Talent Guide
Bruce Dern
![](https://www.filmindependent.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Bruce_Dern.png)
- Discipline:Director
- Program Year:Fast Track 2008
Bio
Through decades of critically acclaimed performances, Bruce Dern has acquired the reputation of being one of the most talented and prolific actors of his generation. A celebrated stage actor, Dern was trained by famed director Elia Kazan at The Actor’s Studio and made his film debut in Kazan’s Wild River. In the 1960s Dern also found success as a distinguished television actor, appearing in contemporary Western TV series as well as Alfred Hitchcock’s television series. Hitchcock was such a fan of Dern that he cast him in both Marnie and Family Plot. He received critical accolades for films such as They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? and Drive, He Said, and went down in history for his role as Long Hair in The Cowboys, in which he became the first man ever to kill John Wayne. Dern then starred in such classic films as The King of Marvin Gardens with Jack Nicholson and Ellen Burstyn, and played Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. It was his brilliant and powerful performance in Hal Ashby’s Coming Home that earned him both Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. Dern co-starred with Charlize Theron in Monster and can currently be seen onthe HBO series Big Love.