Actor Jeff Bridges will star in the upcoming FX series The Old Man. Based on Thomas Perry’s 2017 novel of the same name, the series is written by Black Sails creators Robert Levine and Jon Steinberg. The Old Man marks Bridges first significant television role in over 50 years.
As the son of actor Lloyd Bridges, Jeff Bridges landed his first notable role as a teenager in the action adventure series Sea Hunt. From 1958 to 1959, he portrayed various characters in four episodes, and also portrayed various characters in The Lloyd Bridges Show, produced by Aaron Spelling (Beverly Hills 90210), during the early ’60s. Since then, Bridges has appeared primarily in feature films, with his breakout role coming in Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 classic The Last Picture Show, for which he earned an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Bridges received the same honor for the 1975 film Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. For his performance in the 1985 science fiction romance film Starman, Bridges earned the first of three Best Actor Oscar nominations, and later won for Crazy Heart. In pop culture, Bridges is perhaps best known for portraying Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski in the Coen brothers’ 1998 hit The Big Lebowski. Most recently, Bridges appeared in the 2018 film Bad Times at the El Royale.
Per Deadline, Bridges has been cast in the FX series The Old Man. He’ll star as retired CIA officer Dan Chase, who lives a quiet life but returns to his past after being confronted by an assassin. The Old Man’s pilot episode is reportedly scheduled to begin production later this fall, and will be produced by Fox 21 Television Studios. FX Entertainment’s co-president of Original Programming, Nick Gad, released a statement and identified Bridges as “one of the most important actors of his generation.” The Old Man will be co-produced by Warren Littlefield, who is also behind Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale and the FX series Fargo.
Bridges’ connection to Fargo extends beyond the aforementioned series and the Coen brothers, who released the Oscar-winning feature film Fargo in 1995. In 1977, Bridges married Fargo native Susan Geston, who attended college in Moorhead, Minnesota - the home of The Big Lebowski’s Bunny Lebowski, a character portrayed by Tara Reid.
During Bridges’ feature film career spanning five decades, he’s earned a total of seven Oscar nominations, with the last coming in 2017 for Hell or High Water. Last year, Bridges was honored with the Cecil B. Demille Award at the Golden Globe Awards. For now, Bridges’ only confirmed future project is the upcoming FX series The Old Man. And while long-time fans are surely anxious to see Bridges back on the big screen, his new role will hopefully allow him to move beyond the archetypal grizzled and growling characters that he’s become known for in the past decade.
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Source: Deadline
