Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Jeff Bridges on a publicity still for Fat City (John Huston, 1972).
British postcard by Film Review, London, Set E, Card 3. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Jeff Bridges in The Vanishing (George Sluizer, 1993).
Rambling, reckless and unpredictable
Jeffrey Leon Bridges was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1949. Bridges was brought up on acting. Both his father Lloyd Bridges and his older brother Beau Bridges were actors. His mother's name was Dorothy Dean Simpson.
Bridges made his film debut, without billing, alongside his mother and brother Beau in the film The Company She Keeps (John Cromwell, 1951). Jeff also appeared on occasion with his famous dad on his popular underwater TV series Sea Hunt (1958).
After working in the Coast Guard, he developed into a film actor. In 1971, he landed a coming-of-age role in Peter Bogdanovich's critically-acclaimed ensemble film The Last Picture Show, which established his name as an actor. That year, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Male Performance for his part of Duane Jackson. It set the tone for the types of roles Jeff would acquaint himself with his fans: rambling, reckless and unpredictable.
During the 1970s, he was given a large number of roles. He played a boxer on his way up opposite a declining Stacy Keach in Fat City (John Huston, 1972). Bridges was nominated for the Oscar for his role as a rookie opposite Clint Eastwood in the action comedy Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (Michael Cimino, 1973). He appeared as a low-level Western writer who wants to be a real-life cowboy in Hearts of the West (Howard Zieff, 1975). The 1976 remake of King Kong (John Guillermin, 1976) was followed by several flops, of which Heaven's Gate (Michael Cimino, 1980) is the most infamous. Tron (Steven Lisberger, 1982) was also initially a flop but turned out to be a Science-Fiction cult classic. This series of flops put a dent in Bridges' career.
He came back with Starman (John Carpenter, 1984). For his role as an alien who lands on Earth and assumes human form, he was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor. That same year, he also starred in the equally successful Film Noir remake Against All Odds (Taylor Hackford, 1984). Other successful films followed, including the crime drama Jagged Edge (Richard Marquand, 1985) with Glenn Close and The Morning After (Sidney Lumet, 1986) with Jane Fonda. His role as a car salesman in Francis Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) is considered one of his best roles. With his brother Beau and Michelle Pfeiffer, he starred in The Fabulous Baker Boys (Steve Kloves, 1989).
Dutch photo. Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen in Starman (John Carpenter, 1984).
Dutch collectors card. Jeff Bridges in Against All Odds (Taylor Hackford, 1984).
The Dude
In 1990, Jeff Bridges reunited with Cybill Shepherd in Texasville (Peter Bogdanovich, 1990), the moderately received sequel to their big breakthrough film The Last Picture Show. He returned with Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King (1991), in which he plays a radio DJ who is depressed but is helped back on his feet by a drifter (Robin Williams).
His performances in the films American Heart (Martin Bell, 1992), which he also produced, and Fearless (Peter Weir, 1993) were acclaimed. Another commercial success followed with the thriller Blown Away (Stephen Hopkins, 1994) and The Mirror Has Two Faces (Barbra Streisand, 1996). One of his best-known characters is "The Dude", the stoned, bowling hippie from Joel and Ethan Coen's The Big Lebowski (1998).
The following year, he appeared alongside Tim Robbins in the thriller Arlington Road (Mark Pellington, 1999). He was again nominated for an Oscar for his role as the President of America in The Contender (Rod Lurie, 2000). The mystery K-PAX (Iain Softley, 2001) with Kevin Spacey did rather poorly in the cinema, but Seabiscuit (Gary Ross, 2003) was a direct hit in the United States. He seized the moment as a bald-pated villain as Robert Downey Jr.'s nemesis in the blockbuster Iron Man (Jon Favreau, 2008).
In 2010, he won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his role as a faded country music musician in Crazy Heart (Scott Cooper, 2009). Bridges next reprised one of his more famous roles in Tron: Legacy (Joseph Kosinski, 2010), and received another Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his role in the Western remake True Grit (Ethan & Joel Coen, 2010). In 2014, he co-produced and starred in an adaptation of the Lois Lowry Science-Fiction drama The Giver (Phillip Noyce, 2014). Bridges stole every scene in which he appeared in the thriller Bad Times at the El Royale (Drew Goddard, 2018) and he was last seen as a retired CIA agent in the TV series The Old Man (2022).
Besides his Oscar (nominations), Bridges has been awarded more than ten other acting awards, including a Saturn Award for Starman and a Career Achievement Award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. Jeff Bridges has been married since 1977 to Susan Geston, whom he met on the set of Rancho Deluxe (Frank Perry, 1975). They have three daughters, Isabelle (born 1981), Jessica (1983), and Hayley (1985). In 2020, Jeff Bridges announced on Twitter that he is seriously ill.
Vintage postcard, no. C 93. Jeff Bridges, John Goodman and Steve Buscemi in The Big Lebowski (Joel & Ethan Coen, 1988).
Vintage postcard, no. 516450. Steve Buscemi, John Goodman and Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski (Joel & Ethan Coen, 1988).
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.
This post was last updated on 8 September 2023.
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