BRIDGES, VERSATILE ACTOR, DIES.

Byline: Oscar Musibay Associated Press 

Lloyd Bridges, whose half-century in acting ranged from the drama of ``High Noon'' to the daft ``Airplane!'' to the adventure of TV's ``Sea Hunt,'' has died, his agent said Tuesday. He was 85.

Lee Stollman, a spokesman for the William Morris Talent Agency, said Bridges died in Los Angeles, but had no other information. Bridges had been hospitalized in mid-January with a mild concussion after a fall in his home.

``He was just the state of the art at being a person, both professionally and privately,'' said Jim Abrahams, who directed Bridges in ``Airplane!'' and the ``Hot Shots!'' comedies, and in the upcoming ``Godfather'' spoof ``Jane Austen's Mafia!'' ``He had a fabulous, closely knit family, and he always attributed everything to them. Lloyd was a consummate professional and a very dear man, who I deeply loved.''

The tall, craggy-faced, blond actor enjoyed amazing resiliency throughout his career, even surviving the film industry's political blacklist. He also spawned a new generation of actors. His sons, Beau and Jeff, who started acting as youngsters on ``Sea Hunt,'' became stars in their own right.

Lloyd Bridges trained as a classical actor, but he soon learned to be more versatile. He played every kind of role in 25 B movies, starred on Broadway, worked in seven television series, even appeared in musical comedy. In his late years he was rediscovered as a farceur, often spoofing his own stalwart image.

California native

Lloyd Vernet Bridges Jr. was born Jan. 15, 1913, in San Leandro, near San Francisco. His father was a businessman whose enterprises included a movie theater. The boy became a movie addict and watched screenings of the same film over and over, observing technique. He applied what he learned in drama classes at Petaluma High School.

Lloyd was also a star athlete, playing baseball, basketball and football at the University of California, Los Angeles.

``My dad wanted me to be a lawyer,'' he recalled in a 1968 interview. ``I majored in political science, but all I wanted to do was act.''

After graduation, Bridges was cast in a minor role in a modern-dress ``Taming of the Shrew'' that played the West Coast and went to New York. Bridges stayed on in New York and in 1937 made his Broadway debut with a small role in ``Othello,'' starring Walter Huston.

``I went to New York to do classical drama, but nobody else was doing Shakespeare,'' he said in 1978. ``I had to unlearn what I had been taught and muddy up my diction to get work.''

He joined with others in forming the Playroom Club, which performed contemporary dramas off-Broadway. During slack periods he appeared in stock and taught drama at a private school. Unable to make a dent on Broadway, he returned to California to pursue a movie career.

Bridges was placed under contract at Columbia and made his debut in the 1941 ``The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance.'' A string of potboilers followed, and he even appeared in a Three Stooges short, ``They Stooge to Conga.'' His only major films for the studio were the fantasy ``Here Comes Mr. Jordan'' and ``Sahara,'' starring Humphrey Bogart.

His career improved after he left Columbia. He appeared in ``A Walk in the Sun,'' ``Abilene Town'' and ``Ramrod.'' His big break came with the controversial ``Home of the Brave,'' which attacked racial prejudice in the military. Bridge's performance as a sympathetic member of a platoon torn by racial strife won critical acclaim.

Career `high' point

Bridges played Gary Cooper's vengeful deputy in ``High Noon'' and important roles followed until he was caught in Hollywood's Red purge.

During the 1940s, Bridges had been a member of the Actors' Lab, a radical theater group that staged plays in Hollywood. At the height of McCarthyism in the 1950s, his name was added to the industry's blacklist.

``It was a bad time,'' he said in 1971. ``I was always against prejudice of any kind, and when I was a member of the Actors' Lab, there was an opportunity to do something as part of a group to stop prejudice and help people.''

Bridges cleared his name with the FBI and congressional committees and was allowed to work again. He played leads in low-budget movies and featured roles in bigger films, then became active in live drama on TV.

During an intense drama, ``Tragedy in a Temporary Town,'' he exclaimed excitedly, ``You goddamned stinking pigs!'' The NBC switchboard handled over 500 calls, most of them decrying the profanity. ``That made headlines, and I was being called in the middle of the night by reporters,'' he recalled.

In 1957, Bridges took the role that changed his career: as Mike Nelson, a Navy frogman turned undersea investigator in ``Sea Hunt.'' The networks turned down the series as being too limited in scope, so producer Ivan Tors offered it in syndication. Soon it drew bigger ratings than the network shows and it lasted through 156 episodes.

``The series certainly brought me more notice than anything I have ever done before as an actor,'' he said in a 1959 interview. ``It has also brought me more money than anything else in my career. Artistic satisfaction? No, that is lacking. But fortunately I am able to get it by doing other things.''

Bridges starred in six other series: ``The Lloyd Bridges Show,'' ``The Loner,'' ``San Francisco International Airport'' ``Joe Forrester,'' ``Paper Dolls'' and ``Capital News.'' He also appeared in dozens of television movies as well as such miniseries as ``Roots,'' ``Moviola,'' ``East of Eden,'' ``The Blue and the Gray'' and ``George Washington.''

In 1988 Bridges appeared in Francis Ford Coppola's ``Tucker: The Man and His Dream'' as a corrupt senator who opposed a daring automaker, played by his son Jeff. Other films include ``Cousins'' and ``Joe Versus the Volcano.''

``Airplane!'' in 1980 opened a whole new career for Bridges. As a wacky air controller, he parodied his own movie performances. He followed with such comedies as ``Airplane II!'' and ``Hot Shots!''

Besides Beau and Jeff, Lloyd and Dorothy Bridges had a daughter, Cindy, and several grandchildren. Married more than 50 years, the couple lived in Westwood, a short distance from the UCLA campus where they met as drama students.

Daily News Staff Writer Bob Strauss contributed to this story.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1) Film-TV actor Lloyd Bridges, shown in a 1959 photo, was reported dead by his agent Tuesday.

Associated Press

(2) LLoyd Bridges, center, arrives with his sons, Beau, left, and Jeff, both actors themselves, at the Academy Awards in March 1989.

Bob Galbraith/Associated Press

(3 -- color) Bridges