KURT RUSSELL - RUSSELL APPLAUDS DISNEY'S PERSONAL TUTORING

Veteran actor KURT RUSSELL credits legendary filmmaker WALT DISNEY with personally teaching him the mechanics of the movie industry. As a boy in the mid-1960s, Russell was headhunted by the mogul himself and went on to star in a string of Disney productions before launching a successful adult career. And Russell credits Disney, who died in 1966, with sitting him down and teaching him how Hollywood works. The 56-year-old says, "He was very cool, he was a lot like my grandfather. I found him very easy to be around. We used to play ping-pong a lot. "He spent a lot of time sitting me down in his office and doing something that I didn't recognise at the time, he was teaching me the business and he was picking my brain at the same time. He was fascinated with what young kids thought. "I wasn't intimidated by him - I just thought he was a friendly man, and he was incredibly creative. Years later I realised those hours I spent with him talking about character arcs... and all the ways a story can be told, but always telling a great story.