven and Russell seems to be doing just fine.

In August 2023, online rumors claimed Kurt Russell had died. The hoax seemingly originated in a since-deleted YouTube video by "The Late Actor Today" account, which suggested Russell had been in an unspecified accident and the scene was "under investigation." However, Snopes was quick to nip the hoax in the bud, noting that no media outlets had reported the supposed news. Even though the original report was pretty suspicious (an AI-generated voice narrated the video), many netizens fell for it anyway.

Those who mourned him online gave different causes of death, indicating they were getting the news from different sources. "Hard to believe that Kurt Russell has left us. He never got the acclaim that others did, but he always had a very strong fanbase ... He died of cancer at the age of 72. He was truly an underappreciated gem of an actor," one user wrote on a Pipes Magazine public forum, a cause of death perhaps related to the aforementioned rumors about his health.

Some other users seemed skeptical. "Zero luck trying to confirm," one wrote. Another suspected it might have been a hoax but remained unsure. "From what I've seen thus far, it appears this may not be true... may be an internet hoax... hopefully that's the case," the user added. Russell is obviously alive and well. In fact, Russell helped celebrate his stepdaughter Kate Hudson's 46th birthday in April 2025. As her Instagram post showed, he seemed in great spirits.

Kurt Russell isn't a Democrat, a political stance that puts him in the minority among his fellow actors. Unfortunately, his views have invited rumors from the opposite camp in an attempt to claim him, so to speak. But just because Russell isn't a liberal doesn't mean he's right wing, though that's what the internet would have you believe. In June 2024, SpaceXMania reported that Russell had joined Roseanne Barr and Tim Allen's "Non-Woke Actors' Alliance" in an effort to promote political diversity in Hollywood.

Not only was there no evidence of such a group existing, but the website itself was also far from reliable. In fact, SpaceXMania has a disclaimer page that makes it abundantly clear the website is satirical. "SpaceXMania does not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability, and accuracy of this information. Any action you take upon the information you find on this website (SpaceXMania), is strictly at your own risk," the page reads.

The rumor that Barr and Allen had launched an anti-liberal movement started two months prior. While Allen and Barr have been open about their non-mainstream views, they didn't start such a group. Russell never responded to the rumors, but he had previously opened up about how his politics often made for uncomfortable conversations in his social circles. "I couldn't say, 'I'm a Republican, sorry.' I wasn't a Republican, I was worse: I was a hardcore libertarian," he told The Daily Beast in 2015. 

Whether he likes it or not, Kurt Russell has became a champion for the anti-liberal movement online. In addition to being linked to the previously mentioned false alliance, he also had words put in his mouth by satirical social media pages known for attacking openly liberal actors. In June 2024, America's Last Line of Defense claimed Russell had a harsh theory regarding why George Clooney hadn't been in as many films in recent years. "He's arrogant, conceited, and he never shuts up," he was quoted as saying in a Facebook post.

A few days before, America's Last Line of Defense made another Facebook post claiming Russell had also argued that Robert De Niro had been missing out on work opportunities due to his attitude. "He's not even getting calls from the reverse mortgage people," Russell reportedly said. He also supposedly claimed that working alongside De Niro in the 1991 film "Backdraft" was among the worst experiences of his professional life. Russell was praised in the comments by social media users who were put off by the actors' political views.

Clooney and De Niro were both outspoken in their criticism of President Donald Trump throughout the 2024 election cycle. Snopes debunked both claims. In addition to the quotes being found nowhere else, America's Last Line of Defense isn't an actual source of news — by its own admission. "The flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery and propaganda for cash. Nothing on this page is real," its Facebook bio states.

If it sounds like a lot of the wild rumors surrounding Kurt Russell go back to his political views, it's because they do. Since the now-president burst onto the political stage, several pro-Trump quotes were attributed to the actor even though Russell never publicly supported Donald Trump. In December 2018, Russell went viral for reportedly singing the president's praises in pretty extravagant fashion. "President Donald J. Trump is relentless," read the quote that FactCheck.Org deemed to be false. "I've never seen a man so dedicated & determined."

The fake Russell didn't stop there. "I'd like to think I would be as courageous as he is, but I just don't know. The world is after him & he stands there in the face of pure evil, rock solid & ready to fight for us. God bless this brave man," the quote continued. This was far from the only time quotes were attributed to Russell that he never said. In fact, a Trump satire page on X, previously known as Twitter, disseminated several misquotes. This was particularly tricky because the account has the verification blue checkmark and uses the same photo as the real Trump account.

When the fake account's tweets show on someone's feed, they look conspicuously like they belong to the president. "BREAKING: Hollywood legend Kurt Russell just said that Illegal immigrants should be forcibly deported from America," one tweet claimed. "What's your reaction?" Russell likely never said this at all, as Snopes deemed the claim to be unfounded.