“Nobody calls me Lebowski. You have the wrong one. I’m the dude, man!” These words come from the mouth of a comfortable, long-haired old hippie and have struck film history like lightning. Ever since The Big Lebowski Almost every film fan knows Jeff Bridges. The 74-year-old Oscar winner, who is still known for films such as The Last Ones Bite the Dogs, Tron, Iron Man and Hell or High Water, was first seen in a series 66 years ago.
Jeff Bridges made 4 appearances in the same series 66 years ago
Bridges made his first series appearance in the series Adventures Under Water, which ran on US television from 1958 to 1961. His father Lloyd Bridges (Hot Shots!) played the main role of a professional diver who rescued people in distress and fought against bad guys. The series remained popular throughout the 1960s and featured many appearances by later stars such as Jack Nicholson and Leonard Nimoy. Or Lloyd’s sons Jeff and Beau Bridges (Stargate SG-1).
Jeff Bridges appeared in a total of four smaller roles in Underwater Adventures. Often the producers simply needed a boy in front of the camera and his father encouraged him to do so. In 2016, Jeff Bridges told Esquire in an article:
Unlike many other showbiz parents, my father loved his industry. He starred in a popular series called Adventures Underwater. At one point there was a role for an eight-year-old in one of the episodes and he was like, ‘Come play a little with Dad, Jeff. You don’t have to go to school either, it’ll be fun.’ And then we went through the dialogues together. He taught me all the basics.
His father was so good at underwater adventures that people actually thought he was a diver and he was offered many diving roles, Bridges said. In 1961, however, the series’ original broadcast came to an end and his father looked for other opportunities.
But his son was already infected with the acting bug. The coming-of-age drama The Last Performance by director Peter Bogdanovich, for which Bridges, is considered his breakthrough received an Oscar nomination in 1971. It would be the first of seven times.
He finally won the prize in 2010 for his role as country musician Otis Blake in Crazy Heart. In addition to complex dramas, Bridges has repeatedly appeared in action blockbusters, including King Kong from 1976 and Kingsman: The Golden Circle from 2017. He is currently playing the lead role in the thriller series The Old Man and will soon return with Tron: Ares Cinema back.
If you would like to see little Jeff Bridges in Adventures Under Water, you can find individual episodes of the series on YouTube.