The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Completely Updated and Expanded (52 page)

Jeff Bridges
, b. Los Angeles, 1949
Jeff Bridges is as close as the modern era has come to Robert Mitchum. Which is to say that Bridges works steadily, without any show of self-importance or dedication, his natural sourness or skepticism picking up weariness with the years. He was never as handsome as Mitchum, nor does he seem quite as ready to admit aging. Admit it, he is not in Mitchum’s class: he does not seem capable of
The Night of the Hunter, Track of the Cat
, or
Cape Fear
. Still, Bridges’s reliability, his skill and his hangdog, wounded grace are very appealing in an era of self-glorying superstars.

As the son of actor Lloyd Bridges (and the younger brother of Beau), he did the odd
Sea Hunt
as a child. After military academy and the Coast Guard, he became a regular actor. He has paid his dues:
Halls of Anger
(70, Paul Bogart);
The Last American Hero
(73, Lamont Johnson);
Lolly Madonna XXX
(73, Richard C. Sarafian);
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
(74, Michael Cimino);
Stay Hungry
(76, Bob Rafelson);
King Kong
(76, John Guillermin);
Somebody Killed Her Husband
(78, Johnson); two William Richert films—
Winter Kills
(79) and
The American Success Company
(79); as “Nick Ray” in
Heaven’s Gate
(80, Cimino);
Kiss Me Goodbye
(82, Robert Mulligan);
Tron
(82, Steven Lisberger); actually filling a Mitchum role in
Against All Odds
(84, Taylor Hackford);
8 Million Ways to Die
(86, Hal Ashby);
The Morning After
(86, Sidney Lumet); nicely comic and foolish in
Nadine
(87, Robert Benton);
See You in the Morning
(89, Alan Pakula);
Texasville
(90, Peter Bogdanovich); and
The Fisher King
(91, Terry Gilliam).

On the other hand, he has always been ready for better material. He was wonderfully brash as Duane in the original
The Last Picture Show
(71, Bogdanovich)—it has often been his choice to play someone none too bright, and to do it easily and openly, without coyness or pathos. He was brilliant as the punk fighter in
Fat City
(72, John Huston); indeed, he brought Brando to mind at moments.
Bad Company
(72, Benton) was excellent. He rose to the challenge of Frankenheimer’s TV
The Iceman Cometh
(73). He was very good in
Rancho Deluxe
(75, Frank Perry) and
Hearts of the West
(75, Howard Zieff).

But in the eighties, he turned in a number of performances that had a unique character: in
Cutter’s Way
(81, Ivan Passer) he was utterly candid as the wastrel who longs to be better, heartbreaking in a great film;
Starman
(84, John Carpenter) was a brave venture; in
Jagged Edge
(85, Richard Marquand) he was truly deceptive; in
Tucker
(88, Francis Coppola), he had a manic exuberance that could have been learned from his director; and in
The Fabulous Baker Boys
(89, Steve Kloves) he was, at last, at Mitchum level—adult, pained, resigned, and angelic.

It would be pretty to think that in the next few years, as Bridges passes fifty, Hollywood will understand his true potential. He took big risks as the villain in
The Vanishing
(92, George Sluizer), and in
American Heart
(93, Martin Bell). He was at his very best as the stunned survivor in
Fearless
(93, Peter Weir) but just stunned in
Blown Away
(94, Stephen Hopkins).

The pretty hope turned to ash. Yet I find myself falling more in love with Bridges with each new bout of boxoffice chagrin. He grows deeper, stronger and more ironic as an actor. He is a model of stoicism, and a guarantee of the forlorn. I should add the discovery that he is also the taker of some of the best on-set still photographs I have ever seen. As for the list, find a quiet corner and weep: a lovely performance in
Wild Bill
(95, Walter Hill);
White Squall
(96, Ridley Scott)—a very touching film;
The Mirror Has Two Faces
(96, Barbra Streisand)—a lesson in taking yourself too seriously; the rare, fragrant “Dude” in
The Big Lebowski
(98, Joel Coen); uncredited in
A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries
(98, James Ivory); in the truly spooky
Arlington Road
(99, Mark Pellington);
The Muse
(99, Albert Brooks); the inexplicable
Simpatico
(99, Matthew Warchus); a droll, snacking president—and nominated—in
The Contender
(00, Rod Lurie); and—could this be the hit?—with Kevin Spacey in
K-PAX
(01, Iain Softley). No.

He did
Masked and Anonymous
(03, Larry Charles), which had no chance; but here, here at last, was the hit, riding
Seabiscuit
(03, Gary Ross) to victory. That year also saw the publication of a book of his photographs taken on the sets of various pictures. He then did
Door in the Floor
(04, Tod Williams). The affection with which Bridges was now regarded, plus the cult of “Dude”-ism, helped establish him. But his choices of material, and of getting them properly released, only showed that dudes may need trust funds:
The Amateurs
(05, Michael Traeger);
Tideland
(05, Gilliam);
Stick It
(06, Jessica Bandinger);
A Dog Year
(08, George LaVoo);
Iron Man
(08, Jon Favreau);
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
(08, Robert B. Wache);
The Open Road
(09, Michael Meredith);
Crazy Heart
(09, Scott Cooper);
The Men Who Stare at Goats
(09, Grant Heslov).

But he got his Oscar for
Crazy Heart
—one of his poorest films.

Albert R. Broccoli
(1909–96), b. New York
“Cubby” Broccoli won his Thalberg Award (1982), and holds his reputation, because of the extraordinary worldwide success, and longevity, of the James Bond films that he made in partnership with Harry Saltzman. What is worth stressing now, all those years after
Dr. No
(1962), is that Ian Fleming’s Bond novels had been out and about for several years before they clicked on screen. In turn, the films are more comic, more gadget-prone, and less morose than the books. Where did that rescuing insight come from? There are several candidates: Broccoli-Saltzman, Sean Connery, the writer Richard Maibaum, and even Kevin McClory, an Irish writer and producer, trained by Mike Todd and John Huston, who has never quite given up his claim on the movie Bond.

Broccoli had worked in Hollywood without making much impact. But in the early fifties he went to England and made a partnership with Irving Allen (Warwick Pictures) that made adventure films with fading Hollywood stars: Alan Ladd in
The Red Beret
(53, Terence Young);
Hell Below Zero
(54, Mark Robson);
The Black Knight
(54, Tay Garnett);
A Prize of Gold
(55, Robson);
Cockleshell Heroes
(55, José Ferrer);
Safari
(56, Young);
Zarak
(57, Young);
Odongo
(57, John Gilling);
The Gamma People
(57, Gilling);
Fire Down Below
(57, Robert Parrish);
The Man Inside
(58, Gilling);
Killers of Kilimanjaro
(59, Richard Thorpe); and their class acts
—The Trials of Oscar Wilde
(60, Ken Hughes);
Johnny Nobody
(61, Nigel Patrick);
The Hellions
(62, Ken Annakin).

It was then that the Bond industry took over, moving from Connery to George Lazenby to Roger Moore to Timothy Dalton to Pierce Brosnan. On several occasions, one had reason for thinking that the series was over. But it keeps coming back, and Broccoli’s daughter, Barbara, remains a vital part of the company, Eon Productions. On the other hand, you may take the view that the Bond pictures are essentially as banal as the films Broccoli helped produce in the 1950s.

The list is as follows:
Dr. No
(62, Young);
From Russia with Love
(63, Young);
Goldfinger
(64, Guy Hamilton);
Thunderball
(65, Young);
You Only Live Twice
(67, Lewis Gilbert);
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
(69, Peter R. Hunt);
Diamonds Are Forever
(71, Hamilton);
Live and Let Die
(73, Hamilton);
The Man with the Golden Gun
(74, Hamilton);
The Spy Who Loved Me
(77, Gilbert);
Moonraker
(79, Gilbert);
For Your Eyes Only
(81, John Glen);
Octopussy
(83, Glen);
A View to a Kill
(85, Glen);
The Living Daylights
(87, Glen);
Licence to Kill
(89, Glen);
GoldenEye
(95, Martin Campbell); and
The World Is Not Enough
(99, Michael Apted).

Jim Broadbent
, b. Lincoln, England, 1944
People like Jim Broadbent in the way they once enjoyed Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne. But whereas that pair served as an epitome of Englishness when British films were crowded out with eccentric character actors, Jim Broadbent is a true actor of remarkable integrity. He seems not to notice whether roles are large or small. He does do Englishness very well, whether it is winning a supporting actor Oscar as John Bayley in
Iris
(01, Richard Eyre) or conveying the confusion of Lord Longford in
Longford
(06, Tom Hooper). He is gentle, decent, absentminded—he has done Winnie the Pooh, and won prizes for it—but there is much more to him than that. Thus, he was a ferocious, exhilarating Zidler in
Moulin Rouge
(01, Baz Luhrmann), as dedicated to theatricality as Jean Gabin’s Danglard in
French Cancan
, and an odious Squeers in
Nicholas Nickleby
(02, Douglas McGrath). He did Boss Tweed in
Gangs of New York
(02, Martin Scorsese) as naturally as he played Derby County chairman Sam Longson in
The Damned United
(09, Hooper).

Yes, he was a stage actor, though it’s correct to say that he found himself most fully on camera. By the age of sixty, he had accumulated well over a hundred roles on film and television, so this is a selective list:
The Shout
(78, Jerzy Skolimowski);
Time Bandits
(81, Terry Gilliam);
Walter
(82, Stephen Frears); and the follow-up
Walter and June
(83, Frears);
The Hit
(84, Frears);
Brazil
(85, Gilliam);
The Good Father
(85, Mike Newell);
Life Is Sweet
(91, Mike Leigh);
Enchanted April
(92, Newell);
The Crying Game
(92, Neil Jordan);
Bullets Over Broadway
(94, Woody Allen); Buckingham in
Richard III
(95, Richard Loncraine); Inspector Heat in
The Secret Agent
(96, Christopher Hampton);
Smilla’s Sense of Snow
(97, Bille August);
Little Voice
(98, Mark Herman); and widely noticed for his W. S. Gilbert in
Topsy-Turvy
(99, Leigh).

He played Dad in
Bridget Jones’s Diary
(01, Sharon Maguire);
Bright Young Things
(03, Stephen Fry); as Harry Aitken in
And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself
(03, Bruce Beresford); the judge in
Vera Drake
(04, Leigh); the voice of Brian in
The Magic Roundabout
(05, Dave Borthwick and Jean Duval);
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
(05, Andrew Adamson); very touching in
And When Did You Last See Your Father?
(07, Anand Tucker);
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
(08, Steven Spielberg); Sir Oliver Lodge in
Einstein and Eddington
(08, Phillip Martin); King William IV in
The Young Victoria
(09, Jean-Marc Vallée);
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
(09, David Yates);
Another Year
(10, Leigh).

Matthew Broderick
, b New York, 1962
Despite instinctive whimsy (that Matthew Broderick might be an offshoot of Broderick Crawford), he is actually the son of actor James Broderick and writer Patricia Broderick. At forty, he is still the epitome of all well-intentioned, nicelooking kids—though in fact he is securely married to Sarah Jessica Parker and has been an enormous hit on Broadway in the musical version of
The Producers
(where he had the Gene Wilder role). Still, it was some relief to find him in
Election
(98, Alexander Payne) as someone on the down curve of disillusion, getting puffy and overweight and generally being shafted. Can his looks ever really give the impression of being lived in? Or must he be elderly and baby-faced at the same time? It’s a pressure that might suddenly set free the limitless banks of anger in a Broderick Crawford, say. In other words, good old whimsy somehow wants to see Matthew running amok.

He had earlier stage successes: for Neil Simon in
Brighton Beach Memoirs
and
Biloxi Blues
, and later in
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
. He made his movie debut in
Max Dugan Returns
(83, Herbert Ross), but it was
War Games
(83, John Badham) that made him, where he was hacking into Pentagon computers.

Then he did
Ladyhawke
(85, Richard Donner);
On Valentine’s Day
(86, Ken Harrison); a big hit in
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
(86, John Hughes), still playing teenage at twenty-four;
Project X
(87, Jonathan Kaplan);
Biloxi Blues
(88, Mike Nichols);
Torch Song Trilogy
(88, Paul Bogart);
Family Business
(89, Sidney Lumet); as the commanding officer in
Glory
(89, Edward Zwick);
The Freshman
(90, Andrew Bergman);
Out on a Limb
(92, Francis Veber);
The Night We Never Met
(93, Warren Light); with Jack Lemmon in
A Life in the Theater
(93, Gregory Mosher); as Charles MacArthur in
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle
(94, Alan Rudolph); a voice on
The Lion King
(94, Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff).