Bruce Dern

[imjin138]

I just finished reading Bruce Dern's autobiography this week while I was off 'Things I 've said, but probably shouldn't have'. It was pretty good, my first time I saw him in a movie and remembered it was in 1972 when he shot John Wayne in 'The Cowboys'. Apparently The Duke liked him and they were friendly.

He rcounts his time growing up and he seems to have come from a quite well off family and his time in Hollywood. He does state that he was friendly with Audie Murphy and Neville Brand but they were the two scariest guys in Hollywood. He has an anecdote about Audie Murphy I am not sure really happened but he is the writer and they get some leeway with facts I guess.


Otherwise it is pretty good.

 

[DeadAye]

You didn't see 'Hang em high' ?

 

[Fishslayer]

His daughter's not hard to look at...

 

[David LaPell]

Bruce Dern has done alot of westerns during his career, including The War Wagon with John Wayne, Will Penny, plus all the shows like Rawhide, Wagon Train, The Virginian, Gunsmoke and Bonanza, but to me one of the funniest movies he was in was Support Your Local Sheriff where he played one of the idiot Danby family that James Garner keeps in the jail. A jail with no bars at all. A very strange role in a western for Dern was a made for TV movie with him as a bounty hunter in Into the Badlands. I haven't seen it on tv in years.

 

[BruceHMX]

He's pretty scary in Black Sunday. Also has a good role in "The Driver" I've always like him.

 

[6thtexas]

I still have a hard time forgiving him for shooting John Wayne in "The Cowboys"

 

[Marshwheeling]

My favorite was as Uncle Bud, in "After Dark My Sweet".

 

[XTrooper]

My all-time favorite Bruce Dern role was his portrayal of crewman Freeman Lowell in the 1972 sci-fi film, "Silent Running." It's a classic.

 

[max]

He was in a movie with Ann Margaret called "Middle Age Crazy" that is really funny and real different part for him.

 

[feralmerril]

Bruce dern is either the son or grandson of a past govenor of utah. I absolutely love him in the "Big Love" series. He plays a dirty old scalawag in a poligamist family. So far its into I think it`s fourth series. It`s produced by tom hanks. He`s always fighting with his main no 1 head wife, shes tougher and more cunning than he is and always wins. In the last episode of last season his wife is smuggeling birds in from mexico in trade of guns. They get caught and somehow end up in a chicken wire looking jail ran by a drug lord who gives them a kangeroo trial and is going to have this un, gay old beauty shoot them and their grandson! You will have to buy the series, I wont ruin that one for you!
Edit: Just googeled it. His grandfather was the govenor of utah. His grandfather also was secetary of war 1933 to 1936 under president roosevelt and elinor roosevelt was bruces godmother!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Dern

 

[bk43]

He was in a movie with Ann Margaret called "Middle Age Crazy" that is really funny and real different part for him.

Amen. And if you've been there in your life, like most of us have, it's even better. The hot tub scenes are priceless.

Bob

 

[Wyatt Burp]

I just had a dream night before last I was at a company picnic and Bruce Dern was there at this picnic table I was sitting at. I said, "Hey, you're the guy who killed John Wayne!"
He was a great bad guy because he came off smart and conniving.

 

[Faulkner]

He was particularly mean in 'The Cowboys'.

 

[ladder13]

Anyone see "The Laughing Policeman"?

The Laughing Policeman (1973) - IMDb

 

[GKC]

...one of the funniest movies he was in was Support Your Local Sheriff where he played one of the idiot Danby family that James Garner keeps in the jail.

That was a great movie...I liked the companion to it, "Support Your Local Gunfighter." Dern wasn't in it (that I recall) but James Garner was.

Another typecast role for Dern was in "Down Periscope" with Kelsey Grammar. Dern almost always plays bad guys who are more incompetent than evil.

 

[jrm53]

I always liked Bruce Dern along with Harry Dean Stanton, they were the best in every movie I have seen of them, I really liked Dern in "Last Man Standing" where he played the sheriff. Jeff

 

[Dennis The B]

Anyone see "The Laughing Policeman"?

The Laughing Policeman (1973) - IMDb

"The Laughing Policeman", along with "Silent Running" are my two favorite Bruce Dern movies. Great actor.

 

[Dr.-d]

He was in the Comedy movie "The Burbs" with Tom Hanks. It was about a few nieghbors who let their imaginations get to them in thinking one of their elderly nieghbors has been killed by some new creepy/excentric nieghbors that just moved in named the Klopeks. Dern plays some retired military guy that acts paranoid and is always on manuevers around the nieborhood. In one scene he falls off his roof all clad in black clothing and looses his M1 carbine that discharges into a car window.

 

[Mule88]

My favorite Bruce Dern movie was Harry Tracy.

 

[paladin42]

I heard John Wayne say in an interview that he and Bruce were talking just before shooting the famous scene in "The Cowboys". Wayne asked Dern, "How does it feel to about to become the most hated man in America?"