Jeff Bridges, An Actor With A Long Beautiful Unrestricted Acting Career Won An Academy Award For Best Actor For His Performance  As Bad Blake In The Film, Crazy Heart.

Could  he  have been nominated for professional acting longevity?  Yes, he  could  have, because his performances have, individually  been very authentic.  But, he didn’t need to win it for a ‘sum of the acting parts’… This one, in Crazy Heart, was that specific, deep,  seamless, real. An Oscar winning performance, for a solidly Oscar-able actor.

Oh! Thank you, Academy members! Mom and dad, yeah, look! Whoo!

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for turning me on to such a groovy profession. Oh, my dad and my mom, they loved show biz so much. I remember my mom, getting all of us kids to entertain at her parties. You know, my dad sitting me on his bed and teaching me all of the basics of acting for a role in Sea Hunt.

They loved show biz so much and I feel an extension of them. You know, this, this is honoring them as much as it is me. I wanna, I wanna thank Scott Cooper, our wonderful director, for his knowledge of film and country music and for his ability to instill self-confidence in his actors. I thank you for that. Scott, where are you? Raise your hand, man. Yeah! Scotty! Thank you for that, Scott man! And thank you for assembling such a wonderful cast. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin, wherever he is backstage. And Bobby Duvall, so wonderful you guys brought your heart and soul. I want to thank Barry Markowitz, our wonderful DP, he did such a brilliant job. Judy Cairo, our producer, and Fox Searchlight, our wonderful, our wonderful distributor. Thank you guys for keeping us all together and for making it all happen. T Bone Burnett and Stephen Bruton for bringing all of that great music and those wonderful musicians to the party, man.

My wonderful team that’s kept me together. Jean Sievers, David Schiff, Rick Kurtzman, CAA, Bob Wallerstein, Loyd Catlett, Tarra Day and Roger Love, man.

Thank you, guys. And I especially want to thank my gorgeous wife, Sue, we’ve been married 33 years. We have a beautiful family. Three girls, Isabelle, Jessie and Hayley. Thank you, guys. I wouldn’t be up here without you. Thank you so much.

More about this actor, and the Oscar-winning acting performances, at Dana Kaminski’s year-round column: Hollywood Actor Prep.