For Seniors : Bridges Wins Hands Down for ‘Living Better Longer’

The winner for fulfilling the UCLA Center on Aging motto “To Live Better Longer” is--the envelope, please--Lloyd Bridges.

When associate director Audrey Stein was looking for someone to host an upcoming Friends of the Center meeting, there wasn’t much competition. He wins, she said, in every category--husband, father, professional and world citizen.

“We always want to promote a positive image of aging, and so asking Lloyd Bridges made sense because he has one,” Stein said.

Bridges, a UCLA graduate, has spanned so many generations that he seems ageless, starring in the television series “Sea Hunt” in the 1950s as well as movies in the 1980s, including “Airplane!”

Bridges asked that his age not be disclosed, though he is not self-conscious about it. His reason has to do with Hollywood, where producers often use a calendar, rather than an actor’s experience, as casting criteria.

He’s up for two parts, both with his son Beau, in which he plays a grandfather. Which one is he going to do? “Both, I hope,” he said.

He’s lanky--he weighs 10 pounds less than the 180 he did at UCLA--soft-spoken, silver-haired and has two of the most sparkling blue eyes this side of Paul Newman.

It was probably his 1,000th interview; he prefers playing doubles with Chris Evert or Dennis Ralston at a pro-celebrity tennis tournament rather than talking about “the business.”

But when he does, he’s generous in praising others such as Howard Koch, whose idea it was to use him in “Airplane!” And he especially credits his wife.

“My career, what there is, didn’t happen that easy,” Bridges said. “Thought I’d never get in that door. But I married someone who had faith in me. It helped. That’s where a good marriage comes in. I remember the days when I thought (after being turned down for a part) I should be in the hotel business like my father up in Eureka and (my wife) said to me, ‘They made a mistake,’ and I’d go on to the next audition.”

“Well, if that hotel was in Paris maybe. . . .” joked Dorothy Bridges, mother of their children Beau, Jeff and Lucinda.

They met at UCLA 56 years ago, just a few blocks from where they live now.

“In those days,” said Bridges, “all of the sorority pledges lined up in their pretty dresses and the fraternity guys would case them. And I remembered that sexy Alpha Chi girl and went back to meet her. I thought it was love at first sight for both of us but I found out later she wanted to be in the University Dramatic Society and she knew that I was the president,” he said.

They have been married 55 years, although when asked, Lloyd guessed 53. He said he has trouble with counting the years--”never got past 45 in my mind.”

He has worked diligently over the years, because a person can’t rehearse enough, work hard enough or have enough good habits, he says.

He did Shakespeare when he was younger, was a method actor with the Actors Lab in Los Angeles and has acted with his sons, most recently with Jeff in “Blown Away.” He admits doing some terrible parts to support his family, but he said he has always tried not to portray violent characters.

Lloyd and Dorothy Bridges are a team. Their trophies are the pictures of their children and grandchildren. Their rewards are the many blessings they count every day. This year they will be awarded the Ralph Bunche Peace Award, commemorating the United Nations Year of the Family. Lloyd will receive the World Federalist Assn.’s Norman Cousins Global Governance Award. The organization is devoted to bringing about peace, a healthy environment and justice through strengthening the United Nations.

He will also host the Center on Aging’s fall meeting titled “Eating.”

Participating on the panel are Dr. David Heber, chief of clinical nutrition at UCLA School of Medicine; Judith Ashley, a dietitian at UCLA School of Medicine, and Judith Pacht, author of “Lean or Lavish”--a book that shows how to convert recipes into dishes that are low in fat yet tasty.

The audience will get to sample low-fat, low-salt fare such as Moroccan eggplant, blanched vegetables with three sauces, tortilla-pizza with smoked turkey, pear and garlic, cold borscht and for dessert--chocolate cake with orange glaze.

As for Lloyd Bridges, he eats his standard oatmeal topped with fruit, a muffin and milk for breakfast--no coffee.

He works out in his Spartan exercise room and prefers to swim in the ocean than in a pool. There’s a pillow in his study embroidered with the saying: “The older the violin the sweeter the music.”

UCLA Center On Aging fall meeting will be Sept. 27 at 5 p.m. at the Jules Stein Eye Institute Auditorium. Information: Linda Lee at (310) 312-0530. Reservations required.