Jeff Bridges
Jeff Bridges | |
|---|---|
 Bridges in 2013. | |
| Born | Jeffrey Leon Bridges December 4, 1949 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, singer, producer, composer |
| Years active | 1950–present |
| Spouse |
Susan Geston (m. 1977) |
| Parent(s) | Lloyd Bridges, Dorothy Bridges |
| Family | Beau Bridges (brother) Jordan Bridges (nephew) Garrett Bridges (brother) Lucinda Bridges (sister) |
Jeffrey Leon "Jeff" Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor, country musician, and producer. He comes from a well-known acting family and began his televised acting in 1958 as a child with his father, Lloyd Bridges, and brother, Beau, on television's Sea Hunt. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Otis "Bad" Blake in the 2009 film Crazy Heart and earned Academy Award nominations for his roles in The Last Picture Show, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Starman, The Contender, and True Grit. Among his other best-known major motion films are: The Big Lebowski, Fearless, Iron Man, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Jagged Edge, Against All Odds, The Fisher King, Tucker, Seabiscuit, Arlington Road, Tron and Tron: Legacy.
Early life
Jeffrey Leon Bridges was born in Los Angeles, California on December 4, 1949. He is the son of showbiz parents, actor Lloyd Bridges (1913–1998)[1][2] and actress and writer Dorothy Bridges (née Simpson; 1915–2009). His older brother, Beau Bridges, is also an actor. He has a younger sister, Lucinda, and had another brother, Garrett, who died of sudden infant death syndrome in 1948. His maternal grandfather was an English immigrant (from Liverpool).[3]
Bridges and his siblings were raised in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles.[4] Growing up, Bridges shared a close relationship with his brother Beau, who acted as a surrogate father when their father was working.[5] He graduated from University High School in 1967. At age seventeen, Jeff toured with his father in a stage production of Anniversary Waltz. After graduating from high school, Bridges journeyed to New York City, where he studied acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio. Also, after turning 18, Bridges joined the United States Coast Guard Reserve, where he served for eight years.[6]
Career
Film
Bridges made his first screen appearances at the age of four months in The Company She Keeps in 1950. In his youth, Bridges and brother Beau made occasional appearances on their father's show Sea Hunt (1958–1961) and the CBS anthology series, The Lloyd Bridges Show (1962–1963). In 1971 he played the lead role Mike in the TV movie In Search of America. His first major role came in the 1971 film The Last Picture Show, for which he garnered a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.[7] He co-starred in the 1972 critically acclaimed neo-noir boxing film Fat City, directed by legendary director, John Huston. He was nominated again for Best Supporting Actor for his performance opposite Clint Eastwood in the 1974 film Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.[7] In 1976, he starred as the protagonist Jack Prescott in the first remake of King Kong, opposite Jessica Lange. This film was a commercial success, earning $90 million worldwide, more than triple its $23 million budget, and also winning an Academy Award for special effects.
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 (a role he reprised in late 2010 with the sequel Tron: Legacy). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1984, for playing the alien in Starman.[7] He was also acclaimed for his roles in the thriller Against All Odds (1984) and the crime drama Jagged Edge (1985). His role in Fearless (1993) is recognized by some critics to be one of his best performances.[8] One critic dubbed it a masterpiece;[9] Pauline Kael wrote that he "may be the most natural and least self-conscious screen actor that has ever lived".[10] In 1999, he starred as what is arguably his most famous role, "The Dude", in the Coen Brothers' cult-classic film The Big Lebowski.[7] He has said that he relates to "The Dude" more than any of his other roles.[citation needed]
In 2000, he received his fourth Academy Award nomination, for his role in The Contender.[7] He also starred in the 2005 Terry Gilliam film Tideland, his second with the director (the first being 1991's The Fisher King). He shaved his trademark[citation needed] mane of hair to play the role of Obadiah Stane in the 2008 Marvel comic book adaptation Iron Man.[11] In July 2008, at the San Diego Comic-Con International, he appeared in a teaser for Tron: Legacy, shot as concept footage for director Joseph Kosinski; this developed into a full 3D feature release in 2010.
Bridges is one of the youngest actors ever to be nominated for an Academy Award (1972, age 22, Best Supporting Actor, The Last Picture Show), and one of the oldest ever to win (2010, age 60, Best Actor, Crazy Heart).[12][13] Crazy Heart also won him the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.
Bridges received his sixth Academy Award nomination for his role in True Grit, a collaboration with the Coen brothers in which he starred alongside Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper, and Hailee Steinfeld. Both the film, and Bridges's performance as Rooster Cogburn, were critically praised. Bridges lost to Colin Firth, whom he had beaten for the Oscar in the same category the previous year.
Music
Referring to his career as an actor and his passion for music, Bridges says, "I dug what an actor did, but it took me a while to feel it, to truly appreciate the craft and the preparation. Plus, I was still playing music a lot, and I guess I had a hard time choosing: was I an actor or a musician, or could I be both?"[14]
Bridges studied piano at a young age strongly encouraged by his mother.[15] It was known that, while working on the 1980 film Heaven's Gate, he often played guitar with his costar, the singer Kris Kristofferson, between takes. His character in Crazy Heart, Bad Blake, was later based partly off Kristofferson. He released his debut album Be Here Soon on January 1, 2000. In 2005, Bridges, known as "The Dude" in the film Big Lebowski, showed up at a Lebowski Fest in Los Angeles singing and playing the film's theme song written by Bob Dylan, "Man in Me".
On January 15, 2010, Bridges performed the song "I Don't Know" from Crazy Heart on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. In the film The Contender, in which he co-starred, Bridges recorded a version of Johnny Cash's standard "Ring of Fire" with Kim Carnes that played over the pivotal opening credits. In February 2010, he was among the nearly 80 musicians to sing on the charity-single remake of We Are the World.[16] On October 24, 2010, Bridges appeared at Neil Young's annual Bridge School Benefit concert and played a set with singer-songwriter Neko Case.
On April 19, 2011, Country Music Television announced that Bridges had signed a recording contract with Blue Note Records/EMI Music Group. He worked with producer T-Bone Burnett and released his second album, Jeff Bridges, on August 16, 2011.[17] On November 5, 2011, Bridges played Austin City Limits in support of this album.[18]
Bridges plays guitars such as: Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentlemen Model G6122-1959.[15]
Other work as
In Photography
Jeff Bridges has been an amateur photographer since high school, and began taking photographs on film sets during Starman, at the suggestion of co-star Karen Allen.[19] Since 1980, he began photographing on and off set shot with his favorite camera, a Widelux F8. He published many of these photographs online and published a book in 2003 entitled, Pictures: Photographs by Jeff Bridges.[20][21][22][23]
Narrator
Bridges narrated the documentary Lost in La Mancha (2002), about 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 had previously appeared in Gilliam's The Fisher King. Bridges also narrated the documentaries National Geographic's Lewis & Clark: Great Journey West (2002, IMAX), Discovery Channel's Raising the Mammoth (2000), and ABC's Heroes of Rock and Roll (1979). He also voiced the character Big Z in the animated picture Surf's Up.
Bridges has performed TV commercial voice over work as well, including Hyundai's 2007 "Think About It" advertising campaign[24] as well as the Duracell advertisements in the "Trusted Everywhere" campaign.[25]
On December 18, 2010, Bridges hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live; he had hosted the show before in 1983 with his brother, Beau. With the December 18, 2010 episode, Bridges beat Sigourney Weaver's record for longest gap between hosting appearances on SNL (Weaver had a 24-year gap between her first time hosting in 1986 and her second time hosting in 2010, while Bridges had a 27-year gap between his first appearance in 1983 and his most recent one, also in 2010).
Personal life
Bridges married Susan Geston in 1977.[26] They met on the film shoot of Rancho Deluxe, which was filmed on a ranch where Geston was working as a maid.[7][27] They have three daughters: Isabelle Annie (born August 6, 1981), Jessica Lily "Jessie" (born June 14, 1983), and Hayley Roselouise (born October 17, 1985).[28] Bridges became a grandfather on March 31, 2011, when Isabelle gave birth to a daughter, Grace.
Bridges has studied Buddhism. He meditates for half an hour before beginning work on a film set.[29]
He currently lives in Montecito, California.
Humanitarian efforts
In 1984, Bridges and other entertainment industry leaders founded the End Hunger Network aimed at encouraging, stimulating and supporting action to end childhood hunger. He supports President Obama's initiative to End Childhood Hunger by 2015. In November 2010, Bridges became spokesman for the No Kid Hungry Campaign of the organization Share our Strength. Its goal is to present and undertake a state-by-state strategy to end childhood hunger in the United States by 2015.[30]
He has teamed up with the Zen Peacemakers, who operate a non-traditional soup kitchen.[31] An edited version of a transcript of a conversation he had with Zen master Bernard Glassman is published in the 2013 book "The Dude and the Zen Master."[32]
Filmography and television programs
Discography
Studio albums
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country [35] |
US [35] |
US Folk [36] |
US Rock [36] | ||||||
| Be Here Soon |
|
– | – | – | – | ||||
| Jeff Bridges |
|
10 | 25 | 2 | 5 | ||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||
Singles
| Year | Single | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | "What a Little Bit of Love Can Do" | Jeff Bridges |
Music videos
| Year | Title | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | "What a Little Bit of Love Can Do"[37] | Alan Kozlowski |
See also
References
- ^ "Actress Dorothy Bridges dies, Mother of Beau and Jeff Bridges was 93". Variety Magazine. February 20, 2009. Retrieved April 23, 2009.
- ^ "Jeff Bridges Biography (1949–)". FilmReference.com. Retrieved September 3, 2011.
- ^ http://www.suerussellwrites.com/bridges.html
- ^ McLellan, Dennis (February 21, 2009). "Dorothy Bridges dies at 93; 'the hub' of an acting family". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 23, 2009.
- ^ "Jeff Bridges is still the Dude".
- ^ "Jeff Bridges Biography". thespiannet. Retrieved September 28, 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f Stated on Inside the Actors Studio, 2003
- ^ "100 Essential Male Film Performances: Part 4 – From the Page to the Screen".
- ^ "Fearless — A movie masterpiece about transcendence".
- ^ Philip French (August 6, 2006). "Here's looking back at you". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
- ^ "Iron Man — Official Site".
- ^ Sheridan, Emily (March 8, 2010). "Fifth time lucky Oscar winner Jeff Bridges pays tribute to his 'gorgeous wife of 33 years' at Governors Ball". Daily Mail. London. Retrieved March 8, 2010.
- ^ Bridges, Jeff (guest) (24 June 2004). "'The Door in the Floor': Actor Jeff Bridges". USA Today. Retrieved August 6, 2011.
- ^ Guitar Aficionado Magazine – Spring 2010
- ^ a b Interview/Testimonial video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qntfBwX6Kgg&feature=player_embedded
- ^ "'We Are The World – 25 For Haiti' Artists Include Kanye West, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber".
- ^ "CMT : News : Jeff Bridges signs to Blue Note Records". Country Music Television. Retrieved April 19, 2011.
- ^ "Video: Miranda Lambert / Jeff Bridges Watch Austin City Limits Online PBS Video". Retrieved 13 May 2012.
- ^ "Photography". JeffBridges.com. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
- ^ powerHouse Books, 2003, ISBN 1-57687-177-0; Library of Congress control number: 2003046711
- ^ "Library of Congress Online Catalogs".
- ^ "pictures".
- ^ "Pictures: Jeff Bridges" by Jeff Bridges. Published 2003.
- ^ "Oscars: Hyundai debuts clever Academy Awards ad with Jeff Bridges' actor friends". Theweeklydriver.com. March 6, 2010. Retrieved August 16, 2010. [dead link]
- ^ Samaniego, Danielle. "Name That Voice: Ten Celebrity Commercial Voice-Overs". Divinecaroline.com. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
- ^ Video on YouTube[dead link]
- ^ "Jeff Bridges: On Marriage". Reader's Digest. February 2006. Retrieved September 9, 2008.
- ^ "Susan Geston and Jeff Bridges Marriage Profile". About.com. Retrieved July 2014.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ Tricycle: The Buddhist Review Fall 2010 Vol. 20, No. 1 pg. 54
- ^ "Jeff Bridges to Launch Campaign Against Childhood Hunger in National Press Club Address". PRNewswire. November 5, 2010. Retrieved November 6, 2010.
- ^ Glassman, Bernie (July 15, 2010). "Child Hunger and How Zen House Can Help". Huffington Post. USA. Retrieved August 14, 2010.
- ^ New York Times, 6 Jan. 2013, "If Lebowski Calls, Will You Be in? Or Out Bowling?Jeff Bridges and Bernie Glassman’s ‘Dude and the Zen Master,’" http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/books/jeff-bridges-and-bernie-glassmans-dude-and-the-zen-master.html
- ^ "Jeff Bridges Emmy Nominated". Emmys.com. Retrieved 2013-07-14.
- ^ Seventh Son at IMDb
- ^ a b "Chart News August 24: Country Dominates as Luke Bryan Still Top Dawg". Roughstock. Retrieved August 24, 2011.
- ^ a b "Chart listing for Jeff Bridges". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
- ^ "CMT : Videos : Jeff Bridges : What a Little Bit of Love Can Do". Country Music Television. Retrieved August 23, 2011.
External links
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- 1949 births
- American Buddhists
- 20th-century American male actors
- 21st-century American male actors
- Male actors from Los Angeles, California
- American people of English descent
- American male child actors
- American country singers
- American country singer-songwriters
- American male film actors
- American male television actors
- American male voice actors
- Best Actor Academy Award winners
- Transcendental Meditation practitioners
- Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
- Blue Note Records artists
- Bridges family
- EMI Records artists
- Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead winners
- Living people
- United States Coast Guard personnel
- University High School (Los Angeles, California) alumni
- Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Screen Actors Guild Award winners