Bruce MacLeish Dern (born June 4, 1936) is an American actor, often playing supporting villainous characters of unstable nature. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Coming Home (1978) and the Academy Award for Best Actor for Nebraska (2013). His other major film appearances include Silent Running (1972), The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), The Cowboys (1972), Posse (1975), Family Plot (1976), Black Sunday (1977), Tattoo (1981), Monster (2003), The Hateful Eight (2015), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), and The Artist’s Wife (2020).
Early life
Dern was born in Chicago, the son of Jean (née MacLeish; 1908–1972) and John Dern (1903–1958), a utility chief and attorney. He grew up in Kenilworth, Illinois. His paternal grandfather, George, was a Utah governor and Secretary of War (he was serving in the latter position during the time of Bruce’s birth). Dern’s maternal grandfather was a Vice President of the Carson, Pirie and Scott stores, which were established by his own father, Scottish-born businessman Andrew MacLeish. Dern’s maternal granduncle was poet Archibald MacLeish. His godfather was Illinois governor and two-time presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson II. He attended New Trier High School and the University of Pennsylvania. A lifelong avid runner, he was a track star in high school and sought to qualify for the United States Olympic trials in 1956.
Career
Dern starred on stage in the Philadelphia premiere of Waiting for Godot before heading to Hollywood. He had an uncredited role for Wild River as Jack Roper, who is upset with his friend for hitting a woman that he punches himself. He played the sailor in a few flashbacks with Marnie’s mother in Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie. Dern played a murderous rustler in Hang ‘Em High and a gunfighter in Support Your Local Sheriff!. In The Cowboys, he played a cattle thief, who kills a rancher. John Wayne warned Dern, “America will hate you for this.” Dern replied, “Yeah, but they’ll love me in Berkeley.” Having played a series of villains, that same year he played against type as a sensitive ecologist in the science-fiction film Silent Running.
Through the 1970s, he appeared in a variety of co-starring or supporting roles including the 1974 adaptation of The Great Gatsby, the 1975 film Posse, directed by and co-starring Kirk Douglas, and reuniting with Hitchcock for 1976’s Family Plot, the legendary filmmaker’s final film.
He played a vengeful Vietnam War veteran who uses his job as a Goodyear Blimp pilot to launch a massive terrorist attack at the Super Bowl in 1977’s Black Sunday. In 1981 he starred in Tattoo, as an increasingly deranged tattoo artist who develops an obsession with a model. Dern was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Coming Home. In 1983, he won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 33rd Berlin International Film Festival for That Championship Season. In 2013, Dern won the Best Actor Award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Personal life
Dern was married to Marie Dawn Pierce from 1957 to 1959. He then married Diane Ladd in 1960. Their first daughter, Diane Elizabeth Dern (born November 29, 1960), died at 18 months from head injuries after falling into a swimming pool on May 18, 1962. The couple’s second daughter, Laura (born February 10, 1967), is also an actress. After his divorce from Ladd in 1969, Dern married Andrea Beckett.
Dern, Ladd, and their daughter Laura received adjoining stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 1, 2010.
Filmography
Film
Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1960 | Wild River | Jack Roper | Elia Kazan | Uncredited |
1962 | The Crimebusters | Joe Krajac | Boris Sagal | |
1964 | Marnie | Sailor | Alfred Hitchcock | |
Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte | John Mayhew | Robert Aldrich | ||
1966 | The Wild Angels | Joe “Loser” Kearns | Roger Corman | |
1967 | The War Wagon | Hammond | Burt Kennedy | |
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre | John May | Roger Corman | ||
The Trip | John | |||
Waterhole No. 3 | Deputy Sam Tippen | William A. Graham | ||
Will Penny | Rafe Quint | Tom Gries | ||
1968 | Psych-Out | Steve Davis | Richard Rush | |
Hang ‘Em High | Miller | Ted Post | ||
1969 | Support Your Local Sheriff! | Joe Danby | Burt Kennedy | |
Castle Keep | Lt. Billy Byron Bix | Sydney Pollack | ||
Number One | Richie Fowler | Tom Gries | ||
The Cycle Savages | Keeg | Bill Brame | ||
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? | James Bates | Sydney Pollack | ||
1970 | Bloody Mama | Kevin Dirkman | Roger Corman | |
The Rebel Rousers | J.J. Weston | Martin B. Cohen | ||
1971 | The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant | Dr. Roger Girard | Anthony M. Lanza | |
Drive, He Said | Coach Bullion | Jack Nicholson | ||
1972 | The Cowboys | Asa Watts (Long Hair) | Mark Rydell | |
Silent Running | Freeman Lowell | Douglas Trumbull | ||
Thumb Tripping | Smitty | Quentin Masters | ||
The King of Marvin Gardens | Jason Staebler | Bob Rafelson | ||
1973 | Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid | Deputy | Sam Peckinpah | Uncredited |
The Laughing Policeman | Leo Larsen | Stuart Rosenberg | ||
1974 | The Great Gatsby | Tom Buchanan | Jack Clayton | |
1975 | Posse | Jack Strawhorn | Kirk Douglas | |
Smile | Big Bob Freelander | Michael Ritchie | ||
1976 | Family Plot | George Lumley | Alfred Hitchcock | |
Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood | Grayson Potchuck | Michael Winner | ||
Folies bourgeoises | William Brandels | Claude Chabrol | ||
1977 | Black Sunday | Michael Lander | John Frankenheimer | |
1978 | Coming Home | Captain Bob Hyde | Hal Ashby | |
The Driver | The Detective | Walter Hill | ||
1980 | Middle Age Crazy | Bobby Lee Burnett | John Trent | |
1981 | Tattoo | Karl Kinsky | Bob Brooks | |
1982 | That Championship Season | George Sitkowski | Jason Miller | |
Harry Tracy, Desperado | Harry Tracy | William A. Graham | ||
1986 | On the Edge | Wes Holman | Rob Nilsson | |
1987 | The Big Town | Mr. Edwards | Ben Bolt and Harold Becker | |
World Gone Wild | Ethan | Lee H. Katzin | ||
1988 | 1969 | Cliff Denny | Ernest Thompson | |
1989 | The ‘Burbs | Mark Rumsfield | Joe Dante | |
1990 | After Dark, My Sweet | Garrett “Uncle Bud” Stoker | James Foley | |
1992 | Diggstown | John Gillon | Michael Ritchie | |
1995 | Wild Bill | Will Plummer | Walter Hill | |
1996 | Down Periscope | Admiral Yancy Graham | David S. Ward | |
Mulholland Falls | The Chief | Lee Tamahori | Uncredited | |
Last Man Standing | Sheriff Ed Galt | Walter Hill | ||
1998 | Small Soldiers | Link Static | Joe Dante | Voice |
1999 | The Haunting | Mr. Dudley | Jan de Bont | |
If… Dog… Rabbit… | McGurdy | Matthew Modine | ||
2000 | All the Pretty Horses | The Judge | Billy Bob Thornton | |
2001 | The Glass House | Alvin Begleiter | Daniel Sackheim | |
2003 | Masked and Anonymous | Editor | Larry Charles | |
Milwaukee, Minnesota | Sean McNally | Allan Mindel | ||
Monster | Thomas | Patty Jenkins | ||
2005 | Madison | Harry Volpi | William Bindley | |
Down in the Valley | Charlie | David Jacobson | ||
2006 | Believe in Me | Ellis Brawley | Robert Collector | |
Walker Payne | Chester | Matt Williams | ||
The Astronaut Farmer | Hal | Michael Polish | ||
The Hard Easy | Gene | Ari Ryan | ||
2007 | The Cake Eaters | Easy Kimbrough | Mary Stuart Masterson | |
2008 | Swamp Devil | Howard Blame | David Winning | |
The Golden Boys | Captain Perez Ryder | Daniel Adams | ||
2009 | American Cowslip | Cliff | Mark David | |
The Hole 3D | Creepy Carl | Joe Dante | ||
The Lightkeepers | Bennie | Daniel Adams | ||
2010 | Trim | Dale Banks | Allan Mindel | |
2011 | Choose | Dr. Ronald Pendleton | Marcus Graves | |
Inside Out | Vic Small | Artie Mandelberg | ||
Twixt | Bobby LaGrange | Francis Ford Coppola | ||
2012 | From Up on Poppy Hill | Yoshio Onodera | Gorō Miyazaki | Voice, English dub |
Hitting the Cycle | James | Darin Anthony and J. Richey Nash | ||
Django Unchained | Curtis Carrucan | Quentin Tarantino | ||
2013 | Coffin Baby | Vance Henrickson | Dean Jones | |
Northern Borders | Austin Kittredge Sr. | Jay Craven | ||
Nebraska | Woody Grant | Alexander Payne | ||
Fighting for Freedom | Christian Dobbe | Farhad Mann | ||
2014 | Cut Bank | Georgie Wits | Matt Shakman | |
2015 | The Hateful Eight | General Sanford Smithers | Quentin Tarantino | |
2017 | American Violence | Richard Morton | Timothy Woodward Jr. | |
Class Rank | Oswald Flannigan | Eric Stoltz | ||
The Lears | Davenport Lear | Carl Bessai | ||
Hickok | Doc Rivers O’Roark | Timothy Woodward Jr. | ||
Our Souls at Night | Dorlan Becker | Ritesh Batra | ||
Chappaquiddick | Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. | John Curran | ||
2018 | Nostalgia | Ronnie Ashemore | Mark Pellington | |
White Boy Rick | Ray Wershe | Yann Demange | ||
Freaks | Alan/Mr. Snowcone | Adam Stein Zach Lipovsky |
||
Warning Shot | Calvin | Dustin Fairbanks | ||
American Dresser | King | Carmine Cangialosi | ||
Lez Bomb | Grandpa | Jenna Laurenzo | ||
2019 | The Mustang | Myles | Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre | |
The Peanut Butter Falcon | Carl | Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz | ||
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood | George Spahn | Quentin Tarantino | ||
Remember Me | Claude | Martin Rosete | ||
QT8: The First Eight | Himself | Tara Wood | Documentary | |
The Artist’s Wife | Richard Smythson | Tom Dolby | ||
Badland | Reginald Cooke | Justin Lee | ||
2020 | Emperor | Levi Coffin | Mark Amin | |
Buck Alamo | Death | Ben Epstein | ||
Death in Texas | Reynolds | Scott Windhauser | ||
2021 | Last Call | Coach Finnegan | Paolo Pilladi |
Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1960 | Route 66 | Albert | Episode: “The Man on the Monkey Board” |
1961 | Naked City | Hollis / Nicky | Uncredited 2 episodes |
1961 | Sea Hunt | FBI Agent John Furillo | Episode: “Crime at Sea” |
1961 | Surfside 6 | Johnny Page | Episode: “Daphne, Girl Detective” |
1961 | Thriller | Johnny Norton | Episode: “The Remarkable Mrs. Hawk” |
1961 | Ben Casey | Billy Harris | Episode: “A Dark Night for Billy Harris” |
1961 | The Detectives | Jud Treadwell | Episode: “Act of God” |
1961–1962 | Cain’s Hundred | Eddie Light / Joe Krajac | 2 episodes |
1962–1963 | Stoney Burke | E.J. Stocker | 17 episodes |
1962–1963 | The Dick Powell Show | Deering | 2 episodes |
1963 | Kraft Suspense Theatre | Maynard | Episode: “The Hunt” |
1963 | The Outer Limits | Ben Garth | Episode: “The Zanti Misfits” |
1963–1965 | Wagon Train | Wilkins / Jud Fisher / Seth Bancroft | 3 episodes |
1963–1966 | The Fugitive | Deputy Martin / Charley / Hutch / Hank / Cody | 5 episodes |
1964–1965 | The Virginian | Bert Kramer / Lee Darrow / Pell | 3 episodes |
1964 | 77 Sunset Strip | Ralph Wheeler | Episode: “Lovers’ Lane” |
1964 | The Greatest Show on Earth | Vernon | Episode: “The Last of the Strongmen” |
1964 | The Alfred Hitchcock Hour | Jesse / Roy Bullock | 2 episodes |
1964–1965 | Twelve O’Clock High | TSgt. Frank Jones / Lieutenant Michaels / Lieutenant Danton | 4 episodes |
1965 | Rawhide | Ed Rankin | Episode: “Walk into Terror” |
1965 | Laredo | Joe Durkee | Episode: “Rendezvous at Arillo” |
1965 | A Man Called Shenandoah | Bobby Ballantine | Episode: “The Verdict” |
1965, 1968 | The F.B.I. | Virgil Roy Phipps / PFC Byron Landy | 2 episodes |
1965–1966 1969 |
Gunsmoke | Guerin / Lou Stone / Judd Print / Doyle Phleger | 4 episodes |
1966 | Branded | Les | Episode: “The Wolfers” |
1966 | The Loner | Merrick | Episode: “To Hang a Dead Man” |
1966 | Disneyland | Turk | Episode: “Gallegher Goes West: Crusading Reporter” |
1966–1967 | Run for Your Life | Alex Ryder | 3 episodes |
1966–1968 | The Big Valley | Jack Follet / Harry Dixon / Clovis / Gabe Skeels / John Weaver | 5 episodes: Under a Dark Star, By Force and Violence, The Lost Treasure, Four Days to Furnace Hill, and The Prize |
1968–1969 | Lancer | Tom Nevill / Lucas Thatcher | 2 episodes |
1968, 1970 | Bonanza | Bayliss / Cully Maco | 2 episodes |
1969 | Then Came Bronson | Bucky O’Neill | Episode: “Amid Splinters of the Thunderbolt” |
1970 | Land of the Giants | Thorg | Episode: “Wild Journey” |
1970 | The High Chaparral | Wade | Episode: “Only the Bad Come to Sonora” |
1970 | The Immortal | Luther Seacombe | Episode: “To the Gods Alone” |
1985 | Space | Stanley Mott | 5 episodes |
1985 | Toughlove | Rob Charters | Television film |
1987 | Roses Are for the Rich | Douglas Osborne | Television film |
1987 | Uncle Tom’s Cabin | Augustine St. Claire | Television film |
1989 | Trenchcoat in Paradise | John Hollander | Television film |
1990 | The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson | Scout Ed Higgins | Television film |
1991 | Into the Badlands | T.L. Barston | Television film |
1991 | Carolina Skeletons | Junior Stoker | Television film |
1993 | It’s Nothing Personal | Billy Archer | Television film |
1994 | Dead Man’s Revenge | Payton McCay | Television film |
1994 | Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight | George Putnam | Television film |
1995 | A Mother’s Prayer | John Walker | Television film |
1995 | Mrs. Munck | Patrick Leary | Television film |
1999 | Hard Time: The Premonition | Winston | Television film |
2003 | King of the Hill | Randy Strickland | Voice, Episode: “Boxing Luanne” |
2003 | Hard Ground | Nate Hutchinson | Television film |
2006–2011 | Big Love | Frank Harlow | 29 episodes |
2007 | CSI: NY | Vet | Episode: “Boo” |
2013 | Pete’s Christmas | Grandpa | Television film |
2016 | The Cowboy | Himself | Television series documentary, 2 episodes |
2019 | Black Monday | Rod “The Jammer” Jaminski | 2 episodes |
2019 | Mr. Mercedes | John Rothstein | 8 episodes |
Video Games
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
2020 | Shadow Stalkers | The Director |
2020 | MegaRace: DeathMatch | Rabies |
Awards and nominations
Year | Title | Award |
---|---|---|
1972 | Drive, He Said | National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor |
1973 | The Cowboys | Bronze Wrangler for Best Theatrical Motion Picture |
1975 | The Great Gatsby | Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture |
1979 | Coming Home | Nominated – Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture |
1983 | That Championship Season | Silver Bear for Best Actor |
2009 | Swamp Devil | Philadelphia Film Festival Jury Prize |
2014 | Nebraska | AARP Annual Movies for Grownups Award for Best Actor Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cast Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award Dublin Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor National Board of Review Award for Best Actor Nominated – Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated – Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for Best Actor Nominated – Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for Best Ensemble Cast Nominated – American Comedy Award for Comedy Actor – Film Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role Nominated – Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor Nominated – Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Nominated – Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble Nominated – Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor Nominated – Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor Nominated – Gold Derby Award for Best Actor Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated – Guardian Film Award for Best Actor Nominated – Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor Nominated – Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead Nominated – London Film Critics Circle Award for Actor of the Year Nominated – San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Nominated – St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture |
2019 | Freaks | Best Actor at Horrorant International Film Festival |