Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is a four-time Academy Award-nominated American actor and musician. His most notable films include The Last Picture Show, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Tron, Starman, The Fisher King, Fearless, The Big Lebowski, The Contender, Seabiscuit, Surf's Up, Iron Man and How to Lose Friends & Alienate People.

Biography

Personal life

Bridges was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Dorothy Dean (née Simpson) and actor Lloyd Bridges. He shared a close relationship with his brother, actor Beau Bridges, who acted as a surrogate father during his earlier life when their real father was busy with work. He is an uncle of Jordan Bridges. He married Susan Geston on June 5, 1977 after meeting her on the set of Rancho Deluxe in 1975, filmed on a ranch where Geston worked as a maid. The couple have 3 daughters, Isabelle (b. 1981), Jessica (b. 1983), and Hayley (b. 1985).

Film career

Bridges's first major role was in the 1971 movie The Last Picture Show for which he garnered a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was nominated again for the same award for his performance opposite Clint Eastwood in the 1974 film Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. One of his better known roles was in the 1982 science-fiction cult classic Tron, in which he played Kevin Flynn, a video game programmer. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1984 for playing the alien in Starman. He was also acclaimed for his roles in the thriller Against All Odds and the crime drama Jagged Edge. His role in Fearless is recognized by some critics to be one of his best performances. One critic dubbed it a masterpiece; Pauline Kael wrote that he 'may be the most natural and least self-conscious screen actor that has ever lived'. He also appeared as "The Dude" in the Coen Brothers' classic cult film ''The Big Lebowski.

In 2000, Bridges was nominated for his fourth Academy-Award for his role in The Contender. He also starred in the 2005 Terry Gilliam movie Tideland, his second with the director (the first being 1991's The Fisher King). He plays the role of Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger in the 2008 Marvel motion picture, Iron Man. In July 2008 he was shown in the Comic Con teaser for TR2N, the upcoming sequel to Tron; leading fans to assume he would once again reprise the role of Flynn from the 1982 classic film.

Other work

In his off time while on set, he has been known to document the filmmaking process by photographing fellow actors and on-set staff with a Widelux panoramic camera. He began doing this during the filming of Starman at the suggestion of co-star Karen Allen. He has published many of these photographs online and in print titled "Pictures".

Bridges is also a cartoonist. Some of his "doodles" have appeared in various films, such as K-PAX and The Door in the Floor (a short story-within-story by John Irving).

Bridges narrated the documentary Lost in La Mancha (2002), a singular filmographic witness of the "unmaking" of a Terry Gilliam retelling of Don Quixote, tentatively titled The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, which would have starred Johnny Depp as Sancho Panza and Jean Rochefort as the quixotic hero. Bridges has worked with Gilliam on The Fisher King and Tideland. Bridges also narrated the documentaries Lewis & Clark: Great Journey West (2002, IMAX), Raising the Mammoth (2000, TV), and The Heroes of Rock and Roll (1979, TV). He also voiced the character Big Z in the animated picture Surf's Up.

Bridges has performed voice-over work as well: he was behind Hyundai's 2007 "Think about it" ad campaign, and has done all of the Duracell ads in the "Trusted Everywhere" campaign (2006-current).

In the film The Contender, in which he co-starred, he recorded a version of Johnny Cash's standard Ring of Fire that played over the beginning of the film. As of 2008, the song has not been released commercially outside of the film.

Filmography

• The Company She Keeps (1951) uncredited
• The Yin and Yang of Mr. Go (1970)
• Halls of Anger (1970)
• The Last Picture Show (1971)
• Fat City (1972)
• Bad Company (1972)
• Lolly-Madonna XXX (1973)
• The Last American Hero (1973)
• The Iceman Cometh (1973)
• Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)
• Hearts of the West (1975)
• Rancho Deluxe (1975)
• Stay Hungry (1976)
• King Kong (1976)
• Somebody Killed Her Husband (1978)
• Winter Kills (1979)
• The American Success Company (1980)
• Heaven's Gate (1980)
• Cutter's Way (1981)
• Tron (1982)
• The Last Unicorn (1982) (voice)
• Kiss Me Goodbye (1982)
• Against All Odds (1984)
• Starman (1984)
• Jagged Edge (1985)
• 8 Million Ways to Die (1986)
• The Morning After (1986)
• The Thanksgiving Promise (1986)
• Nadine (1987)
• Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)
• See You in the Morning (1989)
• Cold Feet (1989) (Cameo)
• The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)
• Texasville (1990)
• Picture This: The Times of Peter Bogdanovich in Archer City, Texas (1991) (documentary)
• The Fisher King (1991)
• American Heart (1992)
• The Vanishing (1993)
• Fearless (1993)
• Blown Away (1994)
• Wild Bill (1995)
• White Squall (1996)
• The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)
• Hidden in America (1996)
• The Big Lebowski (1998)
• Arlington Road (1999)
• The Muse (1999)
• Simpatico (1999)
• The Contender (2000)
• Scenes of the Crime (2001)
• K-PAX (2001)
• Lost in La Mancha (2002) (documentary) (narrator)
• Lewis & Clark: Great Journey West (2002) (short subject) (narrator)
• Masked and Anonymous (2003)
• Seabiscuit (2003)
• The Door in the Floor (2004)
• Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate (2004) (documentary)
• Backstage at the Bowl (2005) (documentary) (narrator)
• The Amateurs (also known as The Moguls, 2005)
• Tideland (2005)
• Stick It (2006)
• Chasing the Lotus (2006) (documentary) (narrator)
• Surf's Up (2007) (voice)
• A Dog Year (2008)
• Iron Man (2008)
• How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008)
• The Open Road (2008)
• Tron 2 (2010?)

References

External links

• Jeff Bridges at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website