Lloyd Bridges

Although he starred in a number of television series, Lloyd Bridges is best known for his role of Mike Nelson in Sea Hunt, which was the top American TV series in 1958. The show ran from 1958-1961 and then continued for years in reruns. Bridges' career was resurrected in a comedic mood when he played a goofy plane dispatcher in the 1980 satire Airplane! and its 1982 sequel Airplane II. He is the father of the actor Beau Bridges and the actor Jeff Bridges, who thanked Lloyd and Dorothy Bridges after winning the Oscar as best actor for the 2009 film Crazy Heart. For his contribution to the television industry, Lloyd Bridges received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7065 Hollywood Blvd.

Lloyd Vernet Bridges, Jr. was born on January 15, 1913 in San Leandro, California, the son of Harriet Evelyn (née Brown) and Lloyd Vernet Bridges, Sr., who was involved in the California hotel business and once owned a movie theater. Bridges graduated from Petaluma High School in 1931. He studied political science at UCLA, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He met his future wife there, Dorothy Bridges (née Simpson); they married in 1938 in New York City.

Bridges made his Broadway debut in 1939 in a production of Shakespeare's Othello. In 1941, he joined the stock company at Columbia Pictures, where he played small roles in features and short subjects. (In Here Comes Mr. Jordan Bridges is the pilot of the plane in the "heaven" scene.) He left Columbia to enlist in the U.S. Coast Guard. Following World War II, he returned to film acting.

His involvement with the Communist Party threatened to put his career off track in the early '50s when he was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in its second round of hearings. But he simply told the truth and didn't name any names and was allowed to resume work after an FBI clearance.

He gained wide recognition as Mike Nelson, the main character in the television series Sea Hunt, created by Ivan Tors, which ran in syndication from 1958-1961. Following that success, he starred in the eponymous CBS anthology The Lloyd Bridges Show (1962–1963, produced by Aaron Spelling), which included appearances by his sons Beau and Jeff. Producer Gene Roddenberry, who worked with Bridges on "Sea Hunt", reportedly offered Bridges the role of Captain Kirk on Star Trek before the part went to William Shatner. In addition, he was a regular cast member in the Rod Serling western series The Loner (which lasted one season from 1965 to 1966; Bridges pulled out in disagreement over the violent content of the show), and in the two NBC failures San Francisco International Airport (1970/71) and a Police Story spin-off Joe Forrester (1975–76). Later, he appeared in Paper Dolls (1984) and Capital News (1990), both for ABC, and again with Harts of the West (1993–1994), this time for CBS, a comedy/western set on a dude ranch in Nevada. Son Beau Bridges co-starred, along with Harley Jane Kozak as Beau's wife, Alison Hart, and Sean Murray as the oldest Hart son, Zane Grey Hart.

Bridges played significant roles in several mini-series, including Roots, How the West Was Won, The Blue and the Gray and Battlestar Galactica . For more than forty-five years, Bridges was a frequent guest star on television series. He earned two Emmy Award nominations four decades apart. The first came in 1957 for an episode of The Alcoa Hour. Then he was nominated again in 1998 for his role as Izzy Mandelbaum on Seinfeld.

Working right up to the end, Lloyd appeared alongside his son Jeff in Blown Away and brought a delightful sense of comedic timing to such satirical fare as Airplane!, Hot Shots! and his last exclamation film, Mafia!

Bridges died of natural causes at the age of eighty-five. His ashes were given to his family. He was married to Dorothy Bridges (née Simpson) (1915–2009), from 1938 until his death. They had four children: the actors Beau Bridges and Jeff Bridges; a daughter, Lucinda Louise Bridges; and another son, Garrett Myles Bridges (born between Beau and Jeff), who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome on August 3, 1948. The actor Jordan Bridges is Beau's son and Lloyd's grandson.

FILMOGRAPHY

Mafia! (1998)

Meeting Daddy (1998)

Blown Away (1994)

Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993)

Mr. Bluesman (1993)

Earth and the American Dream (1993)

Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992)

Hot Shots! (1991)

Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)

Cousins (1989)

Winter People (1989)

Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)

The Wild Pair (1987)

Weekend Warriors (1986)

Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)

Airplane! (1980)

Bear Island (1979)

The Fifth Musketeer (1979)

Running Wild (1973)

To Find a Man (1972)

The Happy Ending (1969)

Daring Game (1968)

Attack on the Iron Coast (1968)

Around the World Under the Sea (1966)

My Daddy Can Lick Your Daddy (1962)

A Pair of Boots (1962)

The Goddess (1958)

Ride Out for Revenge (1957)

The Rainmaker (1956)

Wetbacks (1956)

Wichita (1955)

Apache Woman (1955)

Third Party Risk (1955)

Pride of the Blue Grass (1954)

The Tall Texan (1953)

City of Bad Men (1953)

The Kid from Left Field (1953)

The Limping Man (1953)

Plymouth Adventure (1952)

High Noon (1952)

Last of the Comanches (1952)

Little Big Horn (1951)

Three Steps North (1951)

Try and Get Me (1951)

The Whistle at Eaton Falls (1951)

Colt .45 (1950)

Rocketship X-M (1950)

The White Tower (1950)

Mr. Whitney Had a Notion (1949)

Calamity Jane and Sam Bass (1949)

Hideout (1949)

Home of the Brave (1949)

Red Canyon (1949)

Trapped (1949)

16 Fathoms Deep (1948)

Moonrise (1948)

Secret Service Investigator (1948)

Unconquered (1947)

Ramrod (1947)

The Trouble with Women (1947)

Canyon Passage (1946)

Abilene Town (1946)

Miss Susie Slagle's (1945)

Secret Agent X-9 (1945)

Strange Confession (1945)

A Walk in the Sun (1945)

Louisiana Hayride (1944)

The Master Race (1944)

Once Upon a Time (1944)

Saddle Leather Law (1944)

She's a Soldier Too (1944)

Heat's On, The (1943)

Sahara (1943)

A Rookie's Cookie (1943)

Destroyer (1943)

His Wedding Scare (1943)

Commandos Strike at Dawn (1943) [uncredited]

Crime Doctor's Strangest Case (1943)

The Daring Young Man (1943)

Hail to the Rangers (1943)

Pardon My Gun (1943)

Passport to Suez (1943)

They Stooge to Conga (1943) [uncredited]

The Great Glover (1942)

His Girl's Worst Friend (1942)

The Talk of the Town (1942) [uncredited]

Alias Boston Blackie (1942)

Atlantic Convoy (1942)

Blondie Goes to College (1942)

Canal Zone (1942)

Flight Lieutenant (1942)

Honolulu Lu (1942)

A Man's World (1942)

North of the Rockies (1942)

Riders of the Northland (1942)

Shut My Big Mouth (1942)

Sing for Your Supper (1942)

The Spirit of Stanford (1942)

Stand By All Networks (1942)

Sweetheart of the Fleet (1942)

West of Tombstone (1942)

Harmon of Michigan (1941)

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance (1941)

The Royal Mounted Patrol (1941)

They Dare Not Love (1941)

Two Latins from Manhattan (1941)

You Belong To Me (1941)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_Bridges

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000978/

http://www.starpulse.com/Actors/Bridges,_Lloyd/Biography/

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800012142/bio

• Reference: Biographical Summaries of Notable People - SmartCopy: Jun 4 2020, 18:23:45 UTC
• Reference: Famous People Throughout History - SmartCopy: Jun 6 2020, 5:10:36 UTC