Bruce Dern

Dern was born in Chicago on June 4, 1936, the son of Jean (née MacLeish; 1908–1972) and John Dern (1903–1958), a utility chief and attorney. He grew up in Kenilworth, Illinois. His paternal grandfather, George Dern, was a Utah governor and Secretary of War (he was serving in the latter position at the time of Bruce's birth). Dern's maternal grandfather was a Vice President of the Carson, Pirie and Scott stores, Dern graduated from New Trier High School, where he was a track star and sought to qualify for the Olympic Trials in 1956. Dern attended the University of Pennsylvania, but dropped out after two years. Dern studied alongside Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, New York City. ==Career==

He starred with Lyle Kessler in the Philadelphia premiere of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, and starred with Paul Newman and Geraldine Page in the original Broadway run of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth. and a murdered lover in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte. Over the next few decades, Dern played a Vietnam veteran and neighborhood survivalist in Joe Dante's suburban satire ''The 'Burbs'', In Alexander Payne's film Nebraska, Dern played a resident believing he has won a million dollars, and undertakes a road trip from Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska to get the prize. He won the Best Actor Award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Directors and craft In the course of his long and prolific career, Dern collaborated with film directors, including Walter Hill (The Driver, In an interview with Josh Olson and Joe Dante for the podcast series The Movies That Made Me, and while discussing his career, Dern cited the films of David Lean (specifically, Lawrence of Arabia, Great Expectations and The Bridge on the River Kwai), as among the films that inspired him. When asked if he has ever contemplated retirement, Dern said: "If you think I'm gonna retire so Jimmy fucking Caan can get another part from me, you're dead wrong. Because I'm gonna go till I'm 100. My goal is to do stuff with older characters that people never got the chance to do, because they never lived long enough... And because I don't have anything else I can do." ==Personal life==

Dern was married to Marie Dawn Pierce from 1957 to 1959. He married Diane Ladd in 1960. Their first daughter died from head injuries after falling into a swimming pool in 1962 at 18 months old. The couple's second daughter is actress Laura Dern, born in 1967. After his divorce from Ladd, Dern married Andrea Beckett in 1969. Dern has been an avid runner his whole life. In high school, he recorded a half-mile best time of 1:55.8, and he later was on the track team at the University of Pennsylvania. He said that between the ages of 28 and 70 he ran between 2,500 and 4,000 miles per year. In the 1986 film On the Edge, he played a runner seeking redemption in a contest based on the Dipsea Race, and the 1978 film Coming Home both begins and ends with scenes of Dern running. In a 2014 interview at age 77, he said he still ran nearly every day, albeit more slowly. ==Filmography==

Film Television Video games ==Awards and nominations==