Detailed Biography

Jeffrey Leon "Jeff" Bridges is an American actor and musician. His most notable films include The Last Picture Show, Tron, Against All Odds, Starman, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Fisher King, Fearless, The Big Lebowski, The Contender, and Iron Man.

Personal life

Jeffrey Bridges was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Dorothy Bridges and actor Lloyd Bridges. He has an older brother, Beau, and a younger sister, Lucinda. Another brother, Garrett, died of sudden infant death syndrome in 1948. He shared a close relationship with his brother, actor Beau Bridges, who acted as a surrogate father when their real father was busy with work. He and his siblings were raised in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles.

Bridges is an uncle of Jordan Bridges. He married Susan Geston in 1977. He met Geston during the shooting of the movie Rancho Deluxe which was filmed on a ranch where Geston worked as a maid. The couple have three daughters: Isabelle , Jessica Lily , and Hayley Roselouise . He is also a known cannabis user; in an interview, he admitted to giving up smoking during filming of The Big Lebowski, but has not "permanently kicked the habit."

He was also recipient of the Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award.

Film career

As a teenager, Bridges appeared, along with his brother Beau, on their father's CBS anthology series, The Lloyd Bridges Show .

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. 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'. He also starred as "The Dude" in the Coen Brothers' classic cult 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 . He plays the role of Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger in the 2008 Marvel motion picture, Iron Man. In July 2008 and July 2009 he was shown in the Comic Con teaser for Tron Legacy, the upcoming sequel to Tron; leading fans to assume he would reprise the role of Flynn from the 1982 classic film.

Other work

In his off time while on set, he has opened up a serious business with technology. He began taking pictures on set during Starman, at the suggestion of co-star Karen Allen. He has published many of these photographs online and in print titled "Pictures".

Bridges is also a cartoonist. Some of his "doodles" have appeared in various films, such as K-PAX and The Door in the Floor .

Bridges narrated the documentary Lost in La Mancha , a singular filmographic witness of 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 has worked with Gilliam on The Fisher King and Tideland. Bridges also narrated the documentaries Lewis & Clark: Great Journey West , Raising the Mammoth , and The Heroes of Rock and Roll . He also voiced the character Big Z in the animated picture Surf's Up.

Bridges has performed voice-over work as well: he was behind Hyundai's 2007 "Think About It" ad campaign, and has done all of the Duracell ads in the "Trusted Everywhere" campaign .

In the film The Contender, in which he co-starred, he recorded a version of Johnny Cash's standard "Ring of Fire" with Kim Carnes that played over the pivotal opening credits. As of 2008, the song has not been released commercially outside of the film.