James Bridges (rođen 3. veljače 1936., Pariz, Arkansas, SAD - umro 6. lipnja 1993, Los Angeles, California), američki glumac, scenarist i redatelj koji je bio najpoznatiji po Kineskom sindromu (1979) i Urban Cowboy (1980).
Kviz
Filmska škola: činjenica ili fikcija?
Nijedan nijemi film nikada nije osvojio nagradu Akademije.
Bridges je započeo karijeru u zabavi kao glumac, a rani snimci uključuju bitne dijelove u brojnim televizijskim emisijama i glavnu ulogu kao Tarzan u filmu Andzana Warhola u underground filmu Tarzan i Jane Regained
Vrsta (1964). Međutim, konačno se usredotočio na rad iza kamere. Napisao je dobro primljeno Marlon Brando vozilo The Appaloosa (1966), kao i brojne epizode The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. 1970. godine Bridges je scenarij napisao i režirao Baby Maker, niskobudžetnu dramu o paru bez djece koji unajmljuju hipija (kojeg glumi Barbara Hershey) da služi kao surogat majka, s neočekivanim rezultatima.
Šira pojava bila je The Paper Chase (1973), drama o brucošu Pravnog fakulteta s Harvarda (Timothy Bottoms) koji se bori da preživi krutost svog kurseva s zahtjevnim profesorom Kingsfieldom (John Houseman, koji je za svoju ulogu osvojio Akademijsku nagradu) dok se udvarao profesorovoj slobodoumnoj kćeri (Lindsay Wagner). Bridgesova adaptacija izvornog romana također je nominirana za Oscara, a popularni film kasnije je prilagođen uspješnoj televizijskoj seriji.
Bridges next wrote and directed 9/30/55 (1978; also known as September 30, 1955), a dramatization of a fan (Richard Thomas) struggling to come to grips with the death of idol James Dean in 1955. However, it was the suspenseful The China Syndrome (1979) that became Bridges’s first breakout hit. Jane Fonda played a television reporter who stumbles onto a cover-up at a nuclear power plant that nearly suffered a meltdown, and Jack Lemmon portrayed the engineer who blows the whistle on his criminally negligent superiors. Both actors were Oscar-nominated, as was Bridges for cowriting the prescient original screenplay. The film received an enormous boost when, a few weeks after it opened, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident occurred in Pennsylvania.
Bridges also scored big with Urban Cowboy (1980), a formulaic but entertaining story about a young Texas construction worker (John Travolta) who lets his marriage to independent Sissy (Debra Winger) disintegrate while he struggles to be accepted in the world of Gilley’s, the famed Houston honky-tonk, with its mechanical bull and competitive dance floors. Cowritten by Bridges, Urban Cowboy was a box office hit and spawned a best-selling sound track. Bridges next wrote the existential murder mystery Mike’s Murder for his longtime friend Winger, but the studio rejected the cut he delivered in 1982, and the film remained on the shelf until 1984, when a much-edited version was released to critical and commercial failure.
Bridges’s next film, Perfect (1985), centred on the new subculture of health clubs. It starred Travolta as a bright but unscrupulous Rolling Stone reporter on the trail of a story and Jamie Lee Curtis as the club instructor he first exploits, then falls in love with. Perfect, which was coscripted by Bridges, was widely panned and failed to find an audience. In 1988 he helmed his last film, Bright Lights, Big City, an intelligent but curiously flat adaptation of the Jay McInerney best seller about the club-and-cocaine scene in 1980s New York City. Two years later Clint Eastwood directed White Hunter, Black Heart, which was based on a script cowritten by Bridges. Diagnosed with cancer, Bridges died in 1993. In 1999 the main screening venue of the UCLA Department of Film, Television and Digital Media was renamed the James Bridges Theater.
