The true Jeff Bridges

Jeff Bridges should be an intolerable brat working on his fifth marriage. That's what happens to children of famous actors, blessed with good looks and an Oscar nomination by age 22. But the son of TV star Lloyd Bridges has been wed for 33 years and has a reputation as the grooviest cat in Hollywood.

His grounded personality is well on display in the documentary "Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides," airing Wednesday as the season premiere of PBS' "American Masters." Having reached a new career peak at age 61 with the hit "True Grit," Bridges generously shared anecdotes last week in conjunction with the special:

"The Big Lebowski" (1998) "My father got frustrated because he was a very versatile actor, but he was so successful as Mike Nelson on [the aquatic adventure series] 'Sea Hunt' that he got offered a lot of skin-diving scripts and that was about it for a quite a while. So I went about trying not to develop a strong persona, and now 'The Dude' has sort of materialized as that. And now I'm not so stuck on not developing a persona. I've got enough material around 'The Dude' that filmmakers know I can do other things, so I'm not as worried as I once was about that. I love 'The Big Lebowski.' It's one of my favorite movies. I'm partial. I'm in it. Even if I wasn't, it would still be one of my favorite movies. It always hooks me. You know, I'm one of those guys who clicks on the TV, and if 'The Godfather' comes on, I'll say, 'I'll just watch a couple of scenes,' and I get hooked. 'Lebowski' is like that with me, too. I'll watch a couple scenes, and I'm a goner."

"The Fabulous Baker Boys" (1989) This story of sibling rivalry co-starring his brother, Beau, climaxes in a fistfight.

"Beau and I had a lot of fun choreographing the fight. In Beau's version of the story he says that we needed a "safe" word [a signal to stop], because at the end of the fight -- he's a piano player and I'm breaking his hand. So the safe word Beau came up with was 'Ow! Ow!'

"That's not how I remember it. I remember that we didn't even have a safe word. That was a problem. But I think his version is even more bizarre, so that when he says, 'Ow! Ow!' I'm thinking, 'Good, act your butt off. Good!' I nearly broke his hand and I put him in the hospital. But you've got to have a safe word. Like 'apples' or something. That's the moral of the story.

"We're looking for something again to do together, but you don't want something that just cashes in on the gimmick of the brothers. You want something as good as 'Baker Boys' and that's tough to find. But it will come around, hopefully."

"The Contender" (2000) Bridges played a U.S. president who seeks to appoint a female vice president.

"I try to resist roles as much as I can. And then what I can't resist, that's what I end up doing. That's served me pretty well. But I liked the idea of playing the president. I think I had just played 'The Dude' a month before and I remember running through the house after reading the script and saying to my wife, 'I think we got one.'"

"The Last Picture Show" (1971) Peter Bogdanovich's drama about Texas small-town life, based on a Larry McMurtry novel, gave Bridges his first major role -- and the first of his five Oscar nominations.

"I saw Peter not too long ago in Texas, and we were fantasizing about getting the rest of the Larry McMurtry books going, making movies out of them with the same folks. You know, 20 years later we made a movie called 'Texasville' also based on Larry's books. He's got three others with my character and all those characters from that small town. It's unusual to have the same actors make a film first 20 years ago and now 20 years after that and maybe 20 years later with the same cast aging naturally with the same director. It would be a unique experience and I'd like to be a part of that. Maybe it'll happen."

"Crazy Heart" (2009) Bridges finally won an Oscar for his portrayal of a washed-up country star.

"I went to work on 'True Grit' about a week after I got the Oscar so I didn't have much time to think about it. I'm still kind of processing it. It's wonderful to be acknowledged by the guys who do what you do, to get an 'attaboy' feels great, but I've never been motivated by the awards thing. There's a side of fame that kind of goes against the anonymity that actors kind of like. It makes my job harder in a way, you know? I'm kind of still working on that."

njustin@startribune.com • 612-673-7431 • Follow Justin on Twitter: @nealjustin