Kurt Russell Has A Hilarious Cameo In Tom Hanks' Forrest Gump

Based on the book of the same name, the movie "Forrest Gump" is as much the life story of its titular character as it is a journey through American history and pop culture between the 1950s and the 1980s. Forrest seems to find himself involved in one major historical event after another, as well as both meeting and influencing some of the most famous figures from those eras. What makes the film all the more endearing is the framing device, which has Forrest recounting the stories from his remarkable life to random strangers on a bus stop bench, completely oblivious to all the ways he literally guided the course of history multiple times over. 

Among the best historical references in "Forrest Gump" is when a young Forrest meets an up and coming rockabilly musician, and inadvertently teaches that musician his soon to be iconic dance moves. Of course, audiences know that musician to be Elvis Presley, and it's hilarious to suggest that the funky stage walk and hip gyrations that Presley would become infamous for were inspired by Forrest's herky-jerky movements in his leg braces. What you may not know is that the voice of Elvis Presley in "Forrest Gump" is none other than Hollywood legend Kurt Russell in an uncredited performance.

"Forrest Gump" is directed by Robert Zemeckis, who at the time was most famous for the "Back to the Future" trilogy and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." But Zemeckis had helmed a few movies before the adventures of a time-traveling DeLorean made him one of the most beloved and successful directors of his generation. One of his early films, 1980's "Used Cars," received generally positive reviews but didn't make much at the box office. It did, however, lead to Zemeckis making a new friend: The very dark, very R-rated satire stars Kurt Russell as a car salesman with political ambitions, and the two got on like a house on fire.

When Zemeckis was directing "Forrest Gump," he called in a favor from his old pal after running into a bit of trouble. According to Russell, Zemeckis wasn't sold on the voice of the actor who had been hired to play Elvis Presley, Peter Dobson. Zemeckis had Russell come in and dub Presley's dialogue over Dobson for the speaking parts, and it was all done on the downlow. "I did that as a thing for Bob," Russell told GQ in 2016. "He didn't like what it was and said, 'I need something real bad.' I didn't know if, to be honest with you, Bob was doing it on the sly. In other words, the actor didn't know."

It wasn't just a random choice to have Kurt Russell say a few lines of dialogue as Elvis Presley in "Forrest Gump." The actor had history portraying the king of rock and roll, and in an Emmy-nominated performance, to boot. In 1979, Russell starred in "Elvis," a made-for-TV biopic of Presley. Playing Presley's dad in the movie is Bing Russell — actor, baseball club founder, and Kurt's real-life father. It would be the only movie that the two would appear in together as actors, though Russell would later do interviews for a documentary about his father's baseball career called "The Battered Bastards of Baseball." As it happens, it's the only Kurt Russell movie with a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

"Elvis" and "Forrest Gump" wouldn't be the only two times Russell's career would be intertwined with the legacy of Elvis Presley. In 2001, he starred in the heist movie "3000 Miles to Graceland," where, alongside Kevin Costner, Christian Slater, David Arquette, and Bokeem Woodbine, Russell played a member of a team of casino robbers dressed as Presley. While that movie was maligned by critics and a major flop at the box office, it nonetheless completed Russell's trilogy of Elvis-adjacent performances — barring any surprise future portrayal of an elderly, alternate history Presley by the actor. If anyone is up to the task of such a project, it's definitely Kurt Russell.