Contemporary Actors Archives

Jeff Bridges

“Jeff Bridges was in movies for over a decade before stardom came, and that was partly because he chose the wrong parts – or else they did not allow him to do what he does best, to embody the average guy who is slow in though and quick in action. Now the word ‘average’ is a giveaway – you would never have called Wayne or Cooper or Tracy ‘average’ – though like them Bridges has a distinctive voice – low and thin which never see,s to strive for the unexpected cadences on which it alights. This is hardly the heroic age in movies: no Bengal Lancers, no cavalry leaders – but it was clear a while back that Bridges has developed that charisma the big screen likes so much. He has also become a very good actor, adept with a witty line and always relaxed, natural but withall vulnerable. Observing once that he was probably not bankable. He said ‘I’ve got mixed feelings about it. I’d like to get a crack at the great scripts but I think of myself as more of a character actor. I’m afraid to get typecast in one role. Look what happened to my dad'”

. – David Shipman in “The Great Movie Stars – The Independent Years” (1991).

Jeff Bridges has just won an Oscar for his performance in “Crazy Heart”. He has served a long apprenticeship. His first feature film was “Halls of Anger” in 1970. He has many film performances to his credit including “The Last Picture Show”, “Fat City”, “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” and “Jagged Edge”. He was born in 1949 in Los Angeles. His father was the actor Lloyd Bridges. It is very gratifying to see him finally get his due recognition. Jeff Bridge’s website can be accessed here.

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

The son of well-known film and TV star Lloyd Bridges and his long-time wife Dorothy Dean Bridges, Jeffrey Leon Bridges was born on December 4, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, and grew up amid the happening Hollywood scene with big brother Beau Bridges. Both boys popped up, without billing, alongside their mother in the film The Company She Keeps (1951), and appeared on occasion with their famous dad on his popular underwater TV series Sea Hunt (1958) while growing up. At age 14, Jeff toured with his father in a stage production of “Anniversary Waltz”. The “troublesome teen” years proved just that for Jeff and his parents were compelled at one point to intervene when problems with drugs and marijuana got out of hand.

He recovered and began shaping his nascent young adult career appearing on TV as a younger version of his father in the acclaimed TV-movie Silent Night, Lonely Night(1969), and in the strange Burgess Meredith film The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go (1970). Following fine notices for his portrayal of a white student caught up in the racially-themed Halls of Anger (1970), his career-maker arrived just a year later when he earned a coming-of-age role in the critically-acclaimed ensemble film The Last Picture Show(1971). The Peter Bogdanovich– directed film made stars out off its young leads (Bridges,Timothy Bottoms, Cybill Shepherd) and Oscar winners out of its older cast (Ben Johnson,Cloris Leachman). The part of Duane Jackson, for which Jeff received his first Oscar-nomination (for “best supporting actor”), set the tone for the types of roles Jeff would acquaint himself with his fans — rambling, reckless, rascally and usually unpredictable).

Owning a casual carefree handsomeness and armed with a perpetual grin and sly charm, he started immediately on an intriguing 70s sojourn into offbeat filming. Chief among them were his boxer on his way up opposite a declining Stacy Keach in Fat City (1972); his Civil War-era conman in the western Bad Company (1972); his redneck stock car racer in The Last American Hero (1973); his young student anarchist opposite a stellar veteran cast in Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh (1973); his bank-robbing (also Oscar-nominated) sidekick to Clint Eastwood in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974); his aimless cattle rustler in Rancho Deluxe (1975); his low-level western writer who wants to be a real-life cowboy in Hearts of the West (1975); and his brother of an assassinated President who pursues leads to the crime in Winter Kills (1979). All are simply marvelous characters that should have propelled him to the very top rungs of stardom…but strangely didn’t.

Perhaps it was his trademark ease and naturalistic approach that made him somewhat under appreciated at that time when Hollywood was run by a Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino-like intensity. Neverthless, Jeff continued to be a scene-stealing favorite into the next decade, notably as the video game programmer in the 1982 science-fiction cult classic TRON (1982), and the struggling musician brother vying with brother Beau Bridges over the attentions of sexy singer Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989). Jeff became a third-time Oscar nominee with his highly intriguing (and strangely sexy) portrayal of a blank-faced alien in Starman (1984), and earned even higher regard as the ever-optimistic inventor Preston Tucker in Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988).

Since then Jeff has continued to pour on the Bridges magic on film. Few enjoy such an enduring popularity while maintaining equal respect with the critics. The Fisher King(1991), American Heart (1992), Fearless (1993), The Big Lebowski (1998) (now a cult phenomenon) and The Contender (2000) (which gave him a fourth Oscar nomination) are prime examples. More recently he seized the moment as a bald-pated villain as Robert Downey Jr.‘s nemesis in Iron Man (2008) and then, at age 60, he capped his rewarding career by winning the elusive Oscar, plus the Golden Globe and Screen Actor Guild awards (among many others), for his down-and-out country singer Bad Blake in Crazy Heart (2009). More recently, Bridges starred in TRON: Legacy (2010), reprising one of his more famous roles, and received another Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his role in the Western remake True Grit (2010).

Jeff has been married since 1977 to non-professional Susan Geston (they met on the set of Rancho Deluxe (1975)). The couple have three daughters, Isabelle (born 1981), Jessica (born 1983), and Hayley (born 1985). He hobbies as a photographer on and off his film sets, and has been known to play around as a cartoonist and pop musician.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

“For someone whose career began with such lustre, Claire Bloom has had a difficult path. Overlauded at first as the most winsome thing on four wheels, it later seemed that she was merely the leading representative of a rather ghastly sect, the English Rose. It is a species whose individuals (the word is used loosely) seldom endure. But this one was hardy, she really was talented. When they let her break from type she was liable to give a superb performance. She may continue to surprise” – David Shipman – “The Great Movie Stars – The International years”. (1972)

Claire Bloom was born in Finchley, North London in 1931. She made her stage debut at the age of 15 with the Oxford Repertory Company. In 1947 she made her London stage debut in Christopher Fry’s “The Ladys Not for Burning”. In 1948 she received rave notices for her performance as Ophelia in “Hamlet”. The next year she made her film debut in “The Blind Goddess”. Over the years she has made many films both in Britain and in Hollywood. Her other notable films include “Limelight”, “Look Back in Anger”, “The Haunting” and “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold”. In 2009 she appeared in an episode of “Dr Who”.

Jewish Women’s Archive:

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

Age has not taken the flower off this Bloom. The well-known and respected stage, screen and television actress Claire Bloom, originally named Patricia Claire Blume, continues to be in demand as a septuagenarian actress and looks as beautiful as ever. She was born in North London on February 15, 1931, to Edward and Elizabeth (Grew) Blume, both descendants of Jewish immigrants. Educated at Badminton School in Bristol and Fern Hill Manor in New Milton, Claire expressed early interest in the arts and was stage trained as an adolescent at the Guildhall School, under the guidance of Eileen Thorndike, and then the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Marking her professional debut on the BBC radio, she subsequently took her first curtain call with the Oxford Repertory Theatre in 1946 in the production of “It Depends What You Mean”. She then received early critical accolades for her Shakespearean ingénues in “King John”, “The Winter’s Tale” and, notably, her Ophelia in “Hamlet” at age 17 at Stratford-on-Avon opposite alternating Hamlets Paul Scofield and Robert Helpmann. By 1949 Claire was making her West End debut with “The Lady’s Not For Burning” with the up-and-coming stage actor Richard Burton.

A most becoming and beguiling dark-haired actress whose photogenic, slightly pinched beauty was accented by an effortless elegance and poise, Claire’s inauspicious film debut came with a prime role in the British courtroom film drama The Blind Goddess (1948). It was her second film, when Charles Chaplin himself selected her specifically to be his young leading lady in the classic sentimental drama Limelight (1952), that propelled her to stardom. Her bravura turn as a young suicide-bent ballerina saved from despair by an aging music hall clown (Chaplin) was exquisitely touching and sparked an enviable but surprisingly sporadic career in films.

One Sheet; Movie Poster; Film Poster; Cinema Poster;

Despite the sudden film attention, Claire continued her formidable presence on the Shakespearean stage. Joining the Old Vic Company for the 1952-1953 and 1953-1954 seasons, she appeared as Helena, Viola, Juliet, Jessica, Miranda, Virgilia, Cordelia and (again) Ophelia in a highly successful tenure. Touring Canada and the United States as Juliet, she made her Broadway bow in the star-crossed lover role in 1956, also playing the Queen in “Richard II”. A strong presence on both the London and New York stages over the years, other powerful performances came with “The Trojan Women”, “Vivat! Vivat! Regina!”, “Hedda Gabler”, “A Doll’s House” and “A Streetcar Named Desire”. Much later in life she performed in a superb one-woman show entitled “These Are Women: A Portrait of Shakespeare’s Heroines” that included monologues from several of her acclaimed stage performances.

Claire’s stylish and regal presence was simply ideal for mature period films and she appeared opposite a roster of Hollywood most talented leading men as such, includingLaurence Olivier in the title role of Richard III (1955); Richard Burton and Fredric March inAlexander the Great (1956); Yul Brynner in The Brothers Karamazov (1958) and Brynner and Charlton Heston in the DeMille epic The Buccaneer (1958) in which she had a rare dressed-down role as a spirited pirate girl. On the more contemporary scene she appeared with Burton in two classic film dramas: the stark “kitchen sink” British stage piece Look Back in Anger (1959) and the Cold War espionage thriller The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965). In addition she courted tinges of controversy playing a housewife gone bonkers in the offbeat sudser The Chapman Report (1962) and a lesbian in the supernatural chiller The Haunting (1963).

Claire met first husband Rod Steiger while performing with him on stage in 1959’s “Rashomon”. They married that year and had daughter Anna in 1960 who grew up to become a well-regarded opera singer. Claire and Rod appeared in two lesser films together, The Illustrated Man (1969) and Three Into Two Won’t Go (1969), both released the same year they divorced after 10 tumultuous years.

As with other maturing actress during the 1970s, Claire looked toward classy film roles in TV-movies for sustenance and found among them Backstairs at the White House (1979), as First Lady Edith Wilson, and Brideshead Revisited (1981), in which she was nominated for an Emmy. Also lauded were the epic miniseries Ellis Island (1984); a remake ofTerence Rattigan‘s Separate Tables (1983), and Philip Roth‘s acclaimed adaptations ofAmerican Playhouse: The Ghost Writer (1984) and Shadowlands (1985), the latter earning her a British Television Award. Speaking of Roth, Claire married the writer (her third) in 1990 after a brief second marriage to producer Hillard Elkins (1969-1972). The union with Roth lasted five years. Claire appeared in several Shakespearean teleplays over the decades while also portraying a choice selection of historical royals including Czarina Alexandra and Katherine of Aragon. One of her most recent appearances on TV was the miniseries version of The Ten Commandments (2006). On daytime drama, she delightfully played matriarch and murderess Orlena Grimaldi on the daytime drama As the World Turns (1956) in 1993. She left the role in 1995 and was replaced.

Claire wrote two memoirs. The first was the more career-oriented “Limelight and After: The Education of an Actress”, released in 1982 Her more controversial second book focused on her personal life: “Leaving a Doll’s House: A Memoir”, published in 1996.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Jon Voight is now a very prolific character actor. However he has some very impressive leading roles on film. He burst onto the cinema screens as Joe Buck in “Midnight Cowboy” for which was nominated for an Academy Award. He won the Oscar in 1978 for the Vietnam Vets drama “Coming Home”. He also delivered outstanding performances in John Boorman’s “Deliverence” and “The Runaway Train”. His more recent films include “National” and “Transformers”. Jon Voight is the father of Anjelina Jolie.

“”It’s nice that people like you are around’ says Jennifer Salt to Jon Voight in “The Revoluntary”. We have not had too many chances to echo her semtiments, but his performance in ‘Midnight Cowboy’ is one of the best ever in American film. Peter Evans in ‘Cosmopolitan’ suggested that he had created a classic figure to stand with Captain Bligh, Rhett Butler and Stanley Kowalski. Brando at least is a good comparison for Voight’s Joe Buck. The midnight cowboy was the best portrayal of stupidity on the screen since Brando’s ‘On the Waterfront’. It’s not an easy thing to do and only a fine actor could do it – suggest a low I.Q. at the same time conducting an audience into the labyrinthine ways of that calf’s brain behind the bland handsome young face. For Joe Buck was a Texas stud with ambitions exclusively connected with his crotch. In a sublimely innocent way he thought he would get ahead by hustling.” – David Shipman in “The Great Movie Stars – The Independent Years”. (1991).

David Straithairn. TCM Overview.

David Straithairn is a very gifted actor with a very profilic career to his credit. He was born in San Francesco in 1949. David Straithairn parents are of Scottish and Native Hawaiian descent. He began his acting career as a clown in a travelling circus.

His first film role was in 1980 in John Carpenter in “Return of the Secaucus 7”. Other film roles of note include “At Close Range”,”Limbo” “Memphis Belle”, “City of Hope”, “Passion Fish”, “Good Night and Good Luck” and “Steel Toes”. Straithairn has built up a steady body of work over the past thirty years.

Straithairn is especially effective in lead roles in movies directed by John Sayles and was remarkable in Limbo which was set in Alaska. He stars in the lead role in the television series “Alpha”. He was nominated for an Academy Award for portraying journalist Ed Murrow in “Good Night & Good Luck”

He is also recognized for his role as CIA Director Noah Vosen in the 2007 film “The Bourne Ultimatium”a role he recreated in 2012’s “The Bourne Legacy” He also played a major role in 2012 as Secretary of State ‘William Henry Seward’ in Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln”with Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones. David Straithairn interview on “Lincoln” can be viewed here.

TCM Overview:

In spite of his prolific body of work, actor David Strathairn remained somewhat apart from Hollywood, thanks to his long-standing collaboration with friend and former college friend John Sayles, who directed the actor in several of the filmmaker’s independent movies.

Following his debut in Sayles’ “The Return of the Secaucus Seven” (1980), Strathairn branched out to more mainstream fare with a supporting role in “Silkwood” (1983) and delivered one of his finer performances in “Eight Men Out” (1988), in which he played the morally flawed pitcher Eddie Cicotte from the famed Black Sox.

After another acclaimed Sayles performance â¿¿ this time as the off-kilter street wretch, Asteroid, in “City of Hope” (1991) â¿¿ Strathairn began to stretch his wings with supporting roles in major studio productions:

He was Tom Cruise’s jailbird brother in “The Firm” (1993), Meryl Streep’s workaholic husband in “The River Wild” (1994) and the upscale purveyor of prostitution, Pierce Pratchett, in “L.A. Confidential” (1997).

He also delivered strong turns on the small screen, as he did portraying the emotionally distant father of a son with AIDS in “In the Gloaming” (HBO, 1997) and Helen Keller’s father in the remake of “The Miracle Worker” (ABC, 2000). But it was his performance as the iconic news anchor Edward R. Murrow, who openly challenged Senator Joseph McCarthy during the height of the Red Scare, in George Clooney’s excellent period drama “Good Night, and Good Luck” (2005), as well as his portrayal of ruthless CIA officer Noah Vosen in “The Bourne Ultimatum” (2007), that propelled his career to a new level.

The TCM Overview above can also be accessed online here.

Brian Cox was born in Dundee, Scotland in 1946. His parents were Irish immigrants. He made his London stage debut in “As You Like It” in 1967 . His first film appearance was in 1971 in “Nicholas and Alexandra” as Trostky. He spent several seasons acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. In 1986 he went to the U.S.A. to play Hanibel Lecter in “Manhunter”. He has made several fim appearances including “Rob Roy”,”Braveheart”, “The Bourne Supremacy” and “Red Eye”. His many TV parts including acting in “ER”. Interview with Brian Cox in “The Guardian” can be found here.

Russell Brand

Russell Brand was born in Grays, Essex in 1975. He began his show business career as a comedian and while he still does stand-up comedy, he is venturing more into film. His made “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”, He also starred alongside Adam Sandler in “Bedtime Stories”. His website can be found here.

Patrick Stewart was born in 1940 in Yorkshire. He was a noted classical actor on the British stage when in 1987 he gained huge international exposure with his success as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the “Star Trek” series. After he left the series. he has alternated between movies and the stage with great success. “MailOnline” article on Patrick Stewart here.

TCM Overview:

A Shakespearean performer who exuded an authoritative presence, actor Patrick Stewart spent many years in repertory theater before becoming a star player with the Royal Shakespeare Company. But Stewart’s most recognized success was his commanding, often patriarchal turn as Captain Jean-Luc Picard on the sequel series, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (syndicated, 1987-1994). Prior to this breakout role, he spent years performing in the Bard’s productions, most notably in “Macbeth,” “Hamlet” and an acclaimed Broadway version of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1971). Once he made his way to the screen, Stewart ably performed minor roles in “Fall of Eagles” (BBC, 1974) and “I, Claudius” (BBC2, 1976) while eventually making his way to feature films with “Excalibur” (1981) and “Dune” (1985). After his seven-year sojourn on “The Next Generation,” Stewart was fortunate enough to avoid being tied to Picard for life, as seemed to happen with members of the original series. Though he reprised the role for three big screen versions of “Star Trek,” he continued performing on stage while lending his stentorian voice to television commercials and animated features like “The Prince of Egypt” (1998) and “Chicken Little” (2005). In between, Stewart portrayed the wheelchair-bound leader of the mutants, Professor Xavier, for the popular comic-book adaptation “X-Men” (2000), which generated lucrative sequels in 2002, 2006 and beyond, while affording Stewart yet another successful franchise without being typecast for life.

The above TCM Overview can also be accessed online here.

Saoirse Ronan is an Irish actress who was born in 1994. She is best known for her roles in “Atonement” and “Lovely Bones”. She lives in Co. Carlow. “Independent” article on Saoirse Ronan can be accessed here.

Chris Sarandon. IMDB

Chris Sarandon is a stylish American actor who has some very interesting cult films among his credits. He was born in 1942 in West Virginia. He began appearing on stage and on daytime television in 1965. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in “Dog Day Afternoon” in 1975. He went on to star in “Fright Night” and “The Princess Bride” where he was Prince Humperdiinck. More recently he had a major role in the long-running “ER” and was on the Broadway stage in 2006 in “The Light in the Piazza”. Interview on “Moviefone” with Chris Sarandon can be accessed here.

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

The handsome, versatile, worldly-looking Chris Sarandon has played everything from vampires to Jesus Christ in magnetic performances that have not only been controversial but hard to miss.

The son of a Greek immigrant and restaurateur, he was born and raised in Beckley, West Virginia, where, as a teen, he appeared on the musical stage and played drums and sang back-up with a local band called The Teen Tones.

Graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1960, his band was so good they found themselves touring and backing up such music legends as Bobby Darin, Gene Vincent and Danny and the Juniors. Chris attended West Virginia University majoring in speech, and appeared in such musical productions as “The Music Man” as Harold Hill.

He went on to attend the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, where he received his master’s degree in theater and met first wife Susan Sarandon. Touring with improv companies and in regional theater productions, he made his professional debut in “The Rose Tattoo” in 1965 and later joined the Long Wharf Theatre Company for a season. Moving to New York in 1968, the dark and handsome charmer immediately nabbed the role of Dr. Tom Halverson on Guiding Light (1952), a part that would last two years. Throughout the 1970s he would be rewarded with rich theater acting roles. On Broadway he appeared in “The Rothchilds” and replaced Raul Julia in “Two Gentlemen from Verona” while appearing elsewhere in various Shakespeare and Shaw festivals both here and in Canada. He made an auspicious film debut in the huge, career-risking part of Al Pacino‘s tormented, gender-confused lover in Dog Day Afternoon (1975), earning an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his superior work.

He took other sordid turns too, this time in co-leads, opposite the late Margaux Hemingway in the poorly done exploitative thrillerLipstick (1976) and as a demon in the shocker The Sentinel (1977). To avoid being typed as creepy characters, Chris extended himself brilliantly in the years to come, portraying the title role in The Day Christ Died (1980), a critically heralded TV-movie. He received high marks also for his Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities (1980) and co-starred withGoldie Hawn in the more mainstream Protocol (1984). In the 1980s Chris would endear himself to a younger generation of filmgoers as the undeniably sexy, hypnotic vampire-next-door in the teen horror classic Fright Night (1985), the cruel, evil-plotting prince inRob Reiner‘s The Princess Bride (1987) and as the investigating cop in Child’s Play(1988), the first in the “Chucky” series about a murdering doll. In recent years Chris has continued steadily on stage, film and TV but at a lesser pace and in less flashy, high-profiled roles.

Divorced from Susan Sarandon in 1979, he was married and divorced from model Lisa Ann Cooper during the 1980s. In 1991 he co-starred on Broadway in the short-lived musical “Nick and Nora” with Joanna Gleason, the daughter of Monty Hall(Let’s Make a Deal (1963)). They married in 1994 and reunited on stage in “Thorn & Bloom” in 1998. They have also appeared together in a number of films, includingAmerican Perfekt (1997), Edie & Pen (1996) and Let the Devil Wear Black (1999).

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.ne

Collection of Contemporary Actors

Jeff Bridges

Claire Bloom

Jon Voight

David Straithairn

David Straithairn. TCM Overview.

Brian Cox

Russell Brand

Patrick Stewart

Saoirse Ronan

Chris Sarandon

Chris Sarandon. IMDB

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