Profile of Brad Dourif on Famous Like Me

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 5 siblings (3 sisters and 2 brothers) From 1963-1965, 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. 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 Milos 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 Milos 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.

Filmography

(not in order)

• Heaven's Gate
• Mississippi Burning
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers as Grima Wormtongue
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King as Grima Wormtongue
• Ragtime
• Alien: Resurrection as Dr. Gediman
• Death Machine as Dante
• Escape to Witch Mountain
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as Billy Bibbit
• Dune as the mentat Piter De Vries
• Blue Velvet
• Senseless
• The Exorcist III
• Child's Play as the voice of Chucky
• Urban Legend
• Wise Blood

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