James Bridges Filmography

Born:: February 3, 1936 in Paris, AR
Occupation:: Director, Screenwriter
Biography:: Writer/director James Bridges made his name in the 1970s with such socially aware, character-driven films as The Paper Chase (1973), but his unassuming style and non-blockbuster mentality slowed his career in the 1980s. Bridges died of cancer in 1993, though he lived to see one of his '70s scripts...Read More

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White Hunter, Black Heart

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Jeff Fahey, George Dzundza, Alun Armstrong, Marisa Berenson

Synopsis: Something of a sleeper in its 1990 release, White Hunter, Black Heart is one of Clint Eastwood's most engaging films. It is based on Peter Vietel's novel about the location shoot of John Huston's immortal The African Queen. But the focus is never on Bogie and Hepburn. Egomaniacal director John Read More

9/14/90
Bright Lights, Big City

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Michael J. Fox, Kiefer Sutherland, Phoebe Cates, Swoosie Kurtz, Frances Sternhagen

Synopsis: Michael J. Fox once more makes a courageous effort to shed his nice-guy image in Bright Lights, Big City. Fox plays an impressionable Kansan who comes to the Big Apple to take a job at a major magazine. It isn't long before he falls into the twin traps of drug and alcohol abuse. His only hope for Read More

4/1/88
Perfect

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: David Paymer, John Travolta, Jamie Lee Curtis, Anne de Salvo, Marilu Henner, Laraine Newman, Jann Wenner

Synopsis: Based on a series of Rolling Stone articles by Aaron Latham, this romance was set in the world of L.A.'s hip fitness scene. Rolling Stone reporter Adam Lawrence (John Travolta) comes to L.A. to write a story about a prominent businessman who's been arrested for drug dealing (shades of the John Read More

1985
Mike's Murder

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Debra Winger, Mark Keyloun, Darrell Larson, Brooke Alderson, Paul Winfield

Synopsis: An ordinary woman is unwittingly led into California's criminal underbelly in this drama. Betty Parrish (Debra Winger) is a bank teller who is involved in a rather sporadic relationship with Mike (Mark Keyloun), a low-level tennis pro who supplements his income by dealing cocaine on the side. One Read More

1984
Urban Cowboy

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: John Travolta, Debra Winger, Scott Glenn, Madolyn Smith, Barry Corbin

Synopsis: "You a real cowboy?" John Travolta traded disco for a mechanical bull in this adaptation by James Bridges and Aaron Latham of Latham's article on Western nightlife. Texas country boy Bud (Travolta) moves to Houston to work on an oil rig with his Uncle Bob (Barry Corbin), and he swiftly becomes Read More

1980
The China Syndrome

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, Scott Brady, James Hampton, Wilford Brimley

Synopsis: This gripping 1979 drama about the dangers of nuclear power carried an extra jolt when a real-life accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania occurred just weeks after the film opened. Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) is a TV reporter trying to advance from fluff pieces to harder Read More

1979
9/30/55

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Richard Thomas, Susan Tyrrell, Deborah Benson, Lisa Blount, Tom Hulce

Synopsis: This film, aired on television as 24 Hours of the Rebel, delves into the hero-worship aura that surrounded James Dean following his tragic death. This stars The Waltons' Richard Thomas (getting a break from his usual "goody-goody" roles), who, as character "Jimmy J," is stunned by Dean's death and Read More

1977
The Paper Chase

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Timothy Bottoms, Lindsay Wagner, John Houseman, Graham Beckel, Edward Herrmann

Synopsis: This filmization of John Jay Osborn Jr.'s novel Paper Chase ended up one of the surprise hits of the 1973-74 movie season. Timothy Bottoms stars as the Minnesotan Hart, a brilliant but naive first-year student at the Harvard Law School. Like most of his fellow aspiring attorneys, Hart is in Read More

1973
Limbo

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Michael Bersell, Ken Kornbluh, Laura Kornbluh, Kate Jackson, Katherine Justice, Stuart Margolin, Hazel Medina, Kathleen Nolan

Synopsis: Limbo was one of Hollywood's first big-studio films to concentrate on how Vietnam affected the families of the combatants. Kathleen Nolan, Kate Jackson and Katherine Justice play three service wives living at a Florida Air Force Base. Their husbands have all been called to active duty in Vietnam Read More

1972
Shattered Silence

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Ben Gazzara, Elizabeth Ashley, Michael Douglas, Karen Pearson, Larry Reynolds

Synopsis: Michael Douglas made his TV-movie debut in When Michael Calls. The film wastes no time in establishing its premise: the possibility that someone long dead may be trying to communicate with the living. Elizabeth Ashley plays Helen Connelly, who is driven to distraction after receiving several phone Read More

1971
Colossus: The Forbin Project

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, Gordon Pinsent, William Schallert, Leonid Rostoff

Synopsis: The granddaddy of all "computer run amok" films, Colossus: The Forbin Project concerns a huge electronic brain designed to control the American missile defense system. Colossus' technicians do not count on the computer developing an intelligence of its own. Communicating with its Russian Read More

1970
The Baby Maker

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Barbara Hershey, Collin Wilcox-Horne, Sam Groom, Scott Glenn, Jeannie Berlin

Synopsis: Barbara Hershey stars as the "baby maker" of the title. Tish Gray (Hershey) hires herself out to married couple Jay and Suzanne Wilcox (Sam Groom and Collin Wilcox-Horne), who've been unable to conceive a child of their own. Tish agrees to bear the child for them, assuming that her hippie Read More

1970
Faces

Actors: John Marley, Gena Rowlands, Lynn Carlin, Seymour Cassel

Synopsis: Faces is right: this definitive John Cassavetes film consists almost exclusively of tight, uncomfortable close-ups. It takes place in the fourteenth year of the marriage of Richard (John Marley) and Maria (Lynn Carlin). Neither husband nor wife is content with the conditions that prevail; Maria Read More

1968
The Appaloosa

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Marlon Brando, Anjanette Comer, John Saxon, Emilio Fernández, Alex Montoya

Synopsis: The Appaloosa is one of the more tolerable Marlon Brando westerns, if only because Brando seems to be aspiring to merely entertain rather than offer us a litany of Life Lessons. The title character is a beautiful horse, stolen from buffalo hunter Brando early in the proceedings. The thief is Anjanette Comer Read More

1966
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: An Unlocked Window

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: John Kerr, Dana Wynter, Louise Latham, Stephen Roberts, Cathy Merchant

Synopsis: Overworked private nurse Stella Crosson (Dana Wynter) is relieved when a new assistant shows up to help her care for wealthy invalid Glendon Baker (John Kerr). Stella's happiness is, however, somewhat mitigated when she hears that a serial killer of nurses has struck in the neighborhood. Things Read More

1965
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Where the Woodbine Twineth

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Margaret Leighton, Juanita Moore, Carl Benton Reid, E.J. Andre, Joel Fluellen

Synopsis: Imperious Southern matron Nell Snyder (Margaret Leighton) is upset by the recent behavior of her orphaned niece, Eva (Eileen Baral), who has created an imaginary "little person" named Mr. Peppercorn, whom she blames for all her acts of mischief. Things don't get any better when Eva attaches Read More

1965
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Power of Attorney

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Richard Johnson, Fay Bainter, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Josie Lloyd

Synopsis: Con artist James Jarvis (Richard Johnson) has made a comfortable living posing as an investment counselor in order to bilk wealthy old women. Jarvis' current target is elderly Mary Crawford (Fay Bainter), who lives with her friend Agatha (Geraldine Fitzgerald). Stripped of her wealth by the Read More

1965
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Death Scene

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: James Farentino, Vera Miles, John Carradine, Leonard York, Virginia Aldridge

Synopsis: Vera Miles, who starred in the very first half-hour episode of Alfred Hitchcock's TV suspense anthology, returns a decade later to headline this hour-long installment. Miles plays Nicky Revere, the daughter of once-famous Hollywood director Gavin Revere (John Carradine). Not long after Nicky takes Read More

1965
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: The Gentleman Caller

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Roddy McDowall, Ruth McDevitt, Diane Sayer, Naomi Stevens, Juanita Moore

Synopsis: Elderly eccentric Emmy Rice (Ruth McDevitt) is charmed by the attentions of her much-younger gentleman caller, a fellow named Gerald Musgrove (Roddy McDowall). This is quite agreeable to Musgrove, a safecracker who has hidden 100,000 dollars in stolen money in Emmy's voluminous collection of old Read More

1964
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Beast in View

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Joan Hackett, Kathleen Nolan, George Furth, Kevin McCarthy, Brenda Forbes

Synopsis: Helen Clarvoe (Joan Hackett) informs her lawyer, Paul Blackshear (Kevin McCarthy), that she has been the victim of threatening phone calls. Helen insists that her tormentor is Dorothy Johnson (Kathy Nolan), the embittered former fiancée of Helen's brother. Using evidence provided by Helen, Paul Read More

1964
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: The Return of Verge Likens

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Peter Fonda, Robert Emhardt, Sammy Reese, Charles Seel, June Walker

Synopsis: Alfred Hitchcock inaugurated the tenth and final season of his popular TV suspense anthology by moving from CBS to NBC -- only three years after switching from NBC to CBS. Season ten's initial offering stars a young Dennis Hopper as farm boy Verge Likens, whose father has been killed in a barroom Read More

1964
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Bed of Roses

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Patrick O'Neal, Kathie Browne, George Lindsey, Torin Thatcher, Alice Backes

Synopsis: Newly married to his boss' daughter, George Maxwell (Patrick O'Neal) takes a taxi to the home of his former girlfriend, intending to end the relationship with a huge financial settlement. Alas, when George arrives at the girl's home, he finds that she has been murdered. Cab driver Sam Kirby (George Lindsey Read More

1964
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: The Cadaver

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Michael Parks, Joby Baker, Don Marshall, Ruth McDevitt, Martin Blaine

Synopsis: College football star Skip Baxter (Michael Parks) is in danger of expulsion because of his heavy drinking. Hoping to cure Skip of his booze habit, his prankish roommate, Doc Carroll (Joby Baker), cooks up an elaborate hoax. "Borrowing" a female cadaver from a medical classroom, Doc plants the Read More

1964
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: The Jar

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Pat Buttram, Collin Wilcox, James Best, Slim Pickens, William Marshall

Synopsis: Pat Buttram (he was Mr. Haney on Green Acres) brings a macabre twist to his standard country-bumpkin characterization in this bone-chilling episode. Visiting a traveling carnival, farmer Charlie Hill (Buttram) is fascinated by one of the exhibits: a huge jar, filled with water and mysterious Read More

1964
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Murder Case

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, Murray Matheson, Ben Wright, Brendan Dillon

Synopsis: This episode marks a rare joint appearance by John Cassavetes and his wife, Gena Rowlands. Married to Charles Justin (Murray Matheson), an elderly diamond merchant, young Diana Justin (Rowlands) decides to finance a stage play with her husband's money -- and hires an ex-lover of hers, actor Lee Read More

1964
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: The Star Juror

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Dean Jagger, Will Hutchins, Betty Field, Crahan Denton, Cathy Merchant

Synopsis: Middle-aged shopkeeper George Davies (Dean Jagger) is responsive to the flirtations of local "fast girl" Lola (Cathy Merchant) -- but when Lola mocks him, he strikes her down and accidentally kills the girl. Later on, Lola's boyfriend, J.J. Fenton (Will Hutchins), is arrested for the murder...and Read More

1963
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: A Tangled Web

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Barry Morse, Robert Redford, Zohra Lampert, Gertrude Flynn, Cathleen Cordell

Synopsis: Disowned by his wealthy mother after he runs off with family maid, Maria (Zohra Lampert), young David Chesterman (Robert Redford) seeks advice from an old acquaintance, wigmaker Karl Gault (Barry Morse). Aware that David is a compulsive thief, Karl suggests that they go into business together as Read More

1963
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Death and the Joyful Woman

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Gilbert Roland, Laraine Day, Don Galloway, Laura Devon, Tom Lowell

Synopsis: Hoping to arrange a profitable marriage between his son Al (Don Galloway) and wealthy vineyard owner Kitty Norris (Laura Devon), wine merchant Luis Aguilar (Gilbert Roland) ends up disowning Al when the boy insists upon marrying another girl. Later on, Al's wife becomes pregnant, compelling him to Read More

1963
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Run for Doom

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: John Gavin, Diana Dors, Scott Brady, Carl Benton Reid, Tom Skerritt

Synopsis: Head over heels in love with brassy nightclub singer Niki Carroll (Diana Dors), Dr. Don Reed (John Gavin) intends to marry her despite the objections of his father, Horace Reed (Carl Benton Reid), and Niki's former boyfriend, Bill Floyd (Scott Brady). Even the fact that all three of Niki's former Read More

1963
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Dear Uncle George

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Gene Barry, John Larkin, Patricia Donahue, Dabney Coleman, Lou Jacobi

Synopsis: Gene Barry stars as journalist John Chambers, who under the nom de plume "Uncle George" writes a daily newspaper advice column. One of John's readers is Mrs. Weatherley (Charity Grace), who sends a letter to "Uncle George" telling him that her next-door neighbor is cheating on her husband. Read More

1963