Jeff Bridges - My Favorite Actor Currently Working

Jeff Bridges - When asked about his not being a typical movie star

Recently I wrote an article about Walter Matthau who happens to be my all-time favorite actor. Now I would like to dedicate an article to the career of Jeff Bridges, my favorite actor currently working.

Bridges, born December 4, 1949, is not the typical movie actor. He wasn't very interested in acting but his life was surrounded by it with his father Lloyd and older brother Beau working steadily. He went into the business to make money before deciding where he would take his life. Thankfully for film fans he decided to stay in the business.

When he isn't making films Bridges loves photography. While making King Kong in 1976, in which he plays the expedition's photographer, Bridges became more and more interested and from that film forward has made a photographic record of his co-stars and the filming. He has published a book called "Pictures" taken from the sets of all his films over the last 30 years.

Bridges, known for his wild ways in his early 20's, has been married to the same woman, Susan, for 31 years and has three daughters aged 21 to 26.

He has acted in almost every film genre there is usually taking on a role completely opposite from the one before. He has been making films for just over 35 years now and has complied 4 Academy Award nominations for his acting (1 for Actor and 3 for Supporting Actor) while taking on risky roles in smaller films that few people have seen. You can hear his voice on television commercials and as narrator of film documentaries.

Here is a look at the career of Jeff Bridges, an actor who never gives less then an interesting performance even when the film he is in is less then engaging. He commands the screen and makes you listen to what he has to say.

After making small and insignificant television and film appearances, Jeff Bridges landed his first major role as Duane, the town football star who dates Cybil Sheppard and then goes off to fight in the Korean War in The Last Picture Show. Bridges received his first Academy Award nomination for this performance, for Best Supporting Actor and the film was a critical and box office smash. His knack for taking offbeat roles came into play with his next two films. In Fat City, directed by John Huston, Bridges plays an up and coming boxer who meets another boxer (Stacy Keach) whose career is on the downslide. Despite strong reviews the film disappeared quickly. He followed that with Bad Company, a wonderful but overlooked Western about young boys growing into young men in the West. In 1973 he played a race car driver/moon shiner in The Last American Hero.

In 1974 Bridges co-starred with one of the top box office stars in the world, Clint Eastwood in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. In it Bridges is Lightfoot, a wise ass small time crook who has to dress in drag for a robbery they are planning before slowly dying from a beating inflicted by George Kennedy. The film, not surprisingly, was a box office hit. The major surprise was Bridges landing his second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Bridges was good in the role but it was in the type of film that is generally overlooked at awards time. In 1975 Bridges starred in two good comedies, both of which were largely ignored by the public. Rancho Deluxe starred Bridges with Sam Waterston as two drifters who become cattle rustlers in Montana. In Hearts of the West Bridges plays a writer who dreams of being a cowboy and, when he sets out to make his dream come true unexpectedly becomes a star of movie Westerns.

In 1976 Bridges made two movies on both ends of the film world spectrum. In Stay Hungry, Bridges plays a spoiled rich kid hired to woo a gym owner into selling and soon finds himself intrigued by the world of body building. This was one of Bridges' least seen but best films, directed by Bob (Five Easy Pieces) Rafelson. Later that year Bridges took top billing for the Christmas spectacular King Kong. The film became an industry joke and critics were not kind but the film was a mild hit and not the disaster many claim it to be. Bridges' next film was an odd choice. 1978's Somebody Killed Her Husband was the first starring vehicle for then-hot Farrah Fawcett. Bridges is reduced to playing the love interest in a rather bland murder mystery that bombed at the box office. An even bigger bomb was 1979's Winter Kills, a political thriller about the younger brother of an assassinated President who suddenly discovers there was a conspiracy. Despite all of the obvious parallels to JFK, the filmmakers dared claim it an original work. The film was barely released and is hard to find today but remains an intriguing curio of a film. The film's failure kept Bridges on a box office losing streak but it was nothing compared to the film that greeted his career to start the 1980's.

It was the film whose bombastic reception was heard around the world. Heaven's Gate was an epic Western with a budget that had ballooned to almost $40 million dollars with a near four hour running time that nearly bankrupted United Artists. The film premiered in November of 1980 in New York and the critical reaction was so strong that director Michael Cimino, who had directed Bridges in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, begged the studio to pull the film and allow him to cut the film down. UA gave in to Cimino's wishes (he was hot off winning Best Director for The Deer Hunter) but when the film was released at 139 minutes in April of 1981, no one other then those interested in witnessing a car wreck bothered to show up. Viewed today some critics believe the slams against the film were too severe while others describe it as a "masterpiece." If it ever comes on you will want to watch it in its 4 hour running time. The cut version is an incomprehensible mess.

In 1982 Bridges played Kevin Flynn, a video game programmer who goes into the world of one of his games in the cult classic Tron. The film was a mild hit whose legion of fans has grown over the years. Later that year he co-starred with Sally Field and James Caan in the romantic comedy Kiss Me Goodbye which was poorly received by critics and audiences.

Bridges' career took a major upswing in 1984 first starring in the sexy thriller Against All Odds and then starring as an alien in John Carpenter's Starman. Both films were hits and Bridges would receive his third (and, to date, first for Best Actor) Academy Award nomination for the latter. In 1985 Bridges played a millionaire newspaper publisher arrested and tried for murdering his wife in Jagged Edge, another box office hit. In 1986 Bridges played a cop who loses everything when he shoots a drug suspect and fights to turn his life around in 8 Million Ways To Die. The film was so poorly received it never received a wide theatrical release. Next he played opposite Jane Fonda in the thriller The Morning After, another poorly received film despite Fonda's Academy Award nominated performance. In 1987 Bridges co-starred with Kim Basinger in the farcical comedy Nadine but the film failed as well. In 1988 Bridges gave one of his best performances in Francis Ford Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream, which marked the first time Jeff worked with his father. Despite good reviews the public failed to find the film. The same could be said for the family drama See You In The Morning, (1989). The film got terrific reviews but flopped at the box office. Later that year Jeff teamed with older brother Beau as lounge singer/piano players in the terrific The Fabulous Baker Boys. Once again the film didn't live up to expectations despite strong reviews (and a nomination for Best Actress to Michelle Pfeiffer).

Bridges kicked off the 90's by reprising one of his most famous roles. In Texasville, Peter Bogdanovich reunited his cast from The Last Picture Show to show what life had become for these memorable characters after 20 years. As was becoming the norm, the film flopped despite some strong reviews. Bridges got back on the map the next year when he co-starred with Robin Williams in Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King, in which he played a popular hit disc jockey whose life is shattered when he inadvertently talks a disturbed caller into killing patrons in a restaurant before killing himself. Now burnt out and suicidal he meets a street bum who is on the quest to find the Holy Grail and enlists the DJ's help. In 1993 Bridges took an unusually villainous role in the American version of The Vanishing but was sideswiped by a bad script. Later that year he took the role he claims to be his favorite, Max Klein, survivor of an airplane crash in Peter (Witness, Dead Poet's Society) Weir's Fearless. In 1994 Bridges attemtpted to go the summer action movie route teaming with Tommy Lee Jones (and re-teaming with his father) for "Blown Away," which failed to do that for critics thought it was a mild hit. Bridges then gave two strong performances in two little seen films, Wild Bill and White Squall. In 1996 Bridges starred with Barbra Streisand in the romantic drama The Mirror Has Two Faces, a critically mixed response for a film that was a mild hit.

In 1998 Bridges took the role that he is likely best known to film fans for. In the Coen Brothers' The Big Lebowski, Bridges plays Dude, an alcoholic bowler who is mistaken for a millionaire in deep debt leading to two thugs urinating on his carpet. Dude enlists the aid of his bowling buddies to get the millionaire to pay for the carpet. The film was well received by both the critics and the public but has since grown into a major cult hit. His next film was Arlington Road, a taut thriller about a professor who suspects his new neighbors are domestic terrorists. Surprisingly the film was a flop. He finished out the decade with a role in Albert Brooks' The Muse and a starring role in Simpatico, which never received wide theatrical release.

The new decade began well for Bridges. Playing the President of the United States in The Contender, Bridges won his fourth Academy Award nomination. The story revolves around a woman senator who is nominated to succeed the deceased Vice President. During the confirmation process secrets from her past are brought out that threaten her personal and political future. This is an excellent political thriller that won over critics and audiences. In 2001 Bridges teamed with Kevin Spacey for K-Pax, the story of a mental patient who claims to be an alien from space and the doctor who begins to wonder if there is any truth to the story. Masked and Anonymous followed and hit art houses with a resounding thud from critics and to those few people who saw it. Bridges rebounded nicely with a supporting role as the horse owner in Seabiscuit. In 2004 Bridges gave another terrific performance in The Door In the Floor playing an alcoholic writer suffering the loss of two sons who hires a teenager to be his assistant for a summer only to see the boy have an affair with his estranged wife, herself still trying to heal from the pain of losing her sons.

Times have gotten tough for Bridges' films of late even though he is always singled out for his work. In 2005 he made two films, neither of which saw a wide release. The Moguls is a comedy about a small town whose citizens band together to make an adult film. This film never got a theatrical release. Tideland was a dramatic fantasy directed by Terry Gilliam that received scathing reviews and a very limited release in theaters. In 2006 Bridges played a gymnastics coach in the teen comedy Stick It and most recently provided his voice to the animated comedy Surf's Up.

Jeff Bridges may be in a mini-slump but he is certain to rebound as he has done before. Upcoming projects include the live action version of the comic Iron Man and a new comedy currently filming called How To Lose Friends and Alienate People. And should those projects not live up to expectation you can always look back at some of his other work.

Jeff Bridges' presence assures quality in a performance even if the quality is lacking in the project itself.