Oscar Profile #245: Jeff Bridges

Born December 4, 1949 in Los Angeles, California the second son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his actress wife Dorothy Dean Bridges, Jeff Bridges made his screen debut as an infant in mother’s arms in 1951’s The Company She Keeps alongside eight years older brother Beau.

The younger Bridges was a child actor on numerous TV shows starting with an appearance on his father’s popular Sea Hunt at the age of 8. He made his big screen debut in 1970’s Halls of Anger. He received the first of his six Oscar nominations to date in the following year’s The Last Picture Show. He continued to impress critics and audiences alike with 1972’s Fat City and Bad Company and 1973’s The Last American Hero and The Iceman Cometh. 1974’s Thunderbolt and Lightfoot earned him a second Oscar nomination.

A major star now, Bridges’ 1975’s Rancho Deluxe and Hearts of the West, 1976’s King Kong and 1977’s Stay Hungry were all successful. 1979’s Winter Kills and 1981’s Cutter’s Way were cult hits, but 1980’s Heaven’s Gate was a box-office disaster.

In the early 1980s, Bridges was in the sci-fi hit TRON, the comedy Kiss Me Goodbye, the nourish Against All Odds and the sci-fi romance Starman for which he earned his third Oscar nomination, his first in a leading role.

The mid-1980s found him in Jagged Edge, 8 Million Ways to Die and The Morning After, none of which added to his reputation, but the late 1980s he was back in critical favor with Tucker: The Man and His Dream, See You in the Morning and The Fabulous Baker Boys. He did some of his best work in the early 1990s in The Fisher King, American Heart and Fearless. His most successful film of the late 1990s was the cult favorite, The Big Liebowski.

Bridges returned to the heights of Oscar glory with his fourth nomination for his supporting role as a fictitious U.S. President in 2000’s The Contender, but although he remained popular throughout the decade, none of his subsequent films elicited much excitement until 2009’s Crazy Heart for which he finally won an Oscar on his fifth nomination, surprisingly only his second in a leading role. He earned a sixth nomination, his third in lead, for the following year’s remake of True Grit.

In this decade, Bridges continues to be a presence, having recently had the leads in The Giver and Seventh Son. He is currently filming Comancheria with Chris Pine and Ben Foster. The 66-year-old star has been married to wife Susan since 1977. They have three children and one grandchild.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971), directed by Peter Bogdaovich

One of the most acclaimed films of its day, Bogdanovich’s film about a small Texas town in the early 1950s with a screenplay by Larry McMurtry from his novel featured star-making performances from Timothy Bottoms, Cybill Shepherd and Bridges as the town’s latest high school graduates and provided character players Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn and Eileen Brennan with their strongest roles to date as the town’s elder inhabitants. Johnson and Leachman won Oscars, Bridges and Burstyn nominations.

THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT (1974), directed by Michael Cimino

Star Clint Eastwood was so impressed with Michael Cimino’s screenplay that he selected him as the film’s director as well, paving the way for his next film, the Oscar winning The Deer Hunter.

Eastwood and Bridges play bank robbers on the lam in this ode to Bonnie and Clyde which can either be read as a buddy movie or barely concealed gay romance. Although both actors are terrific, Bridges’ heartbreaking final scenes, emulating the end of Midnight Cowboy, lifts the caper film out of the ordinary. It’s no wonder he earned a second Oscar nomination three years after his first.

STARMAN (1984), directed by John Carpenter

Having lost the lead in Carpenter’s 1982 film, The Thing, Bridges had his best role in ten years as the alien who takes on human form in Carpenter’s 1984 film.

Bridges and Karen Allen as the widow of the man whose body Bridges inhabits are first rate. The romance is sweet, but not sticky, laced with dollops of humor. This is a science fiction film that stands head and shoulders above many in the genre.

AMERICAN HEART (1993), directed by Martin Bell

Bridges has said that his favorites of his many films are two that were released in 1993, American Heart and the better known Fearless.

Bridges won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor for his masterly portrayal of the alcoholic ex-convict seeking to develop a relationship with his teenage son played by Edward Furlong (Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

CRAZY HEART (2009), directed by Scott Cooper

Nearing 60, Bridges starred in two 2009 films as a man reassessing his life, first as a faded baseball player in Open Road, then as a fading country singer in Crazy Heart.

Critics and Oscar voters were more impressed with Bridges in the latter, which finally gave him the elusive Oscar he had been courting for nearly forty years. Then they nominated him again the following year for playing John Wayne’s role in the remake of the western, True Grit.