Spoiler alert! This article contains spoilers for The Old Man.Jeff Bridgeshas had a long career in Hollywood. He’s played heroes and villains, average men and extraordinary men. He’s played the Dude, the role inThe Big Lebowskihe’s perhaps best known for. But he’s never played anyone quite like Dan Chase, the lead character inThe Old Man.
Dan (or Johnny or Henry or Peter or whatever his name is this week) is a former CIA operative who has been living off the grid since he absconded from Afghanistan with Belour (Leem Lubany/Hiam Abbass), the wife of the warlord, Faraz Hamzad (Pej Vahdat/Navid Negahban), he served during the Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s. He lived this way peacefully for 30 years until one night someone breaks into his house and he’s forced to go on the run.
The story ofThe Old Manalone would be enough to get people’s attention, but Bridges also went through a cancer diagnosis and a bout of COVID-19 during the production. Plus, shooting for the second season was halted by the 2023 Writer’s Guildand Screen Actor’s Guild strikes. That makes Bridges' return to the screen forThe Old Manespecially welcome.
Jeff Bridges Got Two Tough Diagnoses
The Old Man
Jeff Bridges was in the middle of shooting the first season ofThe Old Manwhen he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Not only did he gettreated for cancer, butwhile he was getting chemotherapy, he was diagnosed with COVID-19, which he was in the hospital fighting for five weeks.This was a harrowing time for Bridges, but he looks back on it with that characteristic Bridges attitude.He told Salon:
Going through something like that exacerbates lots of stuff. Your philosophy of life, what’s your strategy now, here, in this situation? You bring out everything that’s ever worked for you in your life.A lot of that has to do with the L word, love. That corny thing.You realize how much you love your family, how much you love the nurses and the doctors who are there for you trying to get you better. And you feel all your loved ones, you feel their love. All of that is quite intense.
Nonetheless, he wasn’t ready to fight for his life just yet. Bridges explains, “I remember my doctor saying to me, ‘Jeff, you’re not fighting. You’ve got to fight.’ I had no idea what they were talking about. I was in surrender mode.” Even after Bridges decided to fight it was a long road to recovery. He says, “I gave myself these little goals andI didn’t think I was going to work again…. And then my daughter Hayley was getting married, and she said, “Come on, dad, walk me down the aisle.” …. It was difficult.”
Not only did he manage to come through for his daughter, but it motivated him to get back to shootingThe Old Man. Afterwalking her down the aisle, he remembers thinking, “Maybe I’ll be able to go back and fire up ‘The Old Man’ again.And I did. Zach, my trainer, worked with me to do that. He was so skillful at just enough challenges. But let me do that in my own speed. I appreciated that.”
Getting back toThe Old Manis a true testament to Bridges' commitment to his career and his fans. While the show had three episodes left when he left to get treatment for his cancer, he came back one year later to report his cancer was in remission, and he was COVID-free. He has since gone on to shoot the second season of the show.
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The Old Man Is About Aging Men and the Sins of Their Youth
The Old Manmay be the perfect project for an aging Jeff Bridges.It makes the older men, including him and John Lithgow, take responsibility for their actions in their youth.And what brazen, bold actions they were. Lithgow’s character, Harold Harper, now an FBI agent, helped Dan Chase and Belour leave Afghanistan, and now, 30 years later, someone is not only trying to get to Dan, but they’re trying to upend Harold’s life as well.
The Old Manis a serialized story that picks up its second season just three weeks after its first season. Of course, with the writers' and actors' strikes, the reality was somewhat different. The show ended its first season on June 21, 2025 and started its second season on Jul 18, 2025.
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Clearly, Bridges along with others in the cast and crew had to keep up their physical and emotional momentum to stay true to these characters. When asked about that by Salon, Bridges had this to say:
“We were off for two years, and you come back and you see all the same people and it feels like you just had a long weekend.You pick up where you left off, like muscle memory or something… But talk about who you’re coming back to: Amy Brenneman and John Lithgow and Alia Shawkat, it’s a wonderful team. That makes all the difference.”
Bridges' behind-the-scenes story of cancer, COVID, and the strikes makes watchingThe Old Manall the more poignant. Thank the stars we still haveJeff Bridges to root for onscreen.
