Jeff Bridges Reveals Cancer Battle during Filming of ‘The Old Man’

Jeff Bridges is a generational favorite, beloved for several roles during his career.

It seemed clear that something was just slightly different or off about Bridges in recent years, and he just revealed what it was… Bridges was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2020.

‘The Old Man’

Jeff Bridges’ ideal pocket in the acting world always seemed to be playing a cowboy, a cop, or someone really flakey, like he did in “The Big Lebowski.” “The Old Man” seemed like a perfect role for Bridges, as it had a little bit of all that.

Bridges was cast as Dan Chase, a Vietnam veteran and former CIA operative who kills a man for breaking into his home.

Chase is forced into hiding, with an old friend tasked with tracking down and apprehending Chase. Bridges was excellent in the role, but it also took a toll.

Bridges revealed that during the filming of the show, he had been diagnosed with blood cancer as well as having a large stomach tumor. Only months before the diagnosis, Bridges was filming scenes for the show where he took some heavy shots to the stomach, surely aggravating the situation more so than it already was.

The Diagnosis

Bridges revealed that when he was shooting those scenes, he kind of knew something was off. He stated, "God, looking back on those, I really winced because I didn't know it at the time, but I had a 9 by 12-inch tumor in my stomach — 9 by 12 inch! — while I'm getting smacked around and punched in the stomach and stuff. Didn't hurt. There was no pain. But then I had this long hiatus [from filming]."

The problems did not stop there for Bridges. During his chemotherapy treatments, he also contracted COVID. He explained, "While I was sick, I thought I not only wouldn't go back to ‘The Old Man,’ I thought I might just kick the bucket. It got down to that. I remember one doctor said, 'You got to fight, Jeff. You're not fighting.'

"And I had no idea what he was talking about. I was in surrender mode, just, ‘Everybody dies. This might be me doing that.’ And out of that surrender, like I say, all of this intense love surfaced, and maybe that's what caused me to survive, I don't know. But I didn't relate to the fighting thing, more of a surrendering."

Thankfully, the tumor has reduced in size, and his overall health is much better these days. Bridges explained, "I don't know the exact size of it. I get MRIs and all that down the line, but my oncologist says, ‘You're looking good, man.’ And I get all my blood tests and everything and everything's going real well."

An Amazing Career

While Bridges' acting career got started in 1951, it was only a small uncredited role. He really hit the ground in 1958, landing a small recurring role on “Sea Hunt.” He floundered around for a few years after that role, but he really seemed to gain grip in the late 1960s, which is when he started to land some decent movie roles.

I was just a kid at the time, but the first movie I remember seeing Bridges in was “The Last American Hero” in 1973. During this stage of his career, Bridges got very comfortable doing westerns and some offbeat characters. Then, in 1982, he played Kevin Flynn in one of my favorite movies of the time, “Tron.”

From that point forward, Bridges was a hot commodity, appearing in “Against All Odds,” “Jagged Edge,” “The Fabulous Baker Boys,” and “The Vanishing.” His hot streak continued in the 1990s, appearing in “White Squall” and, of course, “The Big Lebowski.” Bridges won me back over as a fan in the remake of “True Grit” in 2010, and I thought he was hilarious in “R.I.P.D.” in 2013.

As I noted above, going back to the “Bad Times at the El Royale” in 2018, I just thought something was off about Bridges, and now we know. Hopefully, he will be okay because I am sure he still has a few more blockbuster performances to deliver.