Began his career as an actor in the late 1950s, wrote many shows for TV (including 18 episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents") and received his first feature credit in 1966, as co-writer of "The Appaloosa". Bridges made his directing debut with "The Baby Maker" (1970), a finely observed film about a middle-class couple who hire a hippy to bear their child after the wife discovers she is infertile.

Not a prolific director, Bridges wrote the screenplays for all but the last of the eight films he made between 1970 and 1988. He hit his peak with "The China Syndrome" (1979), a suspenseful and potent