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Lloyd Bridges - Biography

Harriet and Lloyd Vernet Bridges announced the arrival of their son, Lloyd Vernet Bridges Jr. on January 15, 1913 in San Leandro, California, USA. It was at this early age that he achieved his first and perhaps most dubious honour...he won a trophy from President William Howard Taft as the fattest baby in America! His father ran a hotel business in California, and also, at one point owned a cinema where young Lloyd quickly became addicted to films and would watch screenings of the same film over and over again, absorbing and learning technique. He later put this into practice when he attended drama classes at Petaluma High School.

His father wanted him to become a lawyer so Lloyd Jr. took political science at UCLA . He also excelled as an athlete playing baseball, basketball and football, "but all I wanted to do was act." However attending UCLA was not an entire waste of time as it was there that Lloyd met his future wife, Dorothy Simpson. They married in 1939 at the Little Church Around the Corner in New York City and enjoyed 59 years together. After graduating he was cast in a minor role in a modern-dress version of "The Taming of the Shrew" that took him to New York. There, in 1937 he made his Broadway debut with a small role in "Othello," with Walter Huston in the lead. Other work on Broadway included "Suzanna and the Elders" in 1940 and "Dead Pigeon" in 1953.

With little classical acting work available he joined with others in forming the Playroom Club, which performed contemporary dramas Off-Broadway, worked in Summer Stock theatre and even taught drama at a private school before giving up on the theatre and returning to California with the hopes of making a movie career. He made one. He appeared in over 60 films before he got his big break, in the controversial "Home of the Brave," (1949) which tackled the issue of racial prejudice in the military. His performance as a sympathetic member of a platoon torn apart by racial strife won critical acclaim. Another well remember role, as Gary Cooper's vengeful deputy in "High Noon" followed in 1952. By this time Lloyd and Dorothy had two sons, ( a third, Gary, born in 1947, died of sudden infant death syndrome). Lloyd Vernet Bridges III (Beau - a family nickname, reportedly after Ashley Wilkes's son in the 1939 film "Gone With the Wind") was born in 1941, and Jeff in 1949. A daughter, Lucinda (Cindy) was to follow in 1954. All three followed their father in to acting, although Cindy later gave up her career to raise her family.

Briefly during the 1940s Lloyd Bridges was a member of the "Actors' Lab", a radical theatre group with ties to the Communist Party and so it was inevitable that at the height of McCarthyism in the 1950s his name was added to the show business blacklist. However he was later cleared after he cooperated as a witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee and was allowed to work again. He returned to movies playing lead roles in low-budget movies and smaller roles in bigger films before turning to live drama on television. He made headlines in 1956 during one of the more intense live broadcasts, "The Alcoa Hour - Tragedy in a Temporary Town," when he exclaimed "You goddamned stinking pigs!" live on air. The NBC switchboard was swamped by 500 calls objecting strongly to the profanity!

Bridges' life was about to change, however, as in 1957 he took on the role that made him famous, Mike Nelson, in "Sea Hunt". It drew huge ratings and ran for 156 episodes. Both Beau and Jeff took parts in "Sea Hunt" as children and it became something of a family tradition for as many of the Bridges clan to work together as often as possible. In 1988, he appeared with Jeff in "Tucker: The Man and His Dream," and also had a recurring role on Beau's 1993 television series "Harts of the West." He appeared with his grandson Dylan Bridges (Beau's son) in a 1995 episode of "The Outer Limits." Jordan Bridges, another of Beau's sons, made his acting debut with Lloyd and Beau Bridges in the TV movie Thanksgiving Promise in 1986, which also featured Dorothy Bridges in a supporting role and featured an unbilled walk-on by Jeff Bridges! Talk about keeping it in the family! Although "Sea Hunt" made him a household name, it is for his later film work in comedy that many of us will remember him, in particular his role in "Airplane!" as the hard-drinking, pot-smoking, glue-sniffing air traffic controller.

In 1989, he and Dorothy renewed their marriage vows on their 50th wedding anniversary and it is obvious that his family was extrememly important to him. "I really exist when I'm working as an actor, and next to my family, that's my greatest joy in life," he said. He has been described as kind, with great integrity, a fine actor and, perhaps most importantly, a gentleman, but unfortunately since 1992 he suffered from a heart condition, and on the 10th March 1998 died of natural causes at home in Los Angeles aged 85. Dorothy, Beau and Cindy were at his side.

Perhaps as a legacy of his days on "Sea Hunt", in lieu of flowers mourners were asked to make donations to his favourite charity projects, the American Oceans Campaign, Whales Alive, Heal the Bay and the Earth Trust.

Websites

Some Lloyd Bridges related websites

http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9803/11/lloyd.bridges.obit/index.html

http://www.seahuntadventures.com/


http://www.JeffBridges.com/

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