THE Dude abides isn’t just a slogan for a T-shirt – it could easily describe the impact of cult classic The Big Lebowski.
The Coen Brothers’ 1998 film about a slacker called Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski, who is mistaken for a millionaire of the same name, has more than stood the test of time as it celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.
Jeff Bridges and John Goodman were the stars of The Big Lebowski
But the past quarter of a century has not been so kind to many of the cast.
Its star Jeff Bridges, who played the long-haired Dude out to avenge the damage done to his rug, nearly died from cancer and Covid a couple of years ago.
Actors from the film have suffered alcoholism, a nervous breakdown, a plastic surgery disaster, divorces and one died from a drug overdose.
Jeff Bridges – Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski
Jeff Bridges as The Dude and at an awards ceremony this year
The Oscar-winning actor shocked fans two and a half years ago when he announced he was being treated for cancer.
He then contracted Covid-19 during his chemotherapy and came “pretty close to dying.”
But thanks to the support of his wife Susan Getson and their three daughters, Isabelle, 41, Jessica, 39, and Haley, 37, he managed to pull through in September 2021.
The star of True Grit and Crazy Heart is now in remission with his tumour having shrunk.
Jeff, 73, was fit enough to resume making a TV series called The Old Man, which had to shut down due to both the coronavirus lockdown and his illness.
John Goodman – Walter Sobchak
John Goodman as Walter and at a talk last year
The much-loved star of Roseanne almost wrecked his career with drink and drugs.
The 70-year-old actor said: “I’ve made it more stressful by drinking and using drugs and the business I have chosen is always a nail-biter, there was a constant threat of unemployment.”
John battled with booze for three decades before sobering up in 2007.
Regular visits to Alcoholics Anonymous, along with a steely determination not to touch another drink, have helped John’s career grow in the past decade.
In 2017 he made action movies Kong: Skull Island and Transformers: The Last Knight and he is currently starring in the comedy TV show The Righteous Gemstones, which will return for a third series.
John is married to Anna Beth Hartzog and they have a 32-year-old daughter Molly.
Tara Reid – Bunny Lebowski
Tara Reid as Bunny and at a fundraiser last autumn
The American Pie actress won’t ever go under the plastic surgeon’s knife again after a boob job and liposuction went badly wrong.
Tara, 47, who needed corrective surgery in 2006, recently said: “I’m done.”
It was playing The Big Lewbowski’s kidnapped wife Bunny in 1998 and then a year later Kevin’s girlfriend in American Pie which turned Tara into a star in the late 1990s.
In recent years her best known films have been Sharknado and its multiple sequels.
Tara announced in 2011 that she had married Bulgarian financier Zachary Kehayov, but later that year they revealed the union was not legal.
Tara was last known to be dating 38-year-old businessman Nathan Montpetit-Howar.
David Thewlis – Knox Harrington
David Thewlis in The Big Lebowski and attending a premiere in 2021
Two years ago the Harry Potter actor revealed that he had married his second wife – French designer Hermine Poitou.
His first marriage to Welsh actress Sara Sugarman ended in 1994 after two years and he dated Anna Friel for nine years until 2010.
David, 60, has one daughter, Gracie, seven with Brookside star Anna.
The actor from Blackpool, who made his name in Mike Leigh’s Naked, has added novelist to his CV.
David has released two novels, The Late Hector Kipling, and Shooting Martha.
He will star in the third and fourth blockbuster Avatar films.
Aimee Mann – Franz’s girlfriend
Aimee Mann in The Big Lebowski and at a recent concert
The singer and actress is rebuilding her music career after a nervous breakdown and a complex illness twice threatened to derail it.
Aimee, 62, played a German nihilist in The Big Lebowski and became sought after a year later when she wrote a number of tracks for the Tom Cruise film Magnolia.
But she said in 2002: “I had a nervous breakdown. I was not functioning”. A heavy workload and issues from her troubled childhood were thought to be the cause.
Aimee has told how she was kidnapped by her mum when she was aged three, taking her from the United States to England without her father’s knowledge.
During the pandemic she experienced migraines, tinnitus, dizzy spells and nausea.
Aimee said: “I couldn’t listen to music because it was so distorted.”
But last she was able to go back out on the road.
Steve Buscemi – Donny Kerabatsos
Steve Buscemi as Donny and at last year’s Venice Film Festival
The Reservoir Dogs star watched his wife Jo Andres fight the agony of cancer four years before she died in 2019.
Steve, 65, said: “The pain was the hardest thing. People who are going through that, it’s painful. It’s painful to die from cancer. There’s just no way around it.”
The couple, who met when they lived close to each other in New York, had been married for 32 years and have one son Lucian, 33.
Steve has appeared in six movies made by the Coen Brothers, who directed The Big Lebowski, and is probably best known for playing one of the bungling kidnappers in Fargo.
The former firefighter is currently starring in the TV series Miracle Workers with Daniel Radcliffe.
Julianne Moore – Maude Lewbowski
Julianne Moore as Maude and at an awards ceremony in November
The Oscar winning actress has been together with her second husband Bart Freundlich for 26 years.
Julianne, 62, who played The Big Lebowski’s daughter Maude in the 1998 cult hit, has found happiness in the security of married life.
She said: “I’m not very eccentric, I’m pretty regular, I have two really beautiful children. I have a great husband.
“I really value my ordinary life and my family life.”
Julianne prefers to be a mother to their children, Caleb, 17, and daughter Liv, 12, rather than a film star.
The star, whose movies include The Hunger Games and Boogie Nights, is also an author.
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Brandt
Seymour Hoffman as Brandt and in 2014 shortly before his death
Considered to be one of the greatest actors of his generation, Philip’s award-laden career came to an end when he took a cocktail of drugs nine years ago.
In February 2014 the Oscar winner was found dead in the bathroom of his New York apartment at the age of 46 after using heroin, cocaine and prescription medication.
Philip was near the end of filming The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 when he lost his life.
He had got hooked on drugs when he was a student, but managed to kick the habit at the age of 22 after a spell in rehab.
A year before his death he started taking killer substances so seriously again that his partner Mimi O’Donnell had to leave their home with their three children.
Costume designer Mimi, who described him as a loving man, said: “Every day was filled with worry. Every night, when he went out, I wondered: Will I see him again?”
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