find us on:
Stargate Major General
Background:
Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor Beau Bridges, son of the prolific actor of
the early 1940s Lloyd Bridges and older brother of actor Jeff Bridges, garnered
critical acclaim for his small screen performance as the title role in Without
Warning: The James Brady Story (1991), the brother-in-law of Holly Hunter's
Wanda Holloway in The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas
Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (1993), and as the governor of Idaho in The Second
Civil War (1997). On the silver screen, Bridges, who has been acting since the
1940s, has starred in films like Village of the Giants (1965), Gaily, Gaily
(1969), The Landlord (1970), Child's Play (1972), Lovin' Molly (1974), The Other
Side of the Mountain (1975), Norma Rae (1979), The Fifth Musketeer (1979), Night
Crossing (1981), Heart Like a Wheel (1983), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989),
Meeting Daddy (2000), The Good German (2006) and Charlotte's Web (2006). He also
directed two feature films, The Wild Pair (1987) and Seven Hours to Judgment
(1988).
Since 2005, Bridges has been playing the regular role of Major General Hank
Landry in “Stargate SG-1.” The actor, who received a star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame in 2003, will star in the upcoming films Spinning Into Butter,
Americanizing Shelley, and Don't Fade Away.
More personally, the 5' 10" actor has been married twice and has five children.
Lloyd Vernet
Childhood and Family:
One of the most versatile of all the Bridges family members, Lloyd Vernet
Bridges III was born on December 9, 1941, in Hollywood, California. He is a son
of prolific film and TV actor Lloyd Bridges (died on March 10, 1998, at the age
of 85) and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Dean Simpson. His parents, who were
reading Gone with the Wind (1939), immediately started calling him Beau after
Ashley Wilkes' son mentioned in the famous book. The eldest child of the family,
Bridges has two younger brothers, Garrett Myles Bridges (born in June 1948; died
of sudden infant death syndrome in August 1948) and Jeff Bridges (born in 1949;
has starred in the films The Last Picture Show, Cutter's Way and Tucker; acted
together in The Fabulous Baker Boys). He also has one younger sister, Lucinda
Bridges, born in October 1953.
Young Bridges studied theater arts at the University of California at Los
Angeles, in California, where he played basketball in his freshman year despite
his 5'10" height. He also went to the University of Hawaii.
On June 6, 1964, Bridges married Julie Landifield. They have an adopted
African-American son named Casey Bridges (born in 1969) and a biological son
named Jordan Bridges (born on November 13, 1973). Bridges and Landifield
divorced in 1984, and that same year on April 10, he tied the knot with Wendy
Treece. The couple has three grown-up children, sons Dylan Lloyd Bridges (born
on October 25, 1985) and Ezekiel Jeffrey Bridges (born on September 24, 1993),
and daughter Emily Beau Bridges (born on July 2, 1987; acted with father in the
CBS movie The Uninvited, 1996).
During his off time, Bridges, a handgun control and environmental protection
activist, enjoys playing guitar, swimming, surfing and collecting Native
American percussion instruments.
The Fabulous Baker Boys
Career:
Son of a successful TV and film actor from the early 1940s, Beau Bridges
followed his father’s track and made his film debut at age 7 in director Lewis
Milestone's black-and-white charming comedy No Minor Vices (1948; starring Dana
Andrews) and Abraham Polonsky's directorial debut Force of Evil (also 1948), a
film starring John Garfield based on Ira Wolfert's novel. The next year, he was
hired by Milestone again to do The Red Pony (alongside Myrna Loy and Robert
Mitchum), a sensitive adaptation of John Steinbeck’s coming-of-age story.
Receiving very few acting jobs during the 1950s, Bridges returned the next
decade on ABC’s sitcom starring Fred MacMurray, “My Three Sons,” playing the
recurring role of Russ Burton from 1960 to 1964. Meanwhile, he appeared with
father Lloyd in the syndicated scuba-diving show "Sea Hunt" and made several
appearances in his father’s show on CBS’ "The Lloyd Bridges Show." He also
landed a regular role as Seaman Howard Spicer on the NBC sitcom "Ensign O'Toole"
(1962; ABC ran reruns in 1964) and played student Pat Knowland (1963-1965) in
episodes of NBC’s dramatic series "Mr. Novak."
After starring as a greedy young opportunist named Fred in
producer-writer-director Bert I. Gordon's science-fiction/comedy Village of the
Giants (1965; opposite now acclaimed director Ron Howard), Bridges made his
Broadway debut in William Inge's "Where's Daddy?" He then made his adult film
acting debut as a Private First Class in Larry Peerce's crime drama The Incident
(1967) alongside Tony Musante and Martin Sheen, and received applause for his
role as a naive young news reporter in Norman Jewison's Oscar-nominated
adaptation of Ben Hecht's comedic novel, Gaily, Gaily (1969).
Bridges got busier in the 1970s. He was picked as the lead character in Hal
Ashby's directorial debut adapted from Kristin Hunter’s novel, The Landlord,
opposite Lee Grant, who was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe for her role
as his neurotic mother. He then made his first collaboration with director Peter
Ustinov in the witty dark comedy Hammersmith Is Out (opposite Richard Burton),
playing a homicidal maniac who escapes from a mental facility, and portrayed gym
teacher Paul Reis in Sidney Lumet's film version of the award-winning 1970
Broadway thriller by Robert Marasco, Child's Play, alongside James Mason and
Robert Preston.
On the small screen, Bridges could be seen opposite Cliff Robertson in the
Delbert Mann-directed TV movie on ABC, The Man Without a Country, an adaptation
of Edward Everett Hale's short story, and in the CBS movie The Whirlwind (both
in 1974), portraying the younger version of father Lloyd's character Benjamin
Franklin. That same year, he reunited with Peerce for the true story-based film
about former top skier Jill Kinmont, who was paralyzed in a skiing accident
during the 1956 Winter Olympics tryouts, The Other Side of the Mountain,
starring Marilyn Hassett. He also went back to the Broadway stage in Peter
Ustinov's "Who's Who in Hell" and made his second film with Lumet in Lovin'
Molly, which was based on one of Larry McMurtry's first novels, “Leaving
Cheyenne.”
Bridges spent the rest of the 1970s in Gilbert Cates' independent film Dragonfly
(a.k.a. One Summer Love; opposite Susan Sarandon), and as a recently-released
mental hospital patient in his third film with Peerce, Two-Minute Warning, an
adaptation of George La Fountaine Sr.'s thriller novel in which he co-starred
with Charlton Heston and John Cassavetes. He also teamed up with father Lloyd in
the feature The Fifth Musketeer, director Ken Annakin's take on Alexandre Dumas'
classic novel in which Bridges portrayed the twins Philip & Louis XIV, and
became Sally Field's title character’s husband in Martin Ritt's true
story-based, Oscar-winning film Norma Rae.
The 1980s saw Bridges co-starring opposite Helen Shaver in Larry Gelbart’s
six-week, half-hour sitcom on NBC, "United States," and reunite with Delbert
Mann for the true story based, cold war feature Night Crossing, opposite John
Hurt. He also made his TV-movie directing debut with the family drama aired on
NBC, The Kid From Nowhere, which he also starred.
In 1983, Bridges starred opposite Bonnie Bedelia in Jonathan Kaplan's biopic
about the "First Lady of Drag Racing" Shirley Muldowney, Heart Like a Wheel, in
which he played Conrad "Connie" Kalitta, a fellow drag racing driver once known
as The Bounty Hunter who helped Muldowney get started. He acted with his father
in CBS' Alice in Wonderland, in 1985, before directing him, mother Dorothy,
brother Jeff and son Jordan in ABC's The Thanksgiving Promise (1986), which he
also acted and co-produced. The next year, he made his feature film directing
debut with the crime drama The Wild Pair, in which he also acted alongside
father and sons Casey and Dylan. He followed it up with directing his second
feature, Seven Hours to Judgment, an independent drama/thriller in which he also
starred.
Bridges teamed up with brother Jeff to play two professional musicians who hire
a female singer (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) to keep their piano act current in
writer-director Steven Kloves' Oscar-nominated musical drama, The Fabulous Baker
Boys (1989). Afterward, he acted in Diane Keaton's long-format directorial debut
shown on Lifetime, Wildflower (1991), which was based on Sara Flanigan's book,
and starred in HBO’s movie Without Warning: The James Brady Story (won an Emmy
for his performance).
With an Emmy under his belt, Bridges was offered more prominent roles and was
seen as Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis' longtime manager, in NBC’s biopic about the
legendary King of Rock ‘n Roll, Elvis and the Colonel: The Untold Story. He soon
nabbed another Emmy in 1993 thanks to the portrayal of the brother-in-law of
Holly Hunter's Wanda Holloway in the HBO movie, The Positively True Story of the
Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom. Subsequently, Bridges starred and
co-executive produced the CBS short-lived series "Harts of the West" (1993;
father had a recurring character on the show) and helmed the NBC Emmy-nominated
TV movie Secret Sins of the Father, in which he also starred with his father and
son Jordan.
In the mid 1990s, Bridges received an Emmy nomination for his performance in "Sandkings,"
the two-hour pilot episode of Showtime's anthology "The Outer Limits," alongside
his father and son Dylan, and for his turn as the narrator of HBO's documentary
5 American Handguns--5 American Kids. Additionally, his portrayal of former U.S.
president Richard Nixon in the TNT movie Kissinger and Nixon earned him an Emmy
nomination.
During the rest of the decade, Bridges teamed with sons Jordan and Dylan in the
CBS movie A Stranger to Love before returning to the big screen with a small
unbilled role as a young football player's father in writer-director Cameron
Crowe's Oscar-winning film Jerry Maguire, starring Tom Cruise. After playing an
Emmy-nominated role of a laid-off factory worker in Showtime's Hidden in America
(executive produced by brother Jeff) and being praised for playing the husband
in Kevin Bacon's directorial debut shown on Showtime, Losing Chase, Bridges won
his third Emmy for his solid performance as the Idaho governor in the HBO dark
comedy The Second Civil War.
Bridges then collaborated with director Andy Wolk and executive-produced three
Showtime The Defenders movies, Payback, Choice of Evils, and Taking the First.
He also portrayed the title role of a conservative judge in the ABC summer
series "Maximum Bob." Additionally, he received two more Emmy nominations, one
for playing the title role of the real-life great American showman and promoter
in A&E’s original miniseries "P T Barnum," in which son Jordan appeared as the
younger version of his character, and another one for playing E K Hornbeck in
Showtime’s remake of Inherit the Wind, based on a real-life case in 1925.
In the new millennium, Bridges made his final appearance with his father in
Peter Gould's feature directorial debut, the romantic comedy Meeting Daddy,
joined the cast of the Showtime series "Beggars and Choosers," and portrayed the
lead character in the CBS movie adapted from Mary McGarry Morris' novel, Songs
in Ordinary Time, opposite Sissy Spacek. He followed it up with a starring role
as a lonely antiquities professor in the Hallmark Entertainment miniseries
inspired by James C. Christensen's novel, "Voyage of the Unicorn," and a regular
role as Senator Tom Gage (2002-2003), the head of the CIA, on CBS serial drama
"The Agency." Meanwhile, he was cast as Michael Mulvaney Sr. in the Lifetime
drama based on Joyce Carol Oates’ novel, We Were The Mulvaneys, and eventually
received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, next to the stars of younger
brother Jeff Bridges and father Lloyd Bridges, in April 2003.
Following his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Bridges was cast as Major
General Hank Landry in the Sci Fi channel's "Stargate SG-1." Meanwhile, he also
portrayed the President of the United States in the NBC movie 10.5: Apocalypse
and starred opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in writer-director Rebecca Miller's The
Ballad of Jack and Rose. He also co-starred in Steven Soderbergh's
Oscar-nominated post WWII drama, The Good German (with George Clooney, Cate
Blanchett and Tobey Maguire), adapted from a novel by Joseph Kanon, and in Gary
Winick's live-action/computer-animated feature film Charlotte's Web (starring
Dakota Fanning), based on the popular book of the same name by E.B. White.
Additionally, he had a recurring role on NBC’s Emmy-winning sitcom "My Name Is
Earl."
Bridges will soon complete his upcoming films, Mark Brokaw's drama Spinning Into
Butter (with Sarah Jessica Parker and Miranda Richardson), Lorraine Senna's
romantic comedy Americanizing Shelley (starring Namrata Singh Gujral), and
writer-director Luke Kasdan's drama Don't Fade Away (with Ryan Kwanten, Mischa
Barton and Ja Rule). He is also filming his forthcoming TV projects, Two
Families, Stargate: Continuum, and Stargate: The Ark of Truth.
Awards:
