Early life

Jeffrey Leon Bridges was born on December 4, 1949 in Los Angeles, California. He is the son of show business parents, actor Lloyd Bridges (1913-1998) 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 emigrant from Liverpool.

Bridges and his siblings were raised in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles. Growing up, Bridges shared a close relationship with his brother Beau, who acted as a surrogate father when their father was working. He graduated from University High School in 1967. At age 17, Jeff toured with his father in a stage production of Anniversary Waltz. After graduating from high school, Bridges moved 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 seven years.

Career

Film

Bridges made his first screen appearance at the age of almost two years in The Company She Keeps in 1951. 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. He co-starred in the 1972 critically acclaimed neo-noir boxing film Fat City, directed by John Huston. He was nominated again for Best Supporting Actor for his performance opposite Clint Eastwood in the 1974 film Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. 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 film Tron, in which he played Kevin Flynn, a video game programmer (a role he reprised in late 2010 with the sequel Tron: Legacy). The same year (1982) he also starred in Kiss Me Goodbye, an American romantic comedy film directed by Robert Mulligan that also starred Sally Field. 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 (1984) and the crime drama Jagged Edge (1985). His role in Fearless (1993) is thought 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." In 1994, he starred as Lt. Jimmy Dove in the action film Blown Away, opposite Tommy Lee Jones and Forest Whitaker. His real life father Lloyd Bridges also featured in the film, playing the father of Bridges' character. The film managed to recoup $50 million of its $30 million budget at the box office. It was up against another explosive themed film, Speed, which had been released a few weeks before Bridges' film. In 1998, he starred as what is arguably his most famous role, The Dude, in the Coen brothers' film The Big Lebowski. He has said that he relates to The Dude more than any of his other roles.

In 2000, he received his fourth Academy Award nomination, for his role in The Contender. 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 mane of hair to play the role of Obadiah Stane in the 2008 Marvel comic book adaptation Iron Man. 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). 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' 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?"

Bridges studied piano at a young age, strongly encouraged by his mother. While working on the 1980 film Heaven's Gate, he often played guitar with his costar, singer/songwriter Kris Kristofferson, between takes. His character in Crazy Heart, Bad Blake, was later based partly on Kristofferson. He released his debut album Be Here Soon on January 1, 2000. In 2005, Bridges, known as "The Dude" in the film The 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. 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. On November 5, 2011, Bridges played Austin City Limits in support of this album.

In 2015, Jeff Bridges released an ambient/spoken-word album entitled Sleeping Tapes. All proceeds from the album go directly to Bridges' charity No Kid Hungry.

Bridges plays many guitars, including the Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentlemen Model G6122-1959.

Other work

Author

In 2013, Bridges authored The Dude and the Zen Master with Bernie Glassman. Bridges found himself at a party with Glassman and Ram Dass and their conversation led to discussing the parallels between "The Dude" from The Big Lebowski and Zen Buddhism. The book was formed from what has been described as a "transcript of a five-day “hang” on a Montana ranch."

Photography

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. Since 1980, he began photographing on and off set shots 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.

Narrator

Bridges narrated the documentary Lost in La Mancha (2002), about the making 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. He also hosted VH1's Top 100 Greatest Albums of Rock and Roll series in 2001.

Bridges has performed TV commercial voiceover work as well, including Hyundai's 2007 "Think About It" advertising campaign as well as the Duracell advertisements in the "Trusted Everywhere" campaign.

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. They met on the film shoot of Rancho Deluxe, which was filmed on a ranch where Geston was working as a maid. They have three daughters: Isabelle Annie (born August 6, 1981), Jessica Lily "Jessie" (born June 14, 1983), Hayley Roselouise (born October 17, 1985), and granddaughter Grace (born March 31, 2011) from Isabelle.

Bridges has studied Buddhism. He meditates for half an hour before beginning work on a film set. He has learned Transcendental Meditation.

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. Bridges also supports environmental causes and organizations such as the Amazon Conservation Team.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Note
1951	The Company She Keeps	Himself (Infant)
1958-1960	Sea Hunt	Davey Crane/Jimmy/Boy/Kelly Bailey	4 episodes
1965	The Loner	Bud Windom	TV series (1 episode: "The Ordeal of Bud Windom")
1969	The F.B.I.	Terry Shelton	TV series (1 episode: "Boomerang")
1969	Silent Night, Lonely Night	John Young
1970	The Don Knotts Show	Himself	TV series (1 episode)
1970	Halls of Anger	Douglas (Doug)
1971	Last Picture Show, TheThe Last Picture Show	Duane Jackson
1971	The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go	Nero Finnighan
1971	In Search of America	Mike Olson
1972	Fat City	Ernie Munger
1972	Bad Company	Jake Rumsey
1973	Lolly-Madonna XXX	Zack Feather
1973	Last American Hero, TheThe Last American Hero	Elroy Jackson, Jr.
1973	Iceman Cometh, TheThe Iceman Cometh	Don Parritt
1974	Thunderbolt and Lightfoot	Lightfoot
1975	Rancho Deluxe	Jack McKee
1975	Hearts of the West	Lewis Tater
1976	Stay Hungry	Craig Blake
1976	King Kong	Jack Prescott
1978	Somebody Killed Her Husband	Jerry Green
1979	Winter Kills	Nick Kegan
1979	The American Success Company	Harry Flowers
1980	Heaven's Gate	John L. Bridges
1981	Cutter's Way	Richard Bone
1982	Tron	Kevin Flynn
1982	Kiss Me Goodbye	Dr. Rupert Baines
1982	Last Unicorn, TheThe Last Unicorn	Prince Lír	Voice
1984	Against All Odds	Terry Brogan
1984	Starman	Starman/Scott Hayden
1985	Jagged Edge	Jack Forrester
1986	8 Million Ways to Die	Matthew "Matt" Scudder
1986	Morning After, TheThe Morning After	Turner Kendall
1987	Nadine	Vernon Hightower
1988	Tucker: The Man and His Dream	Preston Tucker
1989	See You in the Morning	Larry Livingstone
1989	Fabulous Baker Boys, TheThe Fabulous Baker Boys	Jack Baker
1990	Texasville	Duane Jackson
1991	Fisher King, TheThe Fisher King	Jack Lucas
1992	American Heart	Jack Kelson	Also producer
1993	Vanishing, TheThe Vanishing	Barney Cousins
1993	Fearless	Max Klein
1994	Blown Away	Jimmy Dove/Liam McGivney
1995	Wild Bill	James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok
1996	White Squall	Captain Christopher 'Skipper' Sheldon
1996	Mirror Has Two Faces, TheThe Mirror Has Two Faces	Gregory Larkin
1996	Hidden in America	Vincent	Television film; also executive producer
1998	Big Lebowski, TheThe Big Lebowski	Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski
1999	Arlington Road	Michael Faraday
1999	Muse, TheThe Muse	Jack Warrick
1999	Simpatico	Lyle Carter
2000	Contender, TheThe Contender	President Jackson Evans
2001	Scenes of the Crime	Jimmy Berg
2001	K-PAX	Dr. Mark Powell
2002	Lost in La Mancha	Narrator	Documentary
2003	Masked and Anonymous	Tom Friend
2003	Seabiscuit	Charles S. Howard
2004	Door in the Floor, TheThe Door in the Floor	Ted Cole
2005	Amateurs, TheThe Amateurs	Andy
2005	Tideland	Noah
2006	Stick It	Burt Vickerman
2007	Surf's Up	Ezekiel 'Big Z' Topanga/Geek	Voice
2008	Dog Year, AA Dog Year	Jon Katz	Television film
2008	Iron Man	Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger
2008	How to Lose Friends & Alienate People	Clayton Harding
2009	Open Road, TheThe Open Road	Kyle
2009	Crazy Heart	Otis "Bad" Blake
2009	Men Who Stare at Goats, TheThe Men Who Stare at Goats	Bill Django
2010	Tron: Legacy	Kevin Flynn/Clu 2
2010	True Grit	Rooster Cogburn
2011	Saturday Night Live	Host	TV
2012	A Place at the Table	Narrator
2013	R.I.P.D.	Roy Pulsipher
2013	Pablo	Narrator/Professor
2014	The Giver	The Giver	Also producer
2014	Seventh Son	Master Gregory
2015	The Little Prince	The Aviator	Voice
2016	Comancheria	Marcus	Post-production

Discography

Studio albums

Title	Details	Peak chart positions
		US Country	US	US Folk	US Rock
Be Here Soon	Release date: January 1, 2000 Label: Ramp Records Formats: CD	-	-	-	-
Jeff Bridges	Release date: August 16, 2011 Label: Blue Note Records Formats: CD, music download	10	25	2	5
Sleeping Tapes	Release date: January 28, 2015 Label: Squarespace Formats: CD, music download	-	-	-	-
"—" 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"	Alan Kozlowski

Charities

Jeff Bridges supports the following charitable causes: Education, Children, World Poverty & Hunger.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]