Hollywood actor Jeff Bridges (73) received the award for his life’s work at the Critics Choice Awards. The trophy was presented to him by none other than his “The Big Lebowski” colleague John Goodman (70), who remembered the time together in his laudatory speech. The “camaraderie and friendship” they felt behind the scenes carried over to the screen, “all because of Jeff,” Goodman said.
“He was so engaged and nailed his funny ‘dude-isms’ so effortlessly that no one knew where Jeff left off and the guy started,” Goodman joked. Bridges has a “wide range of characters” and tends to “get lost in all of them”. In “The Big Lebowski,” Bridges plays alt-hippie Jeff Lebowski, also known as “the Dude.” Goodman stars in the flick as his bowling buddy, Walter Sobchak.
Bridges was moved, hugged Goodman 25 years after “The Big Lebowski” and accepted the award.
Jeff Bridges thanked Goodman and the critics, but most of all his late father Lloyd Bridges (1913-1998), who also had an impressive film career. Bridges explained that his 110th birthday would have been on the day of the ceremony. “He’s the reason I’m standing up here today.” As a child, his father encouraged him to take up acting. “As an actor, they’re going to ask you to do all the things that you’re interested in. Plus you get to tell all these wonderful stories from all these different perspectives, from people who are still alive,” Bridges quoted his father as saying. He is glad to have listened to him.
He also thanked his mother, Dorothy (1915-2009), who was the “best actress” in the family, as well as his brother Beau and sister Cindy. “And I am supported by my beautiful, wonderfully talented wife, Sue. We have been married for 48 years. We have three incredible daughters, Isabelle, Jessie and Haley,” Bridges said to his wife, Susan Geston.
From the film industry, he especially thanked the directors Peter Bogdanovich (1939-2022) and Bob Rafelson (1933-2022), who died just last year, and who were part of his “family” in the film world.
To accept the lifetime achievement award and be able to return to acting is a double triumph for Jeff Bridges. The Hollywood star was diagnosed with lymph node cancer in 2020 while he was shooting the series “The Old Man”. “We had to pause for a whole two years. I was diagnosed with lymph node cancer and the chemotherapy weakened my immune system so much that I also got corona,” Bridges told the spot on news agency in September 2022. For a long time he did not believe in recovery, the actor continued. Thanks to great support from his doctors, coaches and family, he was able to slowly recover.
“We kept setting small goals that I struggled to achieve, and in the end I achieved my big goal of leading my daughter Haley down the aisle and dancing the father-daughter dance with her without my oxygen device,” said Bridges with pride. After that, the hope grew that he could also go back to work and so he celebrated his return to the set of “The Old Man”.
