On this day in 1969, Dexter Riley was introduced to the world, a character played by Kurt Russell. In The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Dexter attempts to fix an early 1960s computer, but he gets an electric shock which essentially turns his brain into a computer. Kurt’s version of Dexter returned for two additional Disney films. In 1972’s Now You See Him, Now You Don’t, Dexter comes up with a lab experiment that produces invisibility, and in 1975’s The Strongest Man in the World, Dexter eats a bowl of cereal accidentally containing a chemical compound which causes him to develop superhuman strength. But it all started for Dexter in 1969 when he portrayed, as the film’s theme song states, “that out of sight, totally together computer in tennis shoes.”
