Lloyd Bridges brought a gravelly voice and a straight actor's seriousness to comedy. We particularly value his willingness to look unsure of himself: the authority is convincing enough for its failures to be funny.
Fi1m perspective
In Airplane (1980), Lloyd Bridges' Steve McCroskey addresses an emergency as though sensible behaviour might still get everyone through it. The confidence is less secure than he would like it to sound. Leslie Nielsen's Dr Rumack gives foolish dialogue the weight of a medical opinion; Bridges lets more doubt into his delivery, making McCroskey seem less capable than the emergency requires. We laughed because Bridges keeps trying to make him sound dependable even when his command looks shaky. He plays the difficulty of the job and leaves us to recognise the absurdity.
That seriousness had been useful long before the comedies. His early film work included war pictures and Westerns, with High Noon (1952) giving him the supporting role of Deputy Marshal Harvey Pell. Fred Zinnemann keeps Gary Cooper's frightened marshal at the centre, with Bridges effective in the smaller part of a conflicted deputy. We would send anyone curious about his dramatic work to this before treating the later comedies as the whole story.
Television then made a different demand on him. As underwater investigator Mike Nelson in Sea Hunt (1958–1961), he carried an adventure series and performed many of his own underwater stunts. The physical effort deserves credit, though the formulaic, repetitive episodes are a reason to be selective. The programme helped fix him in the public mind as a capable man of action, giving the later comedies an established image to work against.
Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker give him the right conditions in Airplane: the performers keep treating the emergency seriously, even when the writing scarcely deserves their help. Some of the wordplay is painfully corny, and deadpan delivery cannot make every weak joke a good one. Bridges nevertheless suits this method because McCroskey's uncertain command gives him something to play beyond simply keeping a straight face. His turn as Admiral Benson in Hot Shots (1991) continued the move into broad comedy. Start with High Noon, then watch Airplane while his earlier seriousness is still fresh.
Biography
Lloyd Bridges (1913–1998) was an American actor who appeared in more than 150 feature films and starred in several television series. He began his screen career under contract to Columbia Pictures in the early 1940s and later gained prominence on television as Mike Nelson in the syndicated series Sea Hunt (1958–1961).
Bridges is also known for his later comedic roles, including air traffic controller Steve McCroskey in Airplane! (1980) and its sequel Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), as well as Admiral Benson in Hot Shots! (1991). He was the father of actors Beau Bridges and Jeff Bridges.
