PORT TOWNSEND — Beau Bridges, who first acted with his father, Lloyd Bridges, and has sustained a long, diverse career, will headline the 16th annual Port Townsend Film Festival on Sept. 25-27.
“Beau Bridges is a perfect fit for our community,” said Janette Force, festival executive director.
“He is really unpretentious and is engaged in the idea that film festivals are helping to support films that aren’t mainstream.”
The 73-year-old actor’s career includes film, television and stage with 192 acting credits listed on the Internet Movie Database.
Among his awards are Golden Globe awards in 1992 and 1994; Emmy awards in 1992, 1993 and 1997; and a Grammy award for the album “An Inconvenient Truth” in 2009.
Force said Beau Bridges’ work in large films fits well with smaller efforts.
“Although he’s done a lot of film and TV, he has an understanding of how independent films feed the industry,” Force said.
“He has a great attitude toward artists who are just getting started.”
Since Bridges is a vegan, Force feels he will be impressed by the area’s plethora of organic food.
Bridges’ acting career began on his father’s television shows, “Sea Hunt” and “The Lloyd Bridges Show,” followed by appearances as a guest star on classic TV shows such as “My Three Sons,” “Bonanza” and “Ben Casey.”
“I was fortunate to have a father in the business because that first job is very hard to get,” said Bridges, speaking from his home in Southern California.
“I was blessed that he could help and he taught me a great work ethic, but after awhile, you have to produce, or nothing is going to happen.”
Bridges was never a series regular and often played separate characters on different episodes.
“The best parts were the guest star roles. It was a lot of fun because you were always causing some kind of problem and had a sense of purpose,” he said.
“The other actors were supportive. I was just a young guy learning by osmosis just being around these people.”
Bridges has acted with his father, who died in 1998; his brother, Jeff; and several other family members.
In a 1995 episode of the revitalized “Outer Limits,” he played son to his father and father to his son Dylan.
“My father gave me a chance to come work on his show and have a place to start my career, but later on when he heard that I was doing something or Jeff was doing something, he’d call up and say, ‘Is there anything for me?’” Bridges recalled.
“When you work with family, there is a kind of shortcut.
“You don’t have to explain things because you know each other so well.”
Bridges shared the screen with his brother in 1989’s “The Fabulous Baker Boys,” which was filmed in Seattle and will be screened at the festival.
Bridges won a 1990 National Society of Film Critics award for best supporting actor in that film.
While many of his roles are fictional, he has portrayed a variety of real-life people, from Richard Nixon to P.T. Barnum.
“I’ve been in some great stories such as ‘Norma Rae’ and ‘Baker Boys,’” he said.
“If you get a great story and add wonderful actors, it can be really exciting, but if you don’t have a good script, the best actors in the world can’t really make much of it.”
As Bridges continues to work steadily — he is a series regular in Showtime’s “Masters of Sex” — he often reads audiobooks, which he does not rehearse.
“I do it in the same way that I would read a book to my kids where I’m reading it to myself for the first time as well,” he said.
“It’s like telling stories in the old-fashioned way, although I do have the chance to fix a mistake.”
The selection process for the festival is underway, with 25 reviewers watching over 500 films with the goal of narrowing them down to 80 to 95 to show at the festival.
The films will be shown in eight theaters in Port Townsend over the three days of the festival.
After the reviewers’ recommendations, the final selection is made by Force and program director Jane Julian.
Also to follow is the announcement of other special guests who will appear at the festival.
“We have some other people coming in, and it’s very exciting,” Force said.
“But right now, we want this to be all about Beau.”
For a list of Bridges’ film and television credits, go to http://tinyurl.com/PDN-Bridges.
For more information about the film festival, visit www.ptfilmfest.com or phone 360-379-1333.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.