10 Actors Who Are Actually Brilliant Musicians
2. Jeff Bridges
Although two of Bridges' most successful movie roles were portraying musicians - as a lounge pianist in The Fabulous Baker Brothers and an alcoholic country singer in decline in The Big Lebowski - in reality he's been playing guitar since the early sixties, and released his first solo album in 2010.
Starting out, he harboured equal ambitions for either a career in music or acting. His father, Lloyd Bridges, was an established star, and a role on his TV show as a young actor set Bridges on the career path that eventually led him to become a megastar, able to be as at home in Hollywood blockbusters as arthouse movies.
On the back of the success of The Big Lebowski, Bridges was able to realise his lifelong ambition of forming a band and going out on the road and Bridges has been touring steadily for ten years. A great acoustic stylist, adept at fingerpicking and country rhythm guitar, Bridges has the kind of voice that embraces all aspects of Americana and instantly takes ownership of every song he sings.
A staunch advocate of environmental issues, he even has his own signature guitar, manufactured from entirely sustainable woods by Oregon guitar builders, Breedlove.