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The One Time Nicholson and Dern Were Stars of Equivalence

posted 3 years ago by ecarle (14979)
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I saw Bob Rafelson's "The King of Marvin Gardens" the other night -- one of those movies that it took literally decades to see. It was a 1972 release -- and I was around in 1972 -- but I just never managed to ever see it til recently.

The film is Rafelson's high-art, low-excitement, rather incoherent follow up to Five Easy Pieces and, I guess, was considered a disappointment after that breakthrough film for the 70's. You ask me, they are BOTH pretty over-arty and pretentious, but that's the kind of filmmaker Bob Rafelson was, and that's the kind of movie his sponsors the "hip" BBS Entertainment wanted to make as the 70's launched. By the 80's, BBS was gone and Rafelson became a wandering has-been, occasionally saved by his friend Jack Nicholson (The Postman Always Rings Twice, Blood and Wine in the 90s.)

But it was the 70's, man, and New Hollywood in all its forms was out to bust up the rules. The Rafelson films were very, VERY arty and gritty and Eurofilm-ish in framing.

Meanwhile, some of the "old guard" were hanging on and winding down (but NOT fading out) in the 70's, and one of them was Alfred Hitchcock. He only made two films in the 70s -- his last before dying in 1980, but one was a comeback and critical hit(the brutal sex psycho thriller Frenzy) and the other was an attempt at non-violent comedy thrills ...Family Plot.

What does Family Plot have to do with The King of Marvin Gardens? Simple...Hitchcock offered the comic hero lead to Jack Nicholson, a very big star, first, and was turned down. Hitchocck ended up giving the lead to Bruce Dern, a lesser barely second tier star. "That's Hollywood."

In The King of Marvin Gardens, Nicholson and Dern are EQUAL stars and...something happened in a mere four years to change that. Nicholson and Dern were pals -- and had done a couple of Robert Corman biker movies in the 60's when Dern was arguably more famous(from his TV villain roles) ...but as one critic wrote, there eventually came a point where NIcholson "accelerated away" in stardom from his friend Dern.

It must have been tough on Dern, but Dern at least got somewhat of a star career in the 70's. The lead in Family Plot. A great "sympathetic villain" part in the big budget blimp thriller "Black Sunday." An Oscar-nominated supporting role to Jane Fonda and Jon Voight in Coming Home.

But...not enough like that for Dern. He ended up making himself a name as a long-lived character guy, still working today (2021) but in old man roles, including an Oscar nominated lead in "Nebraska" and two parts for Tarantino. In 2021, Dern is appearing on the streaming show Goliath with lead Billy Bob Thornton.

Still, you look at Nicholson on screen with Dern in "The King of Marvin Gardens" and you rather think: how come NICHOLSON became the big star? Standing next to each other, we find that Dern is much taller than Nicholson and more strapping, definitely more fit (Nicholson was never much for exercise whereas Dern ran 50 miles a day at a time), and -- in this movie at least, more handsome, not to mention -- here - more robust and charismatic. (But that's on purpose, Nicholson took the quiet, depressed role.)

I suppose it was a matter of acting talent that pushed Nicholson ahead of Dern, but it was also a matter of some luck. Nicholson got key, important films one after another in the early 70's -- Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Carnal Knowledge (right before Marvin Gardens), and after Marvin Gardens(which was a flop)...the Big Ones, all Oscar-nominated: The Last Detail, Chinatown..Cuckoo's Nest.

Bruce Dern simply couldn't land those kinds of leads. He was stuck supporting Robert Redford in The Great Gatsby, or Walter Matthau in The Laughing Policeman. Silent Running and Smile, with Dern in the lead both times, were good, but little seen. And in 1972..the same year he got to star alongside Jack in this movie...Dern shot and killed John Wayne in The Cowboys, in a classic SUPPORTING villain turn. (Wayne thought maybe this hurt Dern's career.)

Hitchcock did well by casting Bruce Dern in Family Plot if he couldn't get Nicholson - he got some of the same energy, the Roger Corman-based countercultural hipness and rather similar line readings and twangs. (Interesting: Family Plot also stars Karen Black from Five Easy Pieces and William Devane rather sounds like Jack Nicholson, too, as the film's villain.)

I recall feeling at the time that Bruce Dern was "low wattage" casting for Family Plot -- that Hitchcock simply couldn't get major American stars anymore. And it was true enough (word is that Al Pacino and Robert Redford were also offered the Family Plot role.)

But all these decades later, Bruce Dern is rather a Gold Standard of Surviving 70's stardom...a bigger deal NOW than he was THEN.

And King of Marvin Gardens shows that -- with a different set of movies and a different seat of career breaks -- Bruce Dern just might have been a bigger star than Jack Nicholson.

Tough town, Hollywood.

[–] telegonus (727) 3 years ago

I'd say that in their respective heydays, Jack Nicholson was always on a faster track than Dern, with whom he was, yes, a good friend. Jack once said in an interview around 1972 that "Bruce Dern is my only competition", which was about right then; and I suppose Marlon Brando could have said same about Montgomery Clift, but Clift was nearer to equal to Brando, and preceded Marlon in Hollywood by a few years, becoming an overnight star with The Search (1948). For some reason Marlon and Monty were linked together by the critics and fan mags. The Jack an Bruce buzz was more inside dope back in the 70s, and not all that widely known. Also, Jack and Bruce had similar, near trailer trash or hillbilly ways of speaking (with Bruce leaning more "Southward", Jack more general Northeast, Great Lakes, or maybe California. As to Dern's survivor-hood (sic), I suspect that daughter Laura has been a factor in this. Nicholson, like Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, remained a name into the New Millennium.

And btw, hi, EC. I hope things are going well with you. I didn't mean to hijack your incipient thread. As to me, my TV watching has been less movies, more classic TV. I've been seeing a lot more of Dabbs Greer, Malcolm Atterbury, Lurene Tuttle, June Dayton, Katherine Squire, John Anderson and Richard Anderson than of Lionels Barrymore or Atwill, Edward Arnold, Fay Bainter, Sydney Greenstreet, Maria Ouspenskaya or Charles Laughton.

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

I'd say that in their respective heydays, Jack Nicholson was always on a faster track than Dern, with whom he was, yes, a good friend.

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I suppose that makes sense, telegonus (and HELLO).

Bruce Dern had perhaps overextended himself in too many "regular" TV Westerns and the like in the sixties, often specializing in hicks and hillbillies that belied his good physical attributes. He's in The War Wagon (1967) and barely gets a scene before John Wayne shoots him dead. There's ANOTHER guy gtanding next to Dern and Kirk Douglas shoots HIM dead. Wayne and Douglas trade quips: "Mine hit the ground first." "Mine was taller." Its like Dern didn't even rate his own death scene.

Meanwhile, Jack generally steered clear of routine TV roles, made a lot of Corman movies (edging from horror to biker to hippie LSD films), made some weird cheapo movie Westerns, etc. Jack stayed "outside" long enough to score when he finally got "inside." He was NEW. Not so, Bruce Dern.

Looking at Dern more closely, tall and muscular he may have been, but his face was too toothy and he gave off a nasal, rodentoid air. Nicholson for his first two decades could play things sexy -- that voice, those eyes and how deeply they looked into women, and how well he understood them. Simply put, Nicholson could play lovers; Dern generally could not.

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

Jack once said in an interview around 1972 that "Bruce Dern is my only competition", which was about right then;

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A nice thing to say, and perhaps Nicholson -- especially once he knew he "had it made" -- wanted to help out his friend.

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and I suppose Marlon Brando could have said same about Montgomery Clift, but Clift was nearer to equal to Brando, and preceded Marlon in Hollywood by a few years, becoming an overnight star with The Search (1948). For some reason Marlon and Monty were linked together by the critics and fan mags.

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There was some argument as to which actor was Method and which was not -- and a few years later James Dean got added into the mix. I think Brando opined in public that he felt Dean was out to copycat Brando. Clift had indeed been there sooner and carved out his own persona. Still, Brando, Clift, and Dean made a mumbling, emotional contrast to say, Grant, Stewart, and Fonda.

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The Jack and Bruce buzz was more inside dope back in the 70s, and not all that widely known.

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I remember it, but I was reading a lot on movies then. Consider this: in 1969, Jack Nicholson got the third lead in Easy Rider. In 1969, Bruce Dern played a comedy outlaw in the James Garner Western spoof, "Support Your Local Sheriff." I guess I have to rest my case on poor Bruce Dern. Try it this way: could Dern have done Chinatown? I dn't think so. But I DO think the rougher guys in The Last Detail and Cuckoo's Nest were in Dern's range.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

Also, Jack and Bruce had similar, near trailer trash or hillbilly ways of speaking (with Bruce leaning more "Southward", Jack more general Northeast, Great Lakes, or maybe California.

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Nice discernment, telegonus!. ANOTHER movie I haven't seen is "Drive, He Said" -- directed by Jack, starring Bruce -- Dern isn't the lead(I"ve read) but is the most recognizable star on screen.

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As to Dern's survivor-hood (sic), I suspect that daughter Laura has been a factor in this.

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Possibly so. She lets daddy Bruce accompany her to some awards shows; and she lets mother Diane Ladd accompany her to others. Keeps them all in "the mix."

I always wondered how Bruce felt when Laura got Jurassic Park -- one of those great big giant blockbusters than he never seemed to get into himself.

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Nicholson, like Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, remained a name into the New Millennium.

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I'd say that all of those guys except Pesci earned and maintained "superstar status" and the group you mentioned were more noted for their acting chops than say, Burt Reynolds(unfairly so, maybe, but there it is -- and BURT knew it, and it bugged him

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

And btw, hi, EC. I hope things are going well with you.

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Yes, they are. And I hope the same for you, Telegonus.

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I didn't mean to hijack your incipient thread.

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You didn't hijack it -- you responded to it! Certainly on Jack and Bruce, but other subjects are welcome.

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As to me, my TV watching has been less movies, more classic TV. I've been seeing a lot more of Dabbs Greer, Malcolm Atterbury, Lurene Tuttle, June Dayton, Katherine Squire, John Anderson and Richard Anderson than of Lionels Barrymore or Atwill, Edward Arnold, Fay Bainter, Sydney Greenstreet, Maria Ouspenskaya or Charles Laughton

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I'll have to stop by and chat with you about some of them. Running out of time here and now.

Dabbs Greer would be fun. Here was a man who name somehow fit his face and manner -- rather like Dub Taylor. And I have no idea WHY.

I shall return...

[–] telegonus (727) 3 years ago

Thanks for all that, EC. I just wrote a near two paragraph response to you and lost both of them due to an infernal machine of a new (yes, 2021 model) computer, a belated Xmas gift from my sister I've had since last summer. It's too fvcking baroque in the way it's designed that I make "accidental" mistakes, lose sentences, words, various punctuation marks and assorted other things on a regular basis, and while it's an elegantly designed lap, it drives me up the wall (and just did again!). The keyboard's too small. I may have to take up the manufacturer's option and send it back for something larger and simpler. I truly miss the days of the quick and easy non-bells and whistles computers of the past. These new-fangled machines, in their ambition to be state of the art are making being on-line infuriating. Things are not getting better in the pc world, not for me; they're getting worse, or worse for me, and I pick up on things quickly. Damn, I don't like using F letter words fifteen times a day, and out loud! More later, maybe.

It's great to see you back. I wish I could reciprocate as well as you express yourself...

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Thanks for all that, EC. I just wrote a near two paragraph response to you and lost both of them due to an infernal machine of a new (yes, 2021 model) computer,

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There is a little animated silent cartoon I've seen on the internet where a male figure loses his post and slams his head down onto his laptop in rage until his head explodes. I have BEEN that cartoon figure...and I'm sorry it happened to you. I would have enjoyed reading thost paragraphs, as always. I hope we get to talk here again.

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It's great to see you back. I wish I could reciprocate as well as you express yourself...

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Well, again, I like reading you too(as I'm sure that others do.)

I do rather like your focus on the actors and actresses of a rapidly fading time. I remember them -- I think part of the issue here is that actors of the thirties , forties and fifties "lived on" via TV in the 60's because "new" movies were NOT shown as often in the 60's -- they could NOT be shown for many years. So us 60's kids grew up on the players of years before -- and met the "new" character people of the 60's as well(Vaughn Taylor, Ed Asner, etc.)

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CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Back to Dabbs Greer. From what I've read, ol' Dabbs big claim to fame was on "Little House on the Prarie," a show I never watched (too old, not a girl) but which many of the women in my life seemed to know by heart(they were often younger than me.)

I recall Dabbs from these three outings:

House of Wax: That wonderful old "semi-shocker" in 3-D from Warners in 1953, big on 60's local TV. Vinnie Price is our elegant villain with the great fire-burned face under all that wax; Phyillis Kirk is the sexy lady he tries to en-waxen at the end(she is clearly NUDE under the straps on his torture slab, though nothing can be seen; its all in the imagination.) Paul Picierni is the handsome young cop out to save Phyllis -- and Dabbs Greer is Picierni's sidekick/cop partner, who, as I recall helps fight Price's henchman -- played by Charles Bronson! (When he was known as Charles Buchowsky.) The "sidekick" role was always one I could relate to in movies. Dabbs Greer is a good sidekick here.

IT The Terror Beyond Space: This 1958 SciFi horror movie gets a lot of credit for inspiring Alien -- same basic plot: a small group of space explorers trapped on their spaceship with a monster that likes to kill and suck the blood out of his victims. So what if IT is a guy in a rubber suit -- he was a SCARY guy in a rubber suit, with a really scary FACE, and when he chased down and killed his victims, it scared this kid pretty bad. (I recall one surviving spaceman trapped and blocked off in a corner reporting to his colleagues over the radio about IT after killing a victim -- "He's just over there, lickin' his chops." Lickin' his chops. Like after a MEAL.

Anyway, Dabbs Greer is one of the spacemen and I recall that IT attacks him. I can't remember if IT kills him or not -- but it was hurtful to watch sweet-faced ol'Dabbs Greer get ripped up by that ugly-faced IT man.

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

The Green Mile. This 1999 big studio production surprised me when Dabbs Greer appears in the firet and final minutes of the film -- I thought he was dead!

Its an important role - Greer is playing leading man Tom Hanks as a very old man, so as to flashback the main story. Hanks himself evidently shot these scenes in old man make-up but it was deemed too "fake looking" to work, so Dabbs Greer was brought in and now we know...

...when Tom Hanks is 90 years old...he's gonna look like Dabbs Greer!

[–] telegonus (727) 2 years ago

Ha Ha. I'd like to see Tom at 90. But aging is a tricky business, isn't it? I was still getting carded in liquor stores at 38. When I was in junior high I had a six foot plus giant of a friend who was buying and smoking cigars, bought smokes for me (and, literally parenthetically, I'm so glad that smoking has become unhip; and yes, always exceptions, especially in rural-small town places). This is a real medical miracle, and I thank God for it. Much as I love and enjoy classic film and television, there's no going back. Every time I see Bogie or Bette lighting up I see years falling away from their lifetimes).

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Ha Ha. I'd like to see Tom at 90.

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We might have the chance. Will he look like Dabbs Greer?

There have been some columns where they take photos of actors when they were young and "made up in old age" (Orson Welles in Citizen Kane, James Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) and then compared to them at that REAL old age. Rarely matches.

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But aging is a tricky business, isn't it?

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Yes it is. Bette Davis said "Getting old ain't for sissies," but she's from long ago, a smoker as I recall.

I like finding older peers around Moviechat(mainly a venue for much younger people), but I think we can and all should fight aging. I was talking elsewhere about all these movie stasrs and directors who are going strong in their 70's, 80s, 90s...OK, they are richer than us with health food and personal trainers, etc -- but they still tell us: plenty of life left. Unless that old devil COVID gets you.

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I was still getting carded in liquor stores at 38.

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"Age is just a number."

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When I was in junior high I had a six foot plus giant of a friend who was buying and smoking cigars, bought smokes for me (and, literally parenthetically, I'm so glad that smoking has become unhip; and yes, always exceptions, especially in rural-small town places).

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I haven't seen the numbers, but it does seem that the message got through about cancer and smoking. Many dropped it, a lot never took it up and -- among those who stick with it, they seem to have made their life choice and...I'm not going to attack them. Life is hard. Some people don't particularly care how early they leave....and some survive on into their 80s, 90s as smokers.

Still, I saw too many older friends and relatives die from it.

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CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

This is a real medical miracle, and I thank God for it. Much as I love and enjoy classic film and television, there's no going back. Every time I see Bogie or Bette lighting up I see years falling away from their lifetimes).

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Bogart died a horrible death from smoking ...at age 57.

And I've always thought of this: Bogart and Alfred Hitchcock were both born the same year(1899) If HITCHCOCK had died at 57, we would have lost these movies he made from then on:

Vertigo
North by Northwest
Psycho
The Birds

Massive classics, all, and some were very big hits.

We would have also lost five lesser regarded films, minus one late-breaking hit he made at age 72(Frenzy.)

So...think of all the great Bogart performances we lost...

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Interesting: even as a smoker, Bette Davis lived pretty long, didn't she?

Interesting in a different way: Bogart died at 57. Gable at 59(heart attack.) Cooper around 60(cancer.) I can't recall if Cooper smoked, or if that kind of cancer killed him. Did Gable smoke? Does not smoking impact the heart?

My point. Once our movies stars cut out smoking, most of them lived into their 70's and 80's, and into their 90s(Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman and William Shatner, OK he's TV.)

I know that Tyrone Power died of a heart attack while filming a swordfight with George Sanders in Solomon and Sheba(Yul Brynner replaced him; there are photos of Sanders fighting Power AND Brynner, side by side.)

But Power was only 44. I don't know if he smoked or drank to excess, but it sounds like there were other physical problems with him.

That said, Walter Matthau had a non-fatal heart attack at 45 while filming The Fortune Cookie(1966). Smoking and drinking contributed, as did the high stress of his gambling habit. I think he dropped smokes only. But he lived on to 80.

[–] Otter (24464) 2 years ago

Nicholson had a few things that Dern didn't - a sense of humor and sex appeal for starters.

Seriously, Nicholson has absolutely tremendous range as an actor, he can do comedy and drama, he can play fun sexy guys and frightening villains, he can play bad boys and weenies, he can ham it up or play someone totally repressed, he can play a lover or a fighter. Not all his performances are good, but he usually finds a way to appeal to the audience whether he's doing great work or just hamming it up for a paycheck, there's a reason he's had a major career.

I liked Dern back in the day, largely because of a sci-fi movie called "Silent Running" that used to be shown on TV a lot, but the guy didn't seem to have a lot of range. He usually plays guys who are unhappy or angry, I don't recall him every playing comedy or a fun guy. There were a lot of roles for angry/unhappy guys in gritty seventies films so he had his moment, and he's worked every since so he's really done very well for himself, but if Nicholson did better there's a reason.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Nicholson had a few things that Dern didn't - a sense of humor and sex appeal for starters.

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Both true. It was funny about Dern -- he was a very fit, tall and strapping man in his heyday -- but that doesn't necessarily equate to sex appeal.

In Hitchcock's (modest) final film, Family Plot, he has Dern play an entire scene with his shirt off -- sitting at a kitchen table, with his very pretty girlfriend(Barbara Harris) standing by him. But he's on the phone bickering with his cab company boss, and he is arguing with Harris after the call and Hitchcock seems to be saying: it doesn't MATTER that this guy looks good with his shirt off. He's too angry and too much of a jerk. He also has the shirtless Dern SLUMP and thus lose his firm look.

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Seriously, Nicholson has absolutely tremendous range as an actor, he can do comedy and drama, he can play fun sexy guys and frightening villains, he can play bad boys and weenies, he can ham it up or play someone totally repressed, he can play a lover or a fighter.

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Yep. Range. In "Marvin Gardens," he generally plays quiet and weak and repressed. Though near the end , he does some of his classic raging. But Dern is rather the same here, all the time. Stlll -- as per my OP -- this feels like the only time Dern got a starring role of some equivalence to "someone like" Nicholson. Dern got leads in Silent Running, Smile, and Family Plot, but they were not major films(not even the Hitchcock one.) His biggest movie of the period is probably Black Sunday where he's such a nutcase villain, you are impressed, but not necessarily feeling "star empathy."

CONT

[–] telegonus (727) 2 years ago

Yes, as to Black Sunday, but his meltdown was fabulous, all Dern, and it reminded me of some people I've known with similar disposition, particularly an art teacher who often seemed on the verge of madness but never, so for as I heard, never went all the way over the top.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Not all (Jack's) performances are good, but he usually finds a way to appeal to the audience whether he's doing great work or just hamming it up for a paycheck, there's a reason he's had a major career.

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A VERY major career. He's 11 years retired now(without saying so), but that 70s-2010s run had him at the very top for the whole run. He once said "on the movie star list, I'm usually about Number Three -- which gives me all the power I need. " And those Number Ones were sometimes people like Burt Reynolds and Sly Stallone and Jim Carrey -- Nichoslon survived.

Nicholson offered others reasons for his longevity : (1) He selected the best material he could find(he turned down MANY famous roles like Lex Luthor and Hannibal Lecter; (2) He worked with the best people (unlike Clint Eastwood, who rarely worked with other directors, or Burt Reynolds and Scharzenegger, who sometimes had to settle for lesser ones) he didn't make a movie every year(though he came close) and (per his mentor, director John Huston) "never make a movie that doesn't matter."

How movie stars get their power(usually one or two first big hits -- Risky Business/Top Gun; Pretty Woman/Sleeping with the Enemy) , and how they keep their power (Nicholson lasted where Elliott Gould and George Segal did not) is an interesting study, but it doesn't really track with how us civiilans make a living. Immortality, vast wealth, fame -- limitless sex -- movie stars get a lot of payback for their talent.

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

I liked Dern back in the day, largely because of a sci-fi movie called "Silent Running" that used to be shown on TV a lot,

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A true "cult classic" that got further respect as one of the few movies right after 2001 to take SciFi "seriously."

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but the guy didn't seem to have a lot of range.

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I guess not.

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He usually plays guys who are unhappy or angry,

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I was going to say that he played a "happy hero" in Hitchcock's Family Plot -- he's definitely not the villain -- but indeed he's often angry at his girlfriend Barbara Harris(and she is always arguing with him) and even though they show some affection for each other, they really don't work as a romantic couple. After he has saved her life at the end, Dern doesn't even kiss her at the fade out.

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I don't recall him every playing comedy or a fun guy.

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Some comedy in Family Plot. But he's not very fun. With that sneering voice and big toothed grin, he could make you laugh -- like when he says to John Wayne in The Cowboys about Wayne's young charges: "You know what you need to handle these kids -- a baby carriage" -- but not "fun." Its hard to think what would have worked for him-- how about Elliott Gould's shambling private eye role in "The Long Goodbye?" But edgy instead of sleepy and deadpan.

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There were a lot of roles for angry/unhappy guys in gritty seventies films so he had his moment,

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Yes. He got good reviews for his troubled Vietnam Vet and POW in Black Sunday -- he made a cliché role into something sad and harrowing -- a man who whines and cries and whimpers and THEN commits to massacring 1000s of people at the Super Bowl. And then roughly the same guy (minus the murders) in Coming Home. It was his moment, but stardom was brief.

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CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

and (Dern's) worked ever since so he's really done very well for himself, but if Nicholson did better there's a reason.

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Yep, there a reason why Nicholson -- and DeNiro and Pacino, and for awhile pre metoo, Hoffman, and Hackman and Eastwood -- came and became stars. And there's a reason Bruce Dern did not.

But Dern "made his name" and all these years later, he's working when Nicholson and Hackman are not. Those two were offered "Nebraska" first -- Dern THEN got the great "old man" part.

Note: I recall seeing this on a marquee in 1973: "Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern in The Laughing Policeman."
I thought: "Bruce Dern...OVER the title? They think he's a STAR, now?" I wasn't convinced, but I was willing to try. I later read that Dern gave up some of his pay to get his name above the title in that movie -- smart move.

[–] telegonus (727) 2 years ago

Good career move for Dern, and a good movie, too. He seems best when he's in extreme pain, as when he (literally) shakes off his mortal coil in Hush, Hush...Sweet Charlotte. When I watch that now it feels like the REAL Bruce Dern. Yet he missed out on so many good parts back in the 60's, when he was in his element. Imagine him in any number of roles in Flight Of The Phoenix, The Dirty Dozen or the low budget subway Noir The Incident, in which he could have played nearly any of the male roles but Beau Bridges' wounded war veteran.