When it came time to pick today’s Celebrity Birthday of the Day, there was no contest: it had to be the Dude! If you follow TBR with any regularity, you know that we’re all huge fans of The Big Lebowski here, and what would The Big Lebowski be were it not for Jeff Bridges? I hold up Bridges’ performance in that film as an example of the perfect marriage of actor and role, and frankly, I don’t think he’ll ever top it. Bridges comes from a very well-known acting family. His father, Lloyd Bridges, is another TBR favourite, for he appeared in numerous Zucker/Abrams spoof movies like Airplane! and Hot Shots! Jeff Bridges began his acting career at the age of four months in The Company She Keeps in 1950, and he and his brother Beau would later make appearances on their father’s TV show Sea Hunt. Jeff’s first major role was in the 1971 film The Last Picture Show, and his performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He was nominated again for his performance in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (covered extensively by Robin’s Underrated Gems), and also starred in the first King Kong remake in 1976, which, while a cheesy movie, was a pretty big commercial success.
To attempt to chronicle Jeff Bridges’ entire career in a short bio would be futile, as he’s had loads of success and performed in numerous amazing movies, earning six Oscar nominations and a win along the way. Some of his more memorable films (and favourites of mine) include Tron and its sequel Tron: Legacy, Starman, Fearless, The Fisher King, Tideland, Iron Man, and True Grit. Jeff Bridges is like the Rolls Royce of actors, and according to his Lebowski co-star John Goodman, working with him was “like watching a diamond cutter, When you look at the diamond, you don’t think of the work, you just notice there’s no flaws.” Bridges turns 62 today, man.