Al Bridge

Who was Al Bridge?

Al Bridge was an American character actor who played mostly small roles in over 270 films between 1931 and 1954. Bridge's persona was an unpleasant, gravel-voiced man with an untidy moustache. Sometimes credited as Alan Bridge, and frequently not credited onscreen at all, he appeared in many westerns, especially in the Hopalong Cassidy series, where he played crooked sheriffs and henchmen.

Bridge and his sister, who would become the actress Loie Bridge, were raised by their mother and stepfather, a Philadelphia butcher. Bridge served in the American infantry during World War I. Joining relatives in a theatrical troupe, Bridge toured the U.S. as an actor and wrote a few scripts. He broke into movies with a pair of minor screenplays and spent the next 25 years as a familiar face in B-Westerns and mainstream comedies and dramas. In the forties, Bridge was part of Preston Sturges' unofficial "stock company" of character actors, appearing in ten of the eleven American films that Sturges wrote and directed. He is perhaps best remembered for his role as "The Mister", the chain-gang boss over Joel McCrea in Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels.