Todd Bridges

Todd Bridges
Bridges at the Big Apple Convention in Manhattan, New York on October 17, 2009.
Born	Todd Anthony Bridges (1965-05-27) May 27, 1965 San Francisco, California, United States
Occupation	Actor, comedian
Years active	1975–present
Spouse(s)	Dori Smith
Children	2

Todd Anthony Bridges (born May 27, 1965) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his role as Willis Jackson on the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, and for his recurring role as Monk on the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. He was a comedic commentator from 2008-2013 on the television series TruTV Presents: World's Dumbest....

Personal life

Bridges was born May 27, 1965, in San Francisco, California. He is the son of Betty Alice Pryor, an actress, director, and manager, and James Bridges, Sr., an agent. Bridges' brother Jimmy Bridges, nieces Penny Bridges, Brooke Bridges and Rachel Bridges and sister Verda Bridges are all actors. Bridges' son, Spencir Bridges (born July 15, 1998), from his divorced wife Dori Bridges née Smith, is also a child actor and appearing in the film Daddy Day Camp and an iCarly episode. Bridges has a daughter, Bo, from a previous relationship.

Legal issues

In his 20s, Bridges battled a crack cocaine addiction for several years. In 1988, he was arrested and tried for the attempted murder of Kenneth "Tex" Clay, a Los Angeles area drug dealer who, prosecutors argued, had been shot by Bridges. Bridges pleaded not guilty to the charges and was represented by the high-profile defense attorney Johnnie Cochran. Cochran successfully portrayed Bridges as an abused minor who had been driven to drugs by an exploitative entertainment industry, and was now being unfairly framed. A witness finally testified that Bridges was not present at the time of the shooting. Bridges was acquitted of all charges by a jury.

Career

Bridges appeared on The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie, and appeared in the landmark miniseries Roots. He was a regular on the Barney Miller spinoff Fish. But it was as Willis Jackson on the long-running sitcom Diff'rent Strokes that he made his name, along with fellow co-stars Conrad Bain, Dana Plato and Gary Coleman. Bridges, Mary Jo Catlett, Danny Cooksey and Charlotte Rae are Diff'rent Strokes' only surviving cast members.

Bridges appeared as a contestant on a 2006 celebrity episode of Fear Factor, but was eliminated after the first stunt. In January 2007, he appeared as a member of the "mob" on the US version of the game show 1 vs. 100. He appeared on MyNetworkTV's new show, Decision House with his wife, Dori Bridges, on the episode titled, "Burned Bridges" aired on November 14, 2007. He also had a recurring role on the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris.

In March 2008, Bridges appeared on truTV's TruTV Presents: World's Dumbest...; he continues to appear as a frequent commentator. That same year in October, he debuted as one of the contestants on Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling on the CMT Network. He was a member of Team Beefcake (coached by former wrestler Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake). On the show, Bridges' wrestling persona was the character "Mr. Not So Perfect." In one episode, he put the smack down on Tonya Harding with a lead pipe. The judges praised him for his athleticism and his cunning at defeating Harding. After reaching the finals along with Butterbean and Dustin Diamond, Bridges was defeated by Dennis Rodman.

In 2015, Bridges was the host of a live game show, Lovers or Losers: The Game Show, at the Plaza Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Other work

Bridges wrote a book, Killing Willis: From Diff'rent Strokes to the Mean Streets to the Life I Always Wanted, discussing his childhood sexual abuse, drug addiction, criminal charges, and efforts to establish a public identity independent of the character, "Willis," he portrayed. He appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on April 28, 2010, to discuss the troubled past he chronicles in his memoir.

He appeared as a contestant on the Fox reality show Skating with Celebrities, but was eliminated on the second episode of the show because he was using roller skates instead of ice skates. Fans were surprised he made it past the first episode. Todd Bridges defeated Vanilla Ice on a 2002 episode of Celebrity Boxing.

Bridges has appeared in a few music videos. His first music video appearance was in Penny Ford's 1984 single "Change Your Wicked Ways". Almost fifteen years later, he made a cameo in Moby's 2002 music video for "We Are All Made of Stars". In 2011, he appeared in the video for The Black Keys single "Howlin' for You".

In 1998, Todd Bridges and his brother James Bridges were credited with saving the life of a 51-year-old paraplegic woman, Stella Kline. The woman nearly drowned when her wheelchair rolled into a lake while she was fishing. Quoting Kline, "I was thanking God that he was there, and you know, everybody's been saying nothing but bad stuff about Todd Bridges on the news and in the papers... He has a heart of gold." Todd Bridges remarked on the rescue, "We felt God put us there at the right time to save this lady's life, because there was no one else around."

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	She's Out of Control	Water Man	Ind. film
1992	The Sounds of Silence	Joe Goodman	Ind. film, co-starring Dana Plato
1992	Homeboys	Johnny Davis	Ind. film, co-starring David Garrison
1996	Gangstaz	Tyrone	Ind. film
1997	The Girl Gets Moe	Dr. Glick	Ind. film starring Tony Danza
1997	Hoover Park		Ind. film co-starring Laura Harring
1998	The Waterfront		Directed by John M. Sjogren
1999	Flat Out	Dr. Acosta	Directed by John M. Sjogren
2000	The Thief & the Stripper	Burn	Directed by John M. Sjogren & co-starring Michael Madsen
2002	The Beach House	Todd
2002	The Climb	Eddie
2002	Welcome to America	Easy T	Directed by John M. Sjogren, co-starring Michael Madsen
2002	Scream at the Sound of the Beep	Lamar
2002	Pacino is Missing	Harrison Dodge
2002	Baby of the Family	Ted
2003	Pauly Shore Is Dead	Cameo
2003	Ghost Dog: A Detective Tail	Power Plant Guard	starring Jack Wagner
2003	Dumb Luck	Lincoln
2004	Land of the Free?	Alex
2004	Curse of the Maya	Ruben Herardo
2005	Treasure N'Tha Hood	Henry Nails	Ind. film, directed by Greg Carter
2005	Issues	Carson	Ind. film, co-starring Laz Alonso
2007	Frankie D	Frankie D	Ind. film
2008	Darkroom	Charles the Barkeep	Ind. film, directed by Iosua Tai Taeoalii
2009	See Dick Run	ATM	Ind. film, co-starring Kel Mitchell and Page Kennedy
2009	I Got Five on It Too	Jimmy	Ind. film
2009	The Jerk Theory	Waiter (uncredited)	Starring John Henderson
2010	Big Money Rustlas	Scruffy Scrub #3
2010	The Apparition of Roxanne	Officer Johnston
2010	Do Me a Solid	Maurice	Short Film, co-starring Brent Huff
2011	King of the Underground	Todd	Co-starring Paula Jai Parker and Malcolm-Jamal Warner
2012	That's My Boy	Himself	Cameo
2012	Turning Point	Marvin
2014	Monsters on Main Street	Larry Goleman	Ind. film
2014	College Friday Night		Ind. film, co-starring Sara Fletcher
2016	Dependent's Day	Hank Wright	Ind. film
2016	Precious Mettle	Sam	Ind. film
2016	The White Sistas	Bishop Wilkins	Post-Production, directed by Paula Jai Parker
2016	Dead Ringer	Detective Billington	Post-Production, directed by Johnny Kearns
2016	Bar Chronicles	The Customer	Post-Production, Ind. film
2016	Nightblade	Detective Francesco	Post-Production, directed by Jim O'Rear
2016	Renaissance Man	Todd	Ind. film, screenplay by Kenneth del Vecchio
2016	Hospital Arrest	Prosecutor Denuyl	Ind. film, screenplay by Kenneth del Vecchio
2017	The Deaf Kid	Harold	Pre-Production, Ind. film
2017	Nat Turner: Story of A Prophet	Jack Waller	Pre-Production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1975	Barney Miller	Truman Jackson	1 episode
1975	The Orphan and the Dude	Leonard Brown	TV Movie, directed by James Frawley
1975	Katherine	Robert	TV Movie
1976	Police Story	Little Walter	1 episode
1977	Roots	Bud	1 episode
1977	Little House on the Prairie	Solomon Henry	1 episode
1977	A Circle of Children	Todd	TV Movie, directed by Don Taylor
1977	A Killing Affair	Todd York	TV Movie
1977-1978	Fish	Loomis	Main role, 35 episodes
1977-1978	The Waltons	Josh Foster	2 episodes
1978	The Love Boat	Michael Jr.	1 episode
1978-1986	Diff'rent Strokes	Willis Jackson	Main role, 169 episodes
1979	The Return of Mod Squad	Jason Hayes	TV Movie
1979	CHiPs	Todd Bridges (uncredited)	1 episode
1979	Hello, Larry	Willis Jackson	3 episodes
1979-1981	The Facts of Life	Willis Jackson	2 episode
1980-1981	Here's Boomer	Turk/Benny	2 episodes
1983	High School U.S.A.	Otto Lipton	TV Movie, directed by Rodney Amateau
1988	Twice Dead	Petie	TV Movie
1991	The New Lassie	Deputy Kirby	1 episode
1992	The Ben Stiller Show	Todd Bridges	2 episodes
1996	Circle of Pain		TV Movie, co-starring Rosalind Cash
1997	L.A. Heat	Trevor	1 episode
2000	The Darkling	Baron	TV Movie, directed by Po-Chih Leong
2001	Son of the Beach	Todd Bridges	1 episode
2002	The Rerun Show	T.J. Davis	1 episode
2004	Jane Doe: Now You See It, Now You Don't	The Man	TV Movie
2005	Alien Express	Peter	TV Movie
2007-2009	Everybody Hates Chris	Monk	17 episodes
2012	World's Dumbest	Himself	1 episode
2014	Hotel P	Bryce	1 episode (pilot)
2015	Roommates on Elm Street	The Landlord	3 episodes

Videogames

Year	Title	Role
2014	Tesla Effect	Mantus
2016	2064: Read Only Memories	Hayden Webber

Books

• Todd Bridges with Sarah Tomlinson, Killing Willis: From Diff'rent Strokes to the Mean Streets to the Life I Always Wanted, Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, December 2008 (ISBN 9781439148983)

External links

• Todd Bridges at the Internet Movie Database
• Todd Bridges at AllMovie