Born on December 4th 1949, Jeff Bridges is an American actor, but he's not the star of the forthcoming sci fi action flick, Real Steel [we'll get to that later].
Jeff is one of those guys with a peculiar nostalgic impact; he gives unforgettable performances, but some people kinda forget him prior to his next performance. He almost looks like a new face each time he shows up in a blockbuster. Yet he is definitely someone that I respect, because he has what theatrical performers call "stage presence".
He's been around for a while; he turned 61 this year. And he's starred in 64 motion pictures since his debut back in 1950 [he was used as an extra, playing the role of a lil' baby boy]. I did some surfing on his filmography and found some peculiar stuff.
A few highlights from his resume:
- Back in 1972 he co-starred in Bad Company [two boys fled the U.S. civil war and became bandits]
- In 1974, he starred beside Clint Eastwood in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot [they were outlaws]
- In 1976, he starred in King Kong [he was a paleontologist, warning about the monster]
- In 1982 he starred in the sci fi movie, Starman [he was a human-like alien, who visited Earth]
Now most of you reading this blog may not have been up to 20 years old when Bad Company hit theaters, so I'll skip ahead about two decades and give more recent works by Jeff Bridges.
- In 2003 he starred in Seabiscuit, with Tobey Maguire [Spidey]
- In 2007 he starred in the GGI animated feature, Surfs Up [penguin voice, Big Z]
- In 2008 he was in Ironman, as Obadiah Stane [the bad guy]
- In 2009 he starred in Crazy Heart [playing an old country music singer]
- In 2010 he was in Tron: Legacy and he was also in the original Tron
- In 2010 he was also in True Grit [reprising the role of Rooster Cogburn, which was made famous by John Wayne back in 1969]
- And in Saturday Night Season 36, Ep. 10, Jeff Bridges hosted the comedic skit show, having musical guests Eminem and Lil Wayne
He's done a lot more than that, but now you can see that he's not a stranger to Hollywood, per his diverse resume. Both Tron: Legacy and True Grit have already made over 80 million dollars respectively, in the U.S. domestic market.
I enjoyed his performance in Ironman 1, since as a villain he was extremely bold and rather intimidating. There was just an inner strength about him, which made him both a father, a mentor and a also worthy potent opponent for Tony Stark. In that movie, the villains [arms dealers] respected him, and his associates feared him.
One of my fav lines from Tron: Legacy is during the father and son discussion, on the aerial bullet train ride.
At one point Sam mentions Wi-Fi as a recent technological development, and Jeff Bridges [playing the role of Kevin Flynn, who has been imprisoned in the Tron game world for 20 years] says: "The Internet, huh? I thought of that back in 1985"
Hopefully Jeff Bridges will continue to inspire other actors and fans, as he strives to show the mastery of his craft each time he appears on the big screen.
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The brainchild of Ironman and Rocky
That's approximately what the forthcoming Real Steel movie seems like to me. At first when I read the brief synopsis of the movie back in May, it made absolutely no sense. But about a month ago, the first official trailer was launched, helping me to actually see the director's vision.
It stars Hugh Jackman [Wolverine, The X-men Trilogy] and Shawn Levy. I'll let the trailer do the plot explanation:
You almost expect Bumblebee to jump out of the bleachers in the middle of that clip.
Will it be worth checking out? Lets hope so, since it looks like it cost about 100-mil to make.
Real Steel hits theaters on October 7, 2011.