The exact moment Jeff Bridges decided acting was his true calling
When the time comes for him to call time on his illustrious career, Jeff Bridges will be remembered not only as one of America’s finest actors but as one of its most versatile. A troubled artist in Crazy Heart. A tough-as-nails cowboy in True Grit. A scheming supervillain in Iron Man. A useless layabout in The Big Lebowski. Bridges has done it all and then gone back to do it all again with no signs of slowing down.
In addition to doing all that and more, Bridges has also found time to serve in the military, release three albums, and study Buddhism. Simply put, he’s had an incredible life, one that might have looked very different had he not taken one specific job.
When speaking with Venice Magazine, Bridges told the story of when he found himself at a professional crossroads. He said: “My agent called me and said that John Frankenheimer was doing a film of The Iceman Cometh with Robert Ryan, Lee Marvin and Frederic March and wanted me to be in it. I said, ‘No man, I want to get back to my music. I’ve got other things I want to do.’” The star was fully prepared to turn this offer down until Lamont Johnson, who had just directed Bridges in The Last American Hero, intervened.
“You call yourself an actor?!” Bridges recalls Johnson saying to him. “How can you turn down this opportunity to work with these masters of your craft?!” Johnson’s harsh but fair tone clearly struck a chord with the young performer, who decided to conduct a little experiment on himself. He’d do the movie, and if he hated it, then he would give up on acting full-time. Luckily for film fans everywhere, this didn’t happen.
“It turned out to be a really great experience,” he added. “I’m not that knocked out by my performance, looking back (laughs). But it was great working with all those guys and working with them made me realise that this is what I wanted to do.” In particular, Bridges singled out director John Frankenheimer, whom he called “masterful”, and co-star Robert Ryan as highlights of his time on The Iceman Cometh. The big screen adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s classic play garnered rave reviews at the time, but more importantly, it inadvertently led to every subsequent Jeff Bridges role.
Acting was always going to be an option for the modern-day Rooster Cogburn. His father, Lloyd Bridges, was a journeyman actor with over 150 film credits to his name. Fans of American classics will know him from westerns like High Noon or war movies like Humphrey Bogart’s Sahara. However, towards the end of his career, Bridges reinvented himself as a comedy actor with memorable roles in Airplane!, Hot Shots!, and other films that don’t end with exclamation marks.
As for his son Jeff, he hasn’t made a film appearance since 2018, having been preoccupied with his FX show, The Old Man. That will change in 2025, however, as Bridges will return to the role of Kevin Flynn for Tron: Ares, the third film in Disney’s cult sci-fi series.
