Bruce Dern Movies
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, All Movie Guide
- 1963
In an ironic turn of events, fugitive Richard Kimble (David Janssen) is sworn in as a deputy when Phil Bellows (Robert Doyle) is arrested for murder. Ordered to drive the prisoner and the witnesses to the county seat, Kimble is persuaded that Bellows is actually an innocent victim of circumstance--just like himself. Only after saving Bellows from a lynch mob does Kimble realize that he's being played for a sucker by a very clever psychopath. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1963
Arriving in a small West Virginia town, Kimble (David Janssen) gets involved in a barroom brawl. To avoid being arrested by the local authorities--which of course would reveal his true identity as an accused murderer--Kimble takes refuge in the mountain cabin shared by Cassie Bolin (a pre-stardom Sandy Dennis) and her grandmother (Ruth White). Cassie offers to help Kimble escape the local authorities, but only if he agrees to take her with him. The girl's neurotic intrusiveness nearly proves fatal to both "fugitives" during dangerous trek down a steep mountainside. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1963
A pair of seemingly inert black crystalline rocks are actually intelligent extraterrestrial viruses planning the invasion and destruction of the Earth. Dr. Paul Cameron (Robert Culp) can hear their thoughts as they discuss their plans, a result of a metal plate in his head from a war injury that conducts their telepathic waves into his brain. He and his wife, Laurie (Salome Jens), believe that he is hallucinating. The aliens, however, target him for death, and will stop at nothing to kill him. Cameron, caught between feelings of paranoia and the fear that he is going insane, goes away for a rest with his wife, never realizing that they are now being stalked by their friend, Dr. Temple (Barry Atwater), his body and mind taken over by the aliens. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1963
The inhabitants of the planet Zanti establish contact with Earth, and prevail upon its inhabitants to accept custody of their criminals, whom they are incapable of executing. The Zantis demand total seclusion for the prison ship, which the humans grant out of fear that they will use their superior weaponry to destroy them. General Hart (Robert F. Simon) is put in charge of securing the Zanti ship a peaceful, unmolested landing in a desolate section of the California desert; he has also granted permission for one civilian observer, a historian (Michael Tolan), to witness this first contact with an alien race. The security of the Zanti ship is violated, however, when a wanted criminal (Bruce Dern) and his girlfriend (Olive Deering) break into the sealed area. This leads to the death of the man and an attack on the woman, and a breakout by the alien criminals. The insect-shaped occupants of the hive-like spaceship attack the military outpost monitoring their landing, leading to an all-out bloodbath between the aliens and the human defenders. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1963
Engineer Alan Maxwell (Cliff Robertson) is using his commercial radio station's antenna to probe into deep space in experiments of his own, in the course of which he makes contact with a being (William O. Douglas, Jr.) from the great nebula in the constellation Andromeda. Through an accident, the alien is transported to Earth, where its radioactive emanations prove lethal to all who come in contact with it. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1961
Boris Sagal directs this film about a pair of crime-fighting motorcycle cops. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- 1960
Filmed on location in the Tennessee Valley, Wild River is set in the early 1930s. Montgomery Clift plays an idealistic TVA agent, assigned to convince the locals to move from their property so that a beneficial dam can be built. The principal holdout is feisty octogenarian Jo Van Fleet, who refuses to budge from her land, convinced that she will die if she ever gives an inch. Her prophecy turns out to be true, as Van Fleet becomes yet another sacrifice to progress. Clift also runs into opposition because of his fair treatment of the local black population. Lee Remick costars as Van Fleet's granddaughter, who comes to love and understand the sensitive Clift. Some dated fuzzy-headed liberalism aside, Wild River is a masterful recreation of a difficult, complex period in American history. Watch for an uncredited Bruce Dern in his film debut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick, (more)
