For more than four decades, Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn have been one of Hollywood’s most recognizable couples.
They met while filming The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band in 1966, reconnected years later on Swing Shift, and began the relationship in 1983 that continues today. They never married, but their partnership has outlasted countless Hollywood marriages.
Yet before Goldie became the woman permanently associated with Kurt, there was another actress in his life — Season Hubley, his first and only wife.
Hubley was a striking blonde actress who appeared opposite Russell on screen before becoming his wife and the mother of his eldest son, Boston. And whenever vintage photographs of her resurface, some viewers are surprised by just how glamorous she was.
Online comments inevitably turn the women into competitors, with some declaring Season “more beautiful than Goldie.”
Beauty, of course, is subjective. But the RARE PHOTOS do reveal a fascinating woman whose own Hollywood story has largely been overshadowed by the famous relationship that came after her.
Before Goldie Hawn, Kurt Fell in Love With Season Hubley
Susan “Season” Hubley was born in New York City in 1951 and began building an acting career during the 1970s.
She appeared in television productions and series including The Partridge Family, Kung Fu, The Rookies and Family before landing increasingly prominent movie roles.
She had the kind of distinctly 1970s beauty that photographed effortlessly: long blonde hair, delicate features and large expressive eyes.
Her path eventually crossed Kurt Russell’s.
The two worked together on the 1979 television movie Elvis, directed by John Carpenter.
Russell played Elvis Presley.
Hubley played Priscilla Presley.
The fictional husband and wife soon became a real-life couple.
Kurt and Season Married in 1979
Russell and Hubley married on March 17, 1979.
At the time, Kurt was entering an important transitional period in his career.
He had spent much of his childhood and adolescence working for Disney, appearing in movies such as The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. Playing Elvis helped audiences begin seeing him as something other than the former Disney child star.
His performance earned him an Emmy nomination.
And behind the scenes, his relationship with his onscreen Priscilla was becoming serious.
Their son, Boston Russell, was born in 1980.
Unlike his enormously famous parents — and later his equally famous extended family — Boston would grow up preferring a remarkably private life.
Season Was More Than “Kurt Russell’s First Wife”
It’s easy to reduce Hubley to a line in Russell’s romantic history, but she had a substantial career of her own.
One of her most memorable performances came in 1979’s Hardcore, directed by Paul Schrader and starring George C. Scott.
She subsequently starred in Escape from New York in 1981 — again appearing in a movie with Russell, although her role was relatively small.
In 1982, Hubley took the lead in the cult film Vice Squad.
Her performance as Princess, a Los Angeles sex worker who becomes involved in a police operation targeting a violent pimp, showed a dramatically different side of her acting ability.
It was dark, gritty material, worlds removed from the polished glamour suggested by many of her publicity photographs.
Their Marriage Lasted Four Years
Kurt and Season’s marriage ultimately ended in 1983.
Their divorce was finalized that year after approximately four years together.
Neither built an entire public identity around criticizing the other afterward.
Instead, both moved forward.
Hubley continued acting.
Russell’s personal life was about to change permanently.
That same year, he reunited with a woman he’d first met when he was still a teenager.
Her name was Goldie Hawn.
Kurt Had Actually Met Goldie Long Before Season
The timeline contains an interesting twist.
Russell and Hawn weren’t strangers when they began dating.
They had originally met on the set of the 1968 Disney musical The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band, which had been filmed earlier.
Goldie was in her early twenties.
Kurt was still a teenager.
Nothing romantic happened between them at the time.
Years passed.
Both married other people.
Goldie married actor Gus Trikonis and later musician Bill Hudson, with whom she had Oliver and Kate Hudson.
Kurt married Season.
Then, in 1983, Russell and Hawn were cast together in Swing Shift.
This time, everything was different.
Goldie and Kurt Became a Couple the Same Year His Divorce Was Finalized
Their romance began in 1983.
The relationship quickly became serious.
By 1986, Kurt and Goldie welcomed their son, Wyatt Russell.
But their household included children from previous relationships too.
Goldie already had Kate and Oliver Hudson.
Kurt had Boston.
Together, they created one of Hollywood’s most recognizable blended families.
Kate and Oliver would eventually come to regard Kurt as their father figure, frequently speaking about him with enormous affection.
Boston, meanwhile, remained far more private.
Season Also Remarried
After her divorce from Russell, Hubley eventually married cinematographer David Hayball in 1992.
That marriage was brief, ending in divorce in 1994.
Professionally, she continued appearing in television throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Her credits included The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Murder, She Wrote, All My Children and Beverly Hills, 90210.
But as the years passed, her appearances became less frequent.
Her final screen credits date from the late 1990s.
Then Season Hubley essentially disappeared from Hollywood.
She Chose a Life Almost Completely Opposite Goldie’s
This may be one reason vintage photographs of Hubley generate so much curiosity today.
Goldie Hawn remained enormously visible.
She continued acting.
She attended premieres.
She appeared alongside Kurt.
Their children became celebrities.
Their grandchildren appeared in family photographs.
Goldie built businesses and remained a recognizable public figure well into her seventies.
Season went in almost the opposite direction.
She largely withdrew from entertainment and stopped maintaining the public profile associated with a working Hollywood actress.
Consequently, audiences have far fewer contemporary photographs of her.
That’s Why Her Old Photographs Keep Surprising People
Many younger fans know Kurt Russell almost exclusively as one half of “Kurt and Goldie.”
The couple has been together for so long that it’s easy to forget both had substantial romantic lives before one another.
Then someone discovers a photograph of Season Hubley.
Suddenly, the comments begin.
Some people praise her striking eyes.
Others notice her resemblance to the blonde Hollywood aesthetic of the era.
And inevitably, someone compares her appearance with Goldie’s.
Calling one woman “more beautiful” than another doesn’t establish anything factual. It says far more about individual taste.
What is interesting is how different the two women were.
Season’s beauty in her early photographs was quieter and more delicate.
Goldie’s public image was built around an enormous smile, expressive eyes, blonde hair and a bubbly comedic personality.
Both were considered beautiful women during their respective Hollywood peaks.
And both occupied important — but very different — places in Kurt’s life.
Ten RARE PHOTOS Reveal Season Before She Left Hollywood
The earliest photographs show Hubley during the 1970s, before she was associated with Russell at all.
Long blonde hair framed her face, and her styling was unmistakably of the decade.
Then came photographs from Elvis.
Seeing Season as Priscilla beside Kurt’s Elvis is particularly fascinating today because the chemistry wasn’t entirely fictional.
Soon they were husband and wife.
Later photographs capture Hubley around the period when Boston was young and her movie career was developing.
Then there are promotional images from Vice Squad, where she looks almost completely different from the soft-spoken blonde seen in earlier portraits.
And eventually, the photographic trail becomes thinner.
That scarcity is precisely what makes her later images so interesting.
Their Son Boston Grew Up Away From the Spotlight
Boston Russell is now in his forties.
Unlike Kate Hudson, Oliver Hudson or Wyatt Russell, he never pursued the same kind of high-profile acting career.
Occasionally, he has appeared at family events or alongside his father, but he has generally remained private.
That makes him an unusual member of one of Hollywood’s most famous extended families.
His mother largely left acting.
His father became a major movie star.
His father’s longtime partner is Goldie Hawn.
His step-siblings include Kate and Oliver Hudson.
His half-brother Wyatt became an actor.
Yet Boston managed to grow up without turning his personal life into a public product.
Goldie Never Needed a Wedding Ring to Become Kurt’s Life Partner
The comparison between Season and Goldie also overlooks one rather extraordinary fact.
Season remains Kurt Russell’s only wife.
Despite spending more than four decades with Goldie Hawn, Russell has never married her.
Both have repeatedly explained that they simply haven’t felt marriage was necessary.
Their relationship began in 1983 and endured through careers, children, grandchildren and the normal changes of aging.
By 2026, they had been together for more than 43 years.
That’s roughly ten times the length of Kurt’s marriage to Season.
Yet legally, Hubley remains the only woman who has ever been Mrs. Kurt Russell.
Goldie and Season Represent Two Completely Different Chapters
Looking at old photographs naturally invites comparisons.
Season and Goldie were both blonde actresses.
Both became mothers.
Both built careers in Hollywood.
Both loved Kurt Russell.
But that’s roughly where the similarities end.
Season’s relationship with Kurt belonged largely to his late twenties and early thirties, when he was still transforming himself from former Disney star into serious adult actor.
Goldie entered the story just as Kurt was becoming the rugged leading man audiences would recognize for decades.
Season eventually left Hollywood.
Goldie remained one of its most recognizable personalities.
One relationship ended after four years of marriage.
The other has lasted more than four decades without a wedding.
Season Is Now in Her Seventies and Remains Intensely Private
Today, Hubley is 75.
There are no constant Instagram updates.
No celebrity reality series.
No regular red carpets.
No carefully staged “then and now” publicity campaign.
That privacy makes it difficult to know much about her everyday life today — and it’s important not to fill those gaps with invented stories simply because people remain curious about her.
Her legacy instead remains preserved largely in her screen work and photographs.
And some of those photographs are genuinely striking.
The RARE PHOTOS Explain Why Fans Are Still Fascinated
Look through 10 RARE PHOTOS of Season Hubley, and it becomes easy to understand why people encountering her for the first time are surprised.
There’s the young television actress.
The blonde beauty photographed during the 1970s.
Priscilla Presley opposite Kurt Russell’s Elvis.
The newlywed.
The mother of Kurt’s first child.
The gritty leading lady of Vice Squad.
And finally the woman who gradually decided that life outside Hollywood suited her better.
Whether she was “more beautiful than Goldie” is something no article can decide.
Beauty isn’t a competition with an objective winner.
But the photographs do correct one misconception.
Before Goldie Hawn became Kurt Russell’s partner for life, Season Hubley wasn’t simply an anonymous first wife hidden somewhere in his biography.
She was an actress.
A leading lady.
A mother.
And for four important years at the beginning of Kurt Russell’s transformation into a major adult star, she was his wife.
More than four decades later, Goldie and Kurt remain one of Hollywood’s enduring couples, while Season lives almost entirely beyond the spotlight.
Perhaps that’s precisely why those old photographs continue to stop people mid-scroll.
They reveal a chapter of Kurt Russell’s life that many fans never knew existed — and a woman who was once standing beside him long before the world began thinking of “Kurt and Goldie” as inseparable.
For more on stars from back in the day, check out how Shelley Long was the blonde beauty who made *Cheers* unforgettable before living quietly away from Hollywood, and see rare photos of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle back in the UK.
