Jeff Bridges Turns 77 on December 4, and The Dude Is Only Part of the Story

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Jeff Bridges turns 77 on December 4. He grew up in a family of actors and has been working since he was a child, which may explain why he never seems to try very hard on screen. Across five decades he has moved between blockbusters, cult comedies and small, sad dramas, and he is one of the easiest actors to watch.

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The Last Picture Show (1971) earned him his first Oscar nomination, as Duane Jackson, a restless young man in a dying Texas town. Peter Bogdanovich shot it in black and white, and Bridges mixes anger and tenderness so well that the film hurts in exactly the right places.

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The Big Lebowski (1998) is the one that became a religion. He plays The Dude, a bowling-loving slacker who gets dragged into a kidnapping plot by mistake, and the film has been quoted, screened and argued about in every corner of the internet ever since.

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Crazy Heart (2009) finally brought him the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 2010 ceremony. He plays Bad Blake, a washed-up country singer, and he sings the songs himself, which gives the performance a rough, lived-in quality. Iron Man (2008) gave him a very different kind of villain as Obadiah Stane, and he makes the role interesting.

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Which Jeff Bridges performance is your favourite? I keep coming back to The Last Picture Show, but I suspect most people will say The Dude, and I would not argue.