Beau Bridges is an award-winning actor whose illustrious career spans more than seven decades. He is set to return for Season 3 of CBS’s acclaimed legal drama Matlock, starring opposite Kathy Bates, where he portrays Howard “Senior” Markston.

Bridges has built an extraordinary body of work across film, television, and stage, earning multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Awards, as well as a Grammy Award. He has received 14 Emmy Award nominations throughout his career, including a win for Best Supporting Actor for HBO’s The Second Civil War (1997). He also earned both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (1993), and won an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Cable ACE Award for his leading role in HBO’s Without Warning: The James Brady Story (1991). 

His extensive television credits include Showtime’s Homeland, Amazon’s Goliath, Netflix’s Messiah and Bloodline, Showtime’s Masters of Sex, ABC’s award-winning comedy Black-ish, OWN’s Greenleaf, Apple TV+’s Lessons in Chemistry, Comedy Central’s Robbie, HBO’s interactive series Mosaic, CBS’ The Millers, and the Disney animated series Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero, on which he voiced Sheriff Scaley Briggs. He also starred on Broadway in the musical comedy How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

On the big screen, Bridges’s notable credits include Alexander Payne’s Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning The Descendants (2011), Bill Pohland’s Dreamin’ Wild (2022), Regina King’s award-winning One Night in Miami (2020), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Jerry Maguire (1996), Norma Rae (1979), The Hotel New Hampshire (1984), The Other Side of the Mountain (1975), Heart Like a Wheel (1983), Sordid Lives (2000), The Landlord (1970), and The Neon Highway (2024). For his performance in The Fabulous Baker Boys, opposite his brother Jeff Bridges, he was honored by the National Society of Film Critics with the award for Best Supporting Actor.

Bridges has also collaborated with multiple generations of his family throughout his career. He starred alongside his father, Lloyd Bridges, and son, Dylan Bridges, in The Sandkings (1995), the two-hour film that launched Showtime’s long-running series The Outer Limits, earning him an Emmy nomination. He also directed Secret Sins of the Father (1994), starring his father Lloyd and son Jordan, as well as The Thanksgiving Promise (1986), which became one of Disney’s highest-rated television films at the time. His after-school special Don’t Touch (1985) received an Emmy nomination.

A lifelong basketball enthusiast, Bridges played basketball at UCLA under legendary coach John Wooden and later portrayed Wooden in the one-man play Coach: An Evening with John Wooden at Theatre Aspen’s Solo Flights Festival.

In addition to his work as an actor, Bridges is an accomplished narrator and voice performer. He won a Grammy Award for his narration of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (2006) and lent his voice to the Academy Award-nominated documentary Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience (2007).

On the TCM Classic Cruise, real-life father and daughter Beau Bridges and director/co-writer Emily Bridges will introduce their award-winning film, Acting: The First Six Lessons (2022) inspired by the book of the same name written by Richard Boleslavsky in 1933. A hybrid of documentary and narrative storytelling, the film features three generations of the Bridges acting family: Lloyd, Dorothy, Beau, Jeff, Lucinda, Jordan and Emily. Beau and Emily Bridges portray an acting teacher and his student, whom he calls The Creature, over the course of six meetings spanning a decade of friendship. Between each of these “lessons,” interviews with members of the Bridges family reflect on Boleslavsky’s book and how it affected their approach to life and their craft.

The Semkhor/Casada Film production Acting: The First Six Lessons was written by Emily Bridges and Beau Bridges and produced by David Shapiro, Emily Bridges, Beau Bridges, and Casey Bridges.

Beyond entertainment, Bridges has been actively involved in environmental and youth-focused organizations. He previously served on the board of the Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to environmental protection, and currently serves on the board of World Youth Clubs, an international organization committed to providing positive environments and safe spaces for young people around the world.

Bridges has five adult children—Casey, Jordan, Dylan, Emily, and Zeke—and resides in the Los Angeles area with his wife, Wendy.