AND THE WINNER IS…

Last week I caught up with the newest 2009 awards hopeful, “Crazy Heart” (Fox Searchlight, 12/16, no trailer yet), which stars Jeff Bridges as a fading country music star whose outlook begins to change when a younger woman (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and her son come into his life. The film overall is a bit uneven — which is to be expected when a first-time director (Scott Cooper) is at the helm — but Bridges, as always, is nothing short of extraordinary and looks like a sure-fire bet for a best actor nomination, and maybe even the win.

The actor, who is less than a month shy of his 60th birthday, has previously earned four Oscar nominations, but — remarkably — has never won!

• 1971 best supporting actor for “The Last Picture Show,” losing to Ben Johnson for “The Last Picture Show”
• 1974 best supporting actor for “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot,” losing to Robert De Niro for “The Godfather, Part II”
• 1984 best actor for “Starman,” losing to F. Murray Abraham for “Amadeus”
• 2000 best supporting actor for “The Contender,” losing to Benicio Del Toro for “Traffic”

Here is an in-depth look at why things might turn out differently this time around…

The Dude Abides…

For four decades, since he was in his early twenties, Bridges has consistently given standout performances in critically and/or commercially successful films, including: “The Last Picture Show” (1971), “Fat City” (1972), “The Iceman Cometh” (1973), “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” (1974), “King Kong” (1976), “The Last Unicorn” (1982), “Tron” (1982), “Against All Odds” (1984), “Starman” (1984), “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” (1988), “The Fabulous Baker Boys” (1989), “The Fisher King” (1991), “Fearless” (1993), “The Mirror Has Two Faces” (1996), “The Big Lebowski” (1998), “Arlington Road” (1999), “The Contender” (2000), “K-PAX” (2001), “Seabiscuit” (2003), “The Door in the Floor” (2004), and “Iron Man” (2008).

Years of Building Bridges…

Bridges is one of the most popular people in the film industry…

• He comes from one of the most well-known and well-liked families in the film industry, dating back to the 1940s. His father was the actor Lloyd Bridges, who is best remembered as Gary Cooper’s cowardly deputy-sheriff in “High Noon” (1952); his mother was the actress Dorothy Bridges, died earlier this year; one of his three siblings is the actor Beau Bridges, who worked opposite Jeff in “The Fabulous Baker Boys” (1982) and has acted on numerous television series ; his godfather was the actor Larry Parks, who earned a best actor Oscar nod for “The Jolson Story” (1946) before being blacklisted; and his godmother is the actress Betty Garrett, who played Sinatra’s girlfriend in “On The Town” (1949) and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” (1950) and Archie’s neighbor in “All in the Family” (from 1973-1975), remains one of the most artistically and socially active stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, and volunteered to me during a 2005 interview that she thinks Bridges is “the most talented actor in the world.”

• He has worked with virtually everyone: Joan Allen, Karen Allen, Lauren Ambrose, Gillian Anderson, Christina Applegate, Alan Arkin, Rosanna Arquette, Hal Ashby, Lauren Bacall, Elizabeth Banks, Ellen Barkin, Drew Barrymore, Kim Basinger, Angela Bassett, Ned Beatty, Robert Benton, Paul Bettany, Theodore Bikel, Peter Billingsley, Mike Binder, Peter Bogdanovich, Timothy Bottoms, Eileen Brennan, Albert Brooks, Pierce Brosnan, Sandra Bullock, T. Bone Burnett, Ellen Burstyn, Steve Buscemi, Gary Busey, John Carpenter, Keith Carradine, Michael Cimino, Candy Clark, George Clooney, Glenn Close, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Chris Cooper, Francis Ford Coppola, Joseph Cotten, Penelope Cruz, Macaulay Culkin, Joan Cusack, Blythe Danner, Ted Danson, Hope Davis, Bruce Davison, Benicio Del Toro, Bruce Dern, Brad Dourif, Robert Downey, Jr., Charles Durning, Robert Duvall, Bob Dylan, Clint Eastwood, Robert Englund, Sam Elliott, Elle Fanning, Mia Farrow, Jon Favreau, Farrah Fawcett, Sally Field, Albert Finney, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Jane Fonda, Megan Fox, John Frankenheimer, Andy Garcia, Brad Garrett, Terry Gilliam, John Goodman, Lauren Graham, Jane Greer, Andy Griffith, Charles Grodin, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Taylor Hackford, Philip Baker Hall, Ed Harris, Sterling Hayden, Mariel Hemingway, Grant Heslov, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Terrence Howard, Tom Hulce, Isabelle Huppert, John Hurt, John Huston, Ben Johnson, Tommy Lee Jones, Raul Julia, Catherine Keener, Val Kilmer, Sally Kirkland, Kris Kristofferson, Lorenzo Lamas, Martin Landau, Jessica Lange, Angela Lansbury, Cloris Leachman, Christopher Lee, Lyle Lovett, Sidney Lumet, Rod Lurie, William H. Macy, Cheech Marin, Andie MacDowell, Tobey Maguire, Dorothy Malone, Jena Malone, Fredric March, James Marsden, Lee Marvin, Frances McDormand, Ewan McGregor, Janet McTeer, Julianne Moore, Tim Blake Nelson, Thandie Newton, Nick Nolte, Gary Oldman, Alan J. Pakula, Gwyneth Paltrow, Simon Pegg, Rosie Perez, Anthony Perkins, Michelle Pfeiffer, Slim Pickens, David Hyde Pierce, Donald Pleasance, Ryan Philippe, Amanda Plummer, Randy Quaid, Tara Reid, Giovanni Ribisi, Tim Robbins, Gary Ross, Isabella Rosselini, Mercedes Ruehl, Robert Ryan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ridley Scott, George Segal, Cybill Shepherd, Michael Sheen, Christian Slater, Kevin Spacey, Harry Dean Stanton, Mary Steenburgen, Rod Steiger, Jerry Stiller, Sharon Stone, Barbra Streisand, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Tilly, Justin Timberlake, Rip Torn, Jeanne Tripplehorn, John Turturro, Brenda Vaccaro, Gwen Verdon, Christopher Walken, Eli Wallach, Sam Waterston, Peter Weir, Forest Whitaker, Bradley Whitford, Richard Widmark, Olivia Wilde, Robin Williams, Luke Wilson, Scott Wolf, Alfre Woodard, James Woods, and Keenan Wynn. Keep in mind: many (if not most) of the aforementioned are members of the Academy, and Academy members often vote for their friends.

• He’s a really likable guy. He has been married to the same woman, Susan Geston, for 32 years. He has worked hard to eradicate child hunger since at least 1983, when he founded the End Hunger Network (for which he recently received a special award from Action Against Hunger). And, as I can personally attest, he’s a really nice guy: At this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, I observed his behavior at “The Men Who Stare at Goats” premiere (amongst members of the public) and after-party (amongst industry types), and he was the same person. A few days later, I ran into him in a hotel hallway and told him how much I’ve enjoyed his work over the years, at which point he stopped, chatted for a good five minutes, and eventually suggested we pose next to each other so that he could snap a few photos with his outstretched hand (he’s very into photography). This was not because he was trying to brown-nose a journalist; he had no idea that I might write about him down the road. He was simply interacting with a fan. But you don’t need me to tell you Bridges is a nice guy — it shines through even during his worst moments in “Crazy Heart,” never more so than in his scenes with the young boy who plays his girlfriend’s son.

The Men Who Stare at Oscars…

How many living Oscar-less actors can you think of who are more deserving of recognition than Jeff Bridges? Oscar bloggers Kris Tapley, Guy Lodge, and myself came up with a list of other candidates — Tom Cruise, Tony Curtis, Gerard Depardieu, Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, Ed Harris, Eddie Murphy, Edward Norton, Gary Oldman, Peter O’Toole, Christopher Plummer, Max von Sydow, James Woods – and my own feeling is that only Finney and O’Toole presently have stronger arguments than Bridges.

Bridges wouldn’t be the first person to win an Oscar largely because Academy members feel its long overdue. Here are some other prominent examples:

• Bette Davis won best actress for “Dangerous” (1935) in part to make up for her loss the previous year for “Of Human Bondage” (1934)
• James Stewart won best actor for “The Philadelphia Story” (1940) in part to make up for his loss the previous year for “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939)
• Joan Fontaine won best actress for “Suspicion” (1941) in part to make up for her loss the previous year for “Rebecca” (1940)
• Joan Crawford won best actress for “Mildred Pierce” (1945) in part to make up for her having never previously been nominated
• John Wayne won best actor for “True Grit” (1969) in part to make up for his previous loss for “Sands of Iwo Jima” (1949) and his having not been nominated for other great performances
• Paul Newman won best actor for “The Color of Money” (1986) in part to make up for losses in past years for “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958), “The Hustler” (1961), “Hud” (1963), “Cool Hand Luke” (1967), “Rachel, Rachel” (1968), “Absence of Malice” (1981) and “The Verdict” (1982)
• Al Pacino won best actor for “The Scent of a Woman” (1992) in part to make up for his losses in past years for “The Godfather” (1972), “Serpico” (1973), “The Godfather, Part II” (1974), “Dog Day Afternoon” (1975), “… And Justice for All” (1979) and “Dicky Tracy” (1990)
• Henry Fonda won best actor for “On Golden Pond” (1981) in part to make up for his previous loss for “The Grapes of Wrath” (1940) and also for having not been nominated for other great performances
• Shirley MacLaine won best actress for “Terms of Endearment” (1983) in part to make up for her losses in past years for “Some Came Running” (1958), “The Apartment” (1960), “Irma La Douce” (1963), and “The Turning Point” (1977)
• Russell Crowe won best actor for “Gladiator” (2000) in part to make up for his loss the previous year for “The Insider” (1999) and in part to make up for having not been nominated for “L.A. Confidential” (1997)
• Nicole Kidman won best actress for “The Hours” (2002) in part to make up for her loss the previous year for “Moulin Rouge!” (2001)
• Peter Jackson won best director for “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003) in part to make up for his previous loss for “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001) and also for having not been nominated for “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” (2002)
• Martin Scorsese won best director for “The Departed” (2006) in part to make up for his losses in past years for “Raging Bull” (1980), “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1988), “Goodfellas” (1990), “Gangs of New York” (2002) and “The Aviator” (2004)
• Kate Winslet won best actress for “The Reader” (2008) in part to make up for her losses in past years for “Sense and Sensibility” (1995), “Titanic” (1997), “Iris” (2001), “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004), and “Little Children” (2006)
  

Spreading the Wealth…

Three of Bridges’ likely competitors for best actor have already won Oscars — one even has two.

• George Clooney (“Up in the Air”) won the best supporting actor Oscar only four years ago for “Syriana” (2005)
• Daniel Day-Lewis (“Nine) won his first best actor Oscar twenty years ago for “My Left Foot” (1989) and his second only two years ago for “There Will Be Blood” (2007)
• Morgan Freeman (“Invictus”) won the best supporting actor Oscar only five years ago for “Million Dollar Baby” (2004)

The other four actors who appear to be in serious contention for a best actor nod — Colin Firth (“A Single Man”), Ben Foster (“The Messenger”), Jeremy Renner (“The Hurt Locker”), and Michael Stuhlbarg (“A Serious Man”) — have significantly shorter resumes than Bridges and have zero nominations between them.

CrA.A.zy Heart…

There is one big difference between this role and the four for which Bridges has been Oscar-nominated in the past — his ace in the hole, if you will: he’s playing an alcoholic, and over 82 years of Oscars few sorts of performances –  dramatic or comedic — have been nominated for or won the best actor Oscar more often, as you can see for yourself below. Perhaps this is because portraying an alcoholic usually requires an actor to throw vanity to the wind, demonstrate a wide range of physical and emotional behavior, and tug at the heartstrings of audiences. Whatever the reason, it’s hard to argue with history…

• Lionel Barrymore in “A Free Soul” (1930-1931) WON
• Wallace Beery in “The Champ” (1931-1932) WON
• William Powell in “The Thin Man” (1934)
• Fredric March in “A Star Is Born” (1937)
• Ray Milland in “The Lost Weekend” (1945) WON
• Fredric March in “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946) WON
• James Stewart in “Harvey” (1950)
• Humphrey Bogart in “The African Queen” (1951) WON
• Bing Crosby in “The Country Girl” (1954)
• James Mason in “A Star Is Born” (1954)
• Jack Lemmon in “The Days of Wine and Roses” (1962)
• Anthony Quinn in “Zorba the Greek” (1964)
• Lee Marvin in “Cat Ballou” (1965) WON
• Richard Burton in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966)
• Dudley Moore in “Arthur” (1981)
• Paul Newman in “The Verdict” (1982)
• Peter O’Toole in “My Favorite Year” (1982)
• Michael Caine in “Educating Rita” (1983)
• Tom Conti in “Reuben, Reuben” (1983)
• Tom Courtenay in “The Dresser” (1983)
• Albert Finney in “The Dresser” (1983)
• Robert Duvall in “Tender Mercies” (1983) WON
• Albert Finney in “Under the Volcano” (1984)
• Jack Nicholson in “Ironweed” (1987)
• Nicolas Cage in “Leaving Las Vegas” (1995) WON
• Robert Duvall in “The Apostle” (1997)
• Ed Harris in “Pollock” (2000)
• Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood” (2007) WON

Fun parting factoid…

If Jeff Bridges wins the best actor Oscar for “Crazy Heart” 38 years after receiving his best supporting actor nod for “The Last Picture Show” (1971), only three men in the 81 year history of the Oscars would have ever worked/waited longer between their first nomination and win: Henry Fonda, who waited 41 years between his best actor nod for “The Grapes of Wrath” (1940) and best actor win for “On Golden Pond” (1981); Alan Arkin, who waited 40 years between his best actor nomination for “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!” (1966) and his best supporting actor win for “Little Miss Sunshine” (2006); and Jack Palance, who waited 39 years between his best supporting actor nod for “Sudden Death” (1952) and his best supporting actor win for “City Slickers” (1991).

Photo: Jeff Bridges and fans at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. Credit: Paul Sherwood.