Brad Dourif
Date of Birth:
18 March 1950, Huntington, West Virginia, USA
Birth Name:
Bradford Claude Dourif
Height:
5' 9" (1.75 m)
Mini Biography:
The character actor Brad Dourif was born in 1950 in Huntington, West Virginia, where his father owned and operated a dye factory. His father died when Dourif was 3 years old, after which his mother married Bill Campbell, a champion golfer, who helped raise Brad, his brother, and his four sisters. From 1963 to 1965, Dourif attended Aiken Preparatory School in Aiken, SC, where he pursued his interests in art and acting. Although he briefly considered becoming a professional artist, he finally settled on acting as a profession, inspired by his mother's participation as an actress in community theater.
Starting in school productions, he progressed to community theater, joining up with the Huntington Community Players, while attending Marshall University of Huntington. At age 19, he quit his hometown college and headed to New York City, where he worked with the Circle Repertory Company. During the early 1970s, Dourif appeared in a number of plays, off-Broadway and at Woodstock, New York, including Milos Forman who cast him in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). Although this film is frequently cited as his film debut, in fact, Dourif made his first big-screen appearance with a bit part in W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975). Nevertheless, his portrayal of the vulnerable Billy Bibbit in Forman's film was undoubtedly his big break, earning him a Golden Globe Award for Best Acting Debut, a British Academy Film Award for Best Supporting Actor, and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Skeptical of his instant stardom, Dourif returned to New York, where he continued in theater and taught acting and directing classes at Columbia University until 1988 when he moved to Hollywood. Despite his attempts to avoid typecasting, his intensity destined him to play demented, deranged, or disturbed characters, starting in Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), John Huston's Wise Blood (1979) (arguably his best performance to date), and Milos Forman's Ragtime (1981). Dourif then teamed up with director David Lynch for Dune (1984) and Blue Velvet (1986). His high-strung style also served him well in a number of horror films, notably as the voice of the evil doll Chucky in Child's Play (1988) and its sequels.
Dourif broke from the horror genre with roles in Fatal Beauty (1987), Mississippi Burning (1988), Hidden Agenda (1990), and London Kills Me (1991). Recent film work includes the role of Grima Wormtongue in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Since his television debut in the PBS film The Mound Builders (1976) (TV), Dourif has made sporadic appearances in a number of television series, such as "The X-Files" (1993), "Babylon 5" (1994), "Star Trek: Voyager" (1995) and "Ponderosa" (2001) (in the recurring role of Frenchy).
Trade Mark:
Wild eyes
Voice of Chucky, the killer doll
Spouse:
Joni Dourif (? - ?) (divorced) 2 children
Tattoos: A Scarred History 
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Controversial feature documentary that takes a sociological look at the world of tattoos to discover why western society has now embraced the once taboo art form with open flesh. It explores the emotional and personal reasons for getting a tattoo alongside horror stories of flesh eating diseases and what's in store in the future for tattoos.
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Based on a harrowing true story. The cop of the tale, Hank, is called to a bungalow in a respectable San Diego neighbourhood where a man named Brad has barricaded himself in his house and taken two hostages. Across the street, Brad's mother lies dead, found sprawled in a pool of blood, the victim of a sword wound. The son is suspected of the murder. As Hank uneasily prowls the sunlit street outside the bungalow, a string of Brad's friends arrive on the scene, among them his girlfriend and a director pal. Slowly the bizarre pieces of the story are placed in front of the cop, who tries to make sense of it all. Not only has the suspected murderer never been the same since he returned from a kayaking trip to Peru, but he also seems to be suffering from a strange mother complex. To deepen the psychosis even further, Brad has been rehearsing one of Sophocles' plays that has a lot to do with mothers!
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Jason Starkweather is released from prison after serving six years for armed robbery. Placed in a halfway house and in a dead end job he struggles to suppress the urge to return to his old ways. His ex-girlfriend Sarah Fugate works in a brothel to pay her way through university while living with an abusive older man. Desperate to make up for his past mistakes, Jason tracks Sarah down. A shocking incident reunites the couple and they go on the run, fleeing the authorities while rekindling their love for one another. After a number of incidents on the road, including betrayal by a friend of Jason's, the couple take sanctuary in the house of affluent Richard and his daughter Shannon. Eventually the unlikely foursome are brought together by the shared pain of their pasts and forge a genuine bond as the police close in.
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