Lloyd Vernet Bridges Jr. (January 15, 1913 – March 10, 1998) was an American film, stage, and television actor who starred in more than 150 feature films and many television series over a sixty-year career. He was the father of actors Beau Bridges and Jeff Bridges.
Bridges was born in San Leandro, California, and graduated from Petaluma High School. He went on to study political science at UCLA. His Broadway debut was in 1939 in a production of Othello. In 1941, he joined the stock company at Columbia Pictures and played small roles in features and short subjects, but left during World War II to enlist in the United States Coast Guard. Following his discharge, he returned to acting, but continued to support the Coast Guard and was made an honorary Commodore.
He first gained wide recognition as Mike Nelson (no, not that one) in the 1958–61 television series Sea Hunt, and from there went on to have a prolific career in television and film, mainly in dramatic roles and parodies thereof.
He died of natural causes at the age of 85.
Film Roles with TV Tropes Pages:
- Airplane!
- Airplane II: The Sequel
- Alice in Wonderland (1985)
- Blown Away
- Canyon Passage
- The Crime Doctor's Strangest Case
- Disaster on the Coastliner
- High Noon
- Honey, I Blew Up the Kid
- Hot Shots!
- Hot Shots! Part Deux
- Jane Austen's Mafia!
- Joe Versus the Volcano
- Plymouth Adventure
- Rocketship X-M
- Sahara (1943)
- Tucker: The Man and His Dream
Television roles with TV Tropes pages:
- Battlestar Galactica (1978)
- How the West Was Won
- The Loner
- Loving
- Mission: Impossible
- North and South (U.S.)
- The Outer Limits (1995)
- Roots (1977)
- San Francisco International Airport
- Seinfeld
Tropes related to this actor:
-
He Really Can Act: Backed into this trope from the other side, having spent part of the '60s as a dramatic action hero. Then came Airplane!, giving birth to his comedic career. Ten years later, Jeff Bridges wants to cast his dad as his character's uncle in Blown Away, and one of the producers asked, "Doesn't he only do comedies?" - Hilarious in Hindsight: His comedic roles tend to spoof his earlier dramatic roles, making the latter hard to take seriously.
- Leslie Nielsen Syndrome: Like Nielsen himself, Lloyd Bridges ended his career better known for his comedic work in Airplane! and Hot Shots! than for his earlier dramatic work.
- Playing Against Type: Bridges' first comedic role was in Airplane!, contracting sharply with his earlier dramatic work.
