Early life[edit]
Dern was born in Chicago, the son of Jean (née MacLeish; 1908–1972) and John Dern (1903–1958), a utility chief and attorney.[3][4] He grew up in Kenilworth, Illinois.[5] His paternal grandfather, George, was a Utah governor and Secretary of War (he was serving in the latter position during the time of Bruce's birth). Dern's maternal grandfather was a chairman of the Carson, Pirie and Scott stores,[6][7] which were established by his own father, Scottish-born businessman Andrew MacLeish. Dern's maternal granduncle was poet Archibald MacLeish. His godfather was Illinois governor and two-time presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson II.[8] His ancestry includes Dutch, English, German and Scottish. He attended New Trier High School and the University of Pennsylvania. A lifelong avid runner, he was a track star in high school and sought to qualify for the United States Olympic trials in 1956.[1]
Career[edit]
Dern starred on stage in the Philadelphia premiere of Waiting for Godot before heading to Hollywood. He appeared in an uncredited role in 1960 in Wild River as Jack Roper, who is so upset with his friend for hitting a woman that he punches himself. He played the sailor in a few flashbacks with Marnie's mother in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie. Dern played a murderous rustler in Clint Eastwood's Hang 'Em High and a gunfighter in the western spoof Support Your Local Sheriff!. He played cattle thief Asa Watts, who murders John Wayne's character in The Cowboys (1972). Wayne warned Dern, "America will hate you for this." Dern replied, "Yeah, but they'll love me in Berkeley." Having played a series of villains, that same year he played against type as a sensitive ecologist in the science-fiction film Silent Running.
Through the 1970s, he appeared in a variety of co-starring or supporting roles including the 1974 adaptation of The Great Gatsby, 1975's Posse, directed by and co-starring Kirk Douglas, and reuniting with Hitchcock for 1976's Family Plot, the legendary filmmaker's final film.
He played a vengeful Vietnam War veteran who uses his job as a Goodyear Blimp pilot to launch a massive terrorist attack at the Super Bowl in 1977's Black Sunday. In 1981 he starred in Tattoo, as an increasingly deranged tattoo artist who develops an obsession with a model. Dern was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Coming Home. In 1983, he won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 33rd Berlin International Film Festival for That Championship Season.[9] In 2013, Dern won the Best Actor Award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for Alexander Payne's Nebraska, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.[10][11]
Personal life[edit]
Dern was married to Marie Dawn Pierce from 1957 to 1959.[12] He then married Diane Ladd in 1960.[13] Their first daughter, Diane Elizabeth Dern (born November 29, 1960), died at 18 months from head injuries after falling into a swimming pool on May 18, 1962.[13] The couple's second daughter, Laura[13] (born February 10, 1967), is also an actress. After his divorce from Ladd in 1969, Dern married Andrea Beckett.
Dern, Ladd, and their daughter Laura received adjoining stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 1, 2010.