LOS ANGELES — The Dude finally has an Oscar.
Jeff Bridges, the affable and well-liked star of "Crazy Heart," won the best actor Academy Award Sunday night, an honor that has eluded him four times before. His first nomination came nearly 40 years ago in 1971.
Once onstage, Bridges took a fun and lively victory lap, thanking his parents, collaborators, agent and his wife and three daughters.
"Thank you mom and dad for turning me on to such a groovy profession," a clearly pleased Bridges said in accepting the award.
He spoke about how his father, the late actor Lloyd Bridges, used to sit him on a bed and teach him the basics of acting. His mother was the actress Dorothy Bridges.
"This is honoring them as much as it is me," Bridges said of his parents.
Bridges career has been a mix of critical and popular favorites. One of his most popular roles was as The Dude in the cult classic "The Big Lebowski," but turns in films such as 1984's "Starman" and 1971's "The Last Picture Show" have accounted for some of his previous Oscar nominations.
Backstage, Bridges clutched his Oscar in one hand and a glass of champagne in the other. Asked to assess his life and career, Bridges invoked his character in "The Big Lebowski."
"Ups and downs — what does The Dude say? — strikes and gutters, man," Bridges said.
He sipped his drink at times and raised his glass as if to toast reporters before leaving an interview room.
He won for his portrayal of Bad Blake, a past-his-prime country star searching for redemption and another shot at stardom. The role almost never happened — Bridges initially turned down the part because he didn't feel that "Crazy Heart" had the appropriate musical heft.
When Grammy-winning producer T Bone Burnett came on board, Bridges signed on to play Blake, whose passion for music is second only to his penchant for self-destructive behavior.
The win was not exactly a surprise — Bridges, 60, has been considered the favorite to win the best actor Oscar for months.
Voters chose Bridges over George Clooney in "Up in the Air," Morgan Freeman in "Invictus," Colin Firth in "A Single Man" and Jeremy Renner in "The Hurt Locker."
Actress Michelle Pfeiffer, who worked with Bridges on 1989's "The Fabulous Baker Boys," praised her former co-star. She recounted how they shared a makeup artist who erased her complexion flaws and seemed to transfer them to Bridges.
"It is that kind of attention to detail and lack of vanity that has made Jeff not just a great actor, but a brilliant one," Pfeiffer said.
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The actor's official site. Includes a filmography, news and information on the End Hunger Network.Jeff Bridges
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jeff Bridges | |
---|---|
Bridges at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival | |
Born | Jeffrey Leon Bridges December 4, 1949 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Occupation | Actor, singer, producer, composer |
Years active | 1951–present |
Spouse(s) | Susan Geston (1977–present) 3 children |
Jeffrey Leon "Jeff" Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor and musician. His most notable films include K-PAX, The Last Picture Show, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Tron, Starman, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Fisher King, Fearless, The Big Lebowski, The Contender, The Mirror Has Two Faces, Iron Man, and Crazy Heart, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 82nd Academy Awards.
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Personal life
Jeffrey Bridges was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actress and writer Dorothy Bridges (née Simpson) and actor Lloyd Bridges.[1][2] He has an older brother, Beau, and a younger sister, Lucinda. Another brother, Garrett, died of sudden infant death syndrome in 1948. Growing up, Bridges shared a close relationship with his brother, actor Beau Bridges, who acted as a surrogate father when their father was working.[3] Bridges and his siblings were raised in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles.[4] He served in the US Coast Guard in the late 1960s, and as a reservist in the early 1970s.[5]
Bridges, who is also the uncle of actor Jordan Bridges, married Susan Geston in 1977. They met on the movie shoot of Rancho Deluxe which was filmed on a ranch where Geston was working as a maid.[6] They have three daughters: Isabelle (born in 1981), Jessica Lily (born in 1983), and Hayley Roselouise (born in 1985). Bridges is also a known cannabis user; in an interview, he admitted to giving up smoking marijuana during the filming of The Big Lebowski, but says he has not "permanently kicked the habit."[7]
Film career
As a teenager, Bridges appeared, along with his brother Beau, on their father's CBS anthology series, The Lloyd Bridges Show (1962-1963).
His 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.[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] He also starred as "The Dude" in the Coen Brothers' cult-classic film The Big Lebowski.
In 2000, he received his fourth Academy Award nomination 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 played the role of Obadiah Stane in the 2008 Marvel motion picture, Iron Man.[11] In July 2008 and July 2009, at the San Diego Comic-Con International, he appeared in a teaser for Tron Legacy, the sequel to Tron.
In 2010, Bridges won the Academy Award for Best Actor, 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 for his role as Bad Blake in the film Crazy Heart.
Other work
Bridges began taking pictures on set during Starman, at the suggestion of co-star Karen Allen.[citation needed] He has published many of these photographs online and in the 2003 Pictures: Photographs by Jeff Bridges.[12][13][14][15]
Bridges is also a cartoonist. Some of his "doodles" have appeared in films including K-PAX and The Door in the Floor.[citation needed]
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 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 TV commercial voice-over work as well, including Hyundai's 2007 "Think About It" ad campaign,[citation needed] and all the Duracell ads in the "Trusted Everywhere" campaign (2006-on).[citation needed]
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]
Filmography
References
- ^ "Actress Dorothy Bridges dies, Mother of Beau and Jeff Bridges was 93". Variety Magazine. 2009-02-20. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118000396.html?categoryid=13&cs=1. Retrieved 2009-04-23.
- ^ "Jeff Bridges Biography (1949-)". http://www.filmreference.com/film/31/Jeff-Bridges.html.
- ^ "Jeff Bridges is still the Dude". http://www.craveonline.com/filmtv/articles/04648313/jeff_bridges_is_still_the_dude.html.
- ^ McLellan, Dennis (2009-02-21). "Dorothy Bridges dies at 93; 'the hub' of an acting family". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-dorothy-bridges21-2009feb21,0,1331555.story. Retrieved 2009-04-23.
- ^ http://thehollywoodinterview.blogspot.com/2008/02/jeff-bridges-hollywood-interview.html
- ^ "Jeff Bridges: On Marriage". Reader's Digest. February 2006. http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/movie-star-jeff-bridges-on-his-28-year-marriage/article27216.html. Retrieved 2008-09-09.
- ^ "Jeff Bridges Gave Up Marijuana For Movie Role". Star Pulse.com. September 2008. http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2008/09/02/jeff_bridges_gave_up_marijuana_for_movie. Retrieved 2008-10-18.
- ^ "100 Essential Male Film Performances: Part 4 - From the Page to the Screen". http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/108825-part-4-from-page-to-screen/.
- ^ "Fearless — A movie masterpiece about transcendence". http://www.globalideasbank.org/befaft/B&A-4.HTML.
- ^ Here's looking back at you| Features| guardian.co.uk Film
- ^ "Iron Man — Official Site". http://ironmanmovie.marvel.com/.
- ^ powerHouse Books, 2003, ISBN 1-57687-177-0; Library of Congress control number: 2003046711
- ^ "Library of Congress Online Catalogs". http://catalog.loc.gov.
- ^ "pictures". http://www.filemagazine.org/galleries/pictures/pictures.html.
- ^ "Jeff Bridges Photography". http://fabulousbakers.tripod.com/ab/bakerboys/albums.html.
- ^ "'We Are The World -- 25 For Haiti' Artists Include Kanye West, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber". http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1631021/20100202/west_kanye.jhtml.
External links
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