Jeff Bridges: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

3. Duane Jackson - The Last Picture Show

The reason we say that the aforementioned Oscar win for Jeff Bridges was long-awaited is because, well, we knew he deserved one from the start. Maybe not in The Company She Keeps, but very much so from his breakout role in this, a classic of the auteur cinema Hollywood put out during the sixties and seventies. A personal pet project by director Peter Bogdanovich - most recently seen in a inexplicable cameo during an episode of How I Met Your Mother, saying Willem Dafoe's name like a bird call in an elevator - and based on semi-autobiographical novel by Larry McMurtry, The Last Picture Show is a wistful, nostalgic coming of age story about lost innocence and growing up. And it probably wouldn't have worked without Jeff Bridges. Bogdanovich has gone on record as saying the reason he cast the young actor was because his character, the shiftless high school graduate Duane Jackson, isn't particularly likeable in the original novel. In fact, he's kind of a douche. The director thought Bridges's naturally fun personality would give the character extra depth and warmth, whilst also making him less disagreeable, and what you do you know? It totally worked. Because Jeff Bridges is awesome. A prototype for later films like The Graduate about the hinterland between child and adulthood, Bridges' character arguably goes through the most in this 1971 film, going through a convincing and heartbreaking development over the course of the 118 minutes. A true classic.