MARITAL STATUS
Profession Actor
Birth name Bruce MacLeish Dern
Nationality American
Birth June 4, 1936 (Chicago, Illinois – United States)
BIOGRAPHY
Father of Laura Dern .
Bruce Dern landed his first role at age 24, in the drama The Wild River , by Elia Kazan . A small supporting role which does not immediately propel him into the world of cinema. He actually shot his next film four years later: it was Hush…Shh…cher Charlotte (1964), where he notably met Bette Davis . The same year, he first appeared in an Alfred Hitchcock film , No Spring for Marnie . After this participation – in a role of the violent sailor killed by Marnie – his career began to take off. In 1967, he starred opposite John Wayne in the western Caravan of Fire .
He gradually climbs the ladder of secondary roles and reaches real supporting role status with Will Penny, the loner . He plays a sadistic cowboy, in the pay of a big owner. Playing with his large lean body and his piercing gaze, he continued in a military role in A Castle in Hell by Sydney Pollack (1969). He reunited with this director the same year for the drama We finish well the horses . In 1970, he played the cruel second knife in Roger Corman ‘s bloody Bloody Mama . Playing complex, often borderline characters , he gained attention by playing Mia Farrow ‘s husband in The Great Gatsby (1974). Bruce Dern found his first major role during a French interlude in a dramatic comedy by Claude Chabrol , Folies bourgeoises (1975): he played the American and fickle husband of Stéphane Audran . Now a well-known figure to the public, Bruce Dern played one of the main roles in Family Plot , the last film by the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock , in 1976. A year later, he imposed his charisma to play the dangerous Captain Michael J Lander, ready to plan an attack during the Superbowl, in Black Sunday , by John Frankenheimer . From the 80s, we can see him alongside promising young actors, like Matt Dillon in La Gagne or Tom Hanks in Joe Dante ‘s Les Banlieusards ( Gremlins ). At the same time, he appears more regularly on the small screen in numerous TV films, such as
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (TV) (1987) with Samuel L. Jackson or Trenchcoat in Paradise (TV) in 1989.
In the 90s, the actor notably returned to the dust of the West and played opposite Bruce Willis in Last Appeal (1996). Bruce Dern then appears in very different registers, ranging from the horror film with Haunting , a remake of The House of the Devil by Robert Wise , to the children’s film Small Soldiers . Subsequently, now a patriarchal figure, he plays more neutral, gentler characters, like his role in Monster with Charlize Theron .
At the dawn of the 2000s, he favored the independent film circuit, which did not prevent him from rubbing shoulders with great actors, such as Edward Norton in Down in the Valley , Val Kilmer in American Cowslip or Billy Bob Thornton in The Astronaut Farmer . At the same time, he can be seen playing a recurring character in the series Big Love , on HBO , which earned him an Emmy Award nomination. At over 70 years old, Bruce Dern finally received his star on the Walk of Fame in 2010 and became the 2,149th celebrity to have this honor. He subsequently appeared on new atypical projects, such as Joe Dante ‘s The Hole 3D , which he returned to for the third time, and Francis Ford Coppola ‘s gothic escapade , Twixt , in 2012, for which he responded to Val Kilmer . The following year, the moving Nebraska by Alexander Payne was presented in competition at the Cannes Film Festival , in which Bruce Dern played the main role, that of an old man convinced that he had won the jackpot in an improbable drawing. by mail, and seeking to reach Nebraska to receive his winnings. A remarkable performance earning him, among other things, a nomination in the best actor category at the Oscars.
