Bruce Dern

Bruce MacLeish Dern (born June 4, 1936) is an American actor, often playing supporting villainous characters of unstable nature. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Coming Home (1978) and the Academy Award for Best Actor for Nebraska (2013). His other film appearances include The Cowboys (1972), Black Sunday (1977), Monster (2003), and The Hateful Eight (2015).

Early life
Dern was born in Chicago, the son of Jean (née MacLeish) (1908-1972) and John Dern (1903-1958), a utility chief and attorney. He grew up in Kenilworth, Illinois. His paternal grandfather, George, was a former 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, his maternal granduncle was poet Archibald MacLeish, and his maternal great-grandfather was Scottish-born businessman Andrew MacLeish. Dern's godfather was former Illinois governor and two-time presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson II. His ancestry includes Dutch, English, Irish, German and Scottish. He attended The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) and the University of Pennsylvania. He starred in the Philadelphia premiere of Waiting for Godot.

Career
Dern appeared in an uncredited role 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 for Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie. Dern played a murderous rustler in Clint Eastwood's Hang 'Em High and a gunfighter in Support Your Local Sheriff!. He also played Asa Watts, a serial killer of Wil Andersen in The Cowboys (1972). John Wayne warned Dern, "America will hate you for this." and Dern replied, "Yeah, but they'll love me in Berkeley".

He played a psychotic Goodyear Blimp pilot who launches a terrorist attack at the Super Bowl in Black Sunday. 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. 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.

Personal life
Dern was married to Marie Dawn Pierce from 1957 to 1959. He then married Diane Ladd in 1960. Their first daughter, Diane Elizabeth Dern (born November 29, 1960), died at eighteen months from head injuries after falling into a swimming pool on May 18, 1962. The couple's second daughter, Laura, is also an actress. They received their stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 1, 2010. After his divorce from Ladd in 1969, Dern married Andrea Beckett.