Bruce Dern

Born in Chicago (Illinois), on June 4, 1936, Bruce MacLeish Dern comes from an illustrious lineage, as his grandfather, George Henry Dern, served as Governor of Utah, his godmother was a First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, and among his uncles was the poet Archibald MacLeish.

After graduating in Journalism from the University of Pennsylvania, Bruce Dern went through the legendary Actors Studio, and launched himself into the world of acting without a net, first lavishing himself on the theater, in titles such as “Waiting for Godot”, and later as a guest from numerous 1960s series. ” I learned from Lee Strasberg that Hollywood was only going to give me third-right cowboy roles,” recalls Dern. “So I had to put in a lot of effort to become the third most interesting cowboy to the right of all time.”

In cinema, he began to stand out in Sydney Pollack ‘s Dance, Dance , Damn , as James, the contestant who, along with his pregnant wife, Ruby ( Bonnie Bedelia ), faces a marathon dance journey that he cannot abandon, because he is at stake is the only chance to support her son during the Great Depression. He was a gunman in A Sheriff Needs Help Too , he played a delinquent lover of the protagonist of Bloody Mama , by Roger Corman , and aroused the hatred of all western fans, especially the younger ones, shooting John Wayne himself in the back in the cowboys(How else could the hero par excellence of the big screen be finished off).

In the 70s, Bruce Dern forged his legend with roles in mythical titles. He nailed the aggressive Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby , a detective in Driver , and a Vietnam vet in Black Sunday . He starred in the cult film among fans of science fiction Mysterious Ships , by Douglas Trumbull , where he was a botanist who guarded the only remaining samples of all plant life on Earth in three ships. It is not surprising that his great friend Jack Nicholson said of him that he considered him one of the best actors of the decade.

Alfred Hitchcock , who had already given him a role as a sailor in Marnie the Thief , cast him as the male lead in The Plot , from 1976, where he played a taxi driver who helps his girlfriend, a false clairvoyant ( Karen Black ), to cheat a wealthy old lady. Possibly the best role of his career has been as Captain Bob Hyde, a Vietnam vet who returns home unaware that his wife ( Jane Fonda ) is cheating on him with a paralyzed friend ( Jon Voight ), in The Homecoming . . He earned his first Oscar nomination, back then for Best Supporting.

Like other actors of the time, Bruce Dern was little by little relegated to oblivion in the 80s, when he continued shooting at a good pace, titles without much impact. He is saved anyway When We Were Champions , where he is a former baseball player who meets up with his former teammates ( Stacy Keach , Martin Sheen , etc.) at his former coach’s ( Robert Mitchum ) home.

Divorced from Marie Dawn Pierce, between 1960 and 1969 he was together with the well-known actress Diane Lane , with whom he had two offspring. One of them passed away, and the other, Laura Dern , followed in her footsteps as an actress from her parents. The film Hand of Gold , starring Matt Dillon , brought him together years after the breakup with Lane, they would meet again in Wild Bill  and Last Suspicion . Since 1969, Bruce Dern has been paired with Andrea Beckett.

The world seemed to ignore Bruce Dern until he reappeared in 2006 as Bill Paxton ‘s overbearing father in the series Big Love . A great admirer of his, Quentin Tarantino , made him the owner of the plantation that separates the protagonist from his beloved Broomhilda, in Django Unchained . “Bruce Dern is a national treasure,” the filmmaker said of him, before becoming angry with him for considering him one of only three suspects in leaking the script for The Hateful Eight .

Bruce Dern himself was the big promoter for Nebraska , after the script for feature debutant Bob Nelson came into his hands. The actor was clear that this was his last letter to vindicate himself as an actor. Her daughter, Laura Dern , who insistently called Alexander Payne over and over again , whom she considered – quite rightly – to be the ideal director for the project (the actress endorsed him when he was a star working with him in Citizen Ruth, his debut film). In the film, Dern plays Woody, an old man with symptoms of dementia who travels with his son to collect a supposed lottery prize. “It’s the best movie I’ve worked on since my time with Hitchcock,” the actor said. The move has resulted in a well-deserved award for best actor at Cannes, and a second Oscar nomination, an award that would be the finishing touch to an exemplary career.