Bruce Dern Biography
Born: June 04, 1936
Bruce MacLeish Dern is the scion of a distinguished family of politicians and men of letters that includes his uncle, the distinguished poet/playwright Archibald MacLeish. After a prestigious education at New Trier High and Choate Preparatory, Dern enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, only to drop out abruptly in favor of Lee Strasberg's Actors' Studio. With his phlegmatic voice and schoolyard-bully countenance, he was not considered a likely candidate for stardom, and was often treated derisively by his fellow students. In 1958, he made his first Broadway appearance in +A Touch of the Poet. Two years later, he was hired by director Elia_Kazan to play a bit role in the 20th Century Fox production Wild_River. He was a bit more prominent on TV, appearing regularly as E.J. Stocker in the contemporary Western series Stoney Burke. A favorite of Alfred_Hitchcock, Dern was prominently cast in a handful of the director's TV-anthology episodes, and as the unfortunate sailor in the flashback sequences of the feature film Marnie (1964). During this period, Dern played as many victims as victimizers; he was just as memorable being hacked to death by Victor_Buono in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1965) as he was while attempting to rape Linda_Evans on TV's The_Big_Valley.
Through the auspices of his close friend Jack_Nicholson, Dern showed up in several Roger_Corman productions of the mid-'60s, reaching a high point as Peter Fonda's "guide" through LSD-land in The_Trip (1967). The actor's ever-increasing fan following amongst disenfranchised younger filmgoers shot up dramatically when he gunned down Establishment icon John_Wayne in The_Cowboys (1971). After scoring a critical hit with his supporting part in They_Shoot_Horses,_Don't_They? (1969), Dern began attaining leading roles in such films as Silent_Running (1971), The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), The_Great_Gatsby (1974), and Smile (1975). In 1976, he returned to the Hitchcock fold, this time with top billing, in Family_Plot. Previously honored with a National Society of Film Critics award for his work in the Jack_Nicholson-directed Drive,_He_Said (1970), Dern received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of an unhinged Vietnam veteran in Coming_Home (1978), in which he co-starred with one-time Actors' Studio colleague (and former classroom tormentor) Jane_Fonda. He followed this triumph with a return to Broadway in the 1979 production +Strangers. In 1982, Dern won the Berlin Film Festival Best Actor prize for That_Championship_Season. He then devoted several years to stage and TV work, returning to features in the strenuous role of a middle-aged long distance runner in On the Edge (1986).
After a humorous turn in the 1989 Tom_Hanks comedy The 'Burbs, Dern dropped beneath the radar with appearances in a number of lackluster efforts in the early to mid-'90s. Rising again into the public eye with roles in widely released but sometimes critically blasted films such as Mulholland_Falls and the Walter_Hill Yojimbo re-make Last_Man_Standing (both 1996), Dern lent his voice to Small_Soldiers in 1998 before appearing in The_Haunting (1999) and All the Pretty Horses (2000).
Formerly married to actress Diane_Ladd, Bruce Dern is the father of actress Laura_Dern. Hal Erickson, Rovi
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