Biography
Jeff as "The Dude" in The Big Lebowski.
Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949 in Los Angeles, California) is an American actor. He is the son of Dorothy Simpson and Lloyd Bridges, the brother of Beau Bridges and the uncle of Jordan Bridges.
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. Another early role was the 1982 movie 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 gained repute in the mid-80s for his roles in the sexy thriller Against All Odds and the crime drama Jagged Edge. He also took the leading role of "The Dude" in the Coen brothers' film The Big Lebowski. His role in Fearless is recognized by many critics to be one of his best performances, and the film is widely considered as one of the most underrated films of the 1990s, professed by some critics to be a masterpiece. Bridges however, is also a first rate character actor in films like The Vanishing as a psychopathic college professor, a standoffish U.S. president in The Contender (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor again) and The Muse as a carefree screenwriter buddy of Albert Brooks.
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 panoramic camera. He has published many of these photographs online and in print [Pictures by Jeff Bridges (Hardcover, 2003)].
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). He incorporates his drawings at his web site, notable because it is almost completely hand-written and drawn art —not typed. He is also a talented guitarist.
Bridges is known for his liberal political views. He married Susan Geston on June 5, 1977 after meeting her on the set of Rancho Deluxe in 1975. The movie was filmed on a dude ranch, and Gerston was a maid there. The couple has 3 daughters: Isabelle (b. 1981), Jessica (b. 1983), Hayley (b. 1987).
Partial filmography
The Last Picture Show (1971)
Bad Company (1972)
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)
King Kong (1976)
Cutter's Way (1980)
Tron (1982)
Starman (1984)
Against All Odds (1984)
Jagged Edge (1985)
The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)
The Fisher King (1991)
American Heart (1992)
Fearless (1993)
Blown Away (1994)
Wild Bill (1995)
The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)
White Squall (1996)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Arlington Road (1999)
The Contender (2000)
Raising the Mammoth (narrator) (2000)
K-PAX (2001)
Masked and Anonymous (2003)
Seabiscuit (2003)
The Door in the Floor (2004)
