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Bradford Claude Dourif (born March 18, 1950 in Huntington, West Virginia) is
an American actor with a popular reputation for playing deranged or
unbalanced character roles.
His father owned and operated a dye factory, and died when Brad was 3. His
mother remarried champion golfer Bill Campbell, who helped raise Brad and
his five siblings (three sisters and two brothers). From 1963 to 1965, Brad
attended Aiken Preparatory School in Aiken, South Carolina. There he pursued
his interests in art and acting. Although he briefly considered becoming an
artist, he eventually settled on the path to becoming an actor.
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This was inspired by his mother's participation as an actress in a community
theater.
Starting in school productions, he progressed to community theater, joining
up with the Huntington Community Players, while attending Marshall
University of Huntington. At age 19, he quit his hometown college and headed
to New York City, where he worked with the Circle Repertory Company. During
the early 1970s, Brad appeared in a number of plays, off-Broadway and at
Woodstock, New York, including 'The Ghost Sonata', 'The Doctor in Spite of
Himself' and 'When You Comin' Back, Red Rider?', in which he was spotted by
director Miloš Forman who cast him in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
(1975).
Although this film is frequently cited as his film debut, in fact, Dourif
made his first big-screen appearance with a bit part in W.W. and the Dixie
Dancekings (1975). Nevertheless, his portrayal of the vulnerable Billy
Bibbit in Forman's film was undoubtedly his big break, earning him a Golden
Globe (Best Actor Debut) and a British Academy Award (Supporting Actor): he
was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Skeptical
of his instant stardom, Dourif returned to New York, where he continued in
theater and taught acting and directing classes at Columbia University until
1988 when he moved to Hollywood.
Despite his attempts to avoid typecasting, his intensity destined him to
play demented, deranged, or disturbed characters, starting in Eyes of Laura
Mars (1978), John Huston's Wise Blood (1979), and Miloš Forman's Ragtime
(1981). Brad then teamed up with director David Lynch for Dune (1984) and
Blue Velvet (1986).
His high-strung style also served him well in a number of horror films,
notably as the voice of the evil doll Chucky in Child's Play (1988) and its
sequels. Brad broke from the horror genre with roles in Fatal Beauty (1987),
Mississippi Burning (1988), Hidden Agenda (1990), and London Kills Me
(1991). He is memorable for his role as Grima Wormtongue in Peter Jackson's
Lord of the Rings movies.
On television, Dourif appeared in the Babylon 5 episode "Passing Through
Gethsemane", in the early X-Files episode "Beyond the Sea", and in Oliver
Stone's Wild Palms. He played Lon Suder, a murdering psychopath who
eventually redeems himself, from a three-episode story arc on Star Trek:
Voyager. He appeared as the villain Saavedro in Myst III: Exile (2001), the
third game in the popular Myst franchise. He plays Doc Cochran in the HBO
series Deadwood.
He was formerly married to psychic businesswoman Joni Dourif and is the
uncle of Nat Friedman. |
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BRAD DOURIF PICTURES |
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