Lloyd Vernet Bridges was born on January 15^th 1913 into a relatively wealthy family with a father who was involved in the hotel business in California and also owned a cinema, Lloyd Vernet Bridges Sr. and Harriet  In 1931 Lloyd graduated from Eureka Senior High School and went on to study political science as UCLA. While at university he met his wife to be Dorothy Simpson while acting in ‘March Hares’ and the two were romantically married in 1939  on St Pete’s Beach, California, as the sun rose on their special day. They remained married until Lloyd’s death sixty years later. Despite the distraction of meeting the woman he would later marry, Lloyd still managed to focus on his studies enough to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts Degree from UC. Berkeley.

Bridges’ early working life was spent learning the workings of stock companies from the ground up during that time Lloyd was a member of the progressive Actors Lab company in the mid 1930s.  Bridges’ acting career really kicked off when he  made his Broadway debut toward the end of the 1930’s in a production of  Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’. By 1941 he was being signed by Columbia Studios, which saw Bridges appearing  in everything the studio assigned him, from ‘Three Stooges’ comedies to such "A" pictures as ‘Here Comes Mr. Jordan’  in 1941, ‘Talk of the Town’ in 1942 and ‘ Sahara’ in 1943.

1941 brought the birth of Lloyd and Dorothy’s first son born Lloyd Vernet Bridges III but was nicknamed by his parents, 'Beau' after Ashley Wilkes’s son in the classic movie, 'Gone with the Wind' which starred Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.

Eight years later saw the birth of their second son, Jeffrey Leon Bridges, was born in 1949. Lloyd’s career took a backward step in the 1950’s when he was blacklisted after becoming a member of the Communist Party. Later he was cleared by the FBI and quickly resumed his career, mainly appearing in television movies.

Lloyd’s early career saw him cast in classic movies such as ‘High Noon’ with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly and later in the Wild West movie, ‘Little Big Horn’ with little known John Ireland. The late 1950’s through early ‘60’s was a time when Lloyd gained wide recognition as Mike Nelson as the star of the television series ‘Sea Hunt’ which also starred a young Leonard Nemoy and with a guest appearance by his son Beau. Unfortunately, following his success as Nelson, neither of his subsequent series of the '60s, ‘The Lloyd Bridges Show ‘and ‘The Loner’ survived their first seasons

Lloyd was initially offered the role of Captain Kirk in the series ‘Star Trek’ before the part finally went to William Shatner. Bridges was twice nominated for an Emmy Award each coming four decades apart. The first came in 1957, the next in 1998 for his role as Izzy Mandelbaum on the series ‘Seinfeld’ starring Jerry Seinfeld.

Bridges continued working in the movie business well into the 1990s, displaying a flair for zany comedy in such films as Airplane!  in 1980 with Leslie Neilson, ‘Joe vs. the Volcano’ in 1990 starring with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan  and in both ‘Hot Shots’ films in 1991 and 1993  which saw Bridges cast along side Charlie Sheen, Kristy Swanson and British comedy actor Rowan Atkinson. 

For several decades Lloyd and his wife Dorothy joined Foster Parents Plan after recognizing that their own children were growing up in privileged surroundings and feeling that they could offer some of their good fortune to less fortunate children.