Bradford Claude "Brad" Dourif net worth is $3 Million
Bradford Claude "Brad" Dourif Wiki Biography
Bradford Claude Dourif was born on 18 March 1950, in Huntington, West Virginia USA, to Joan Mavis Felton, an actress, and Jean Henri Dourif, an art collector and owner of a dye factory and of French descent. He is an actor, probably best known for his roles in the film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, as well as for his voice role of Chucky in the “Child’s Play” franchise.
A noted actor, how rich is Brad Dourif? According to sources, Dourif’s wealth reaches $3 million, as of late 2016, acquired during his acting career which now spans more than 40 years.
Brad Dourif Net Worth $3 Million
Dourif’s father died when he was three years old, and he and his five siblings were raised by their mother who eventually remarried the famous golfer William C. Campbell. He attended the Fountain Valley School in Colorado Springs, and upon matriculating in 1968 he enrolled at Marshall University in Huntington, becoming involved in school stage productions. He also joined the community theater, performing with the Huntington Community Players. However, he eventually dropped out of Marshal and moved to New York City to study acting with the acclaimed drama teacher Sanford Meisner.
Dourif performed in a number of off-Broadway plays during the early ’70s. It was in one of these plays that he was discovered by Miloš Forman, who offered him a role in his adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in 1975. Dourif won rave reviews for his performance of Billy Bibbit, earning a Golden Globe Award and a British Academy Award, as well as an Academy Award nomination. His net worth started to rise. However, despite the film paving his way to stardom, Dournif returned to New York and began teaching acting and directing classes at Columbia University.
His portrayal of Billy served as an ideal showcase for his remarkable talent of playing such eccentric, idiosyncratic and disturbed characters, something which he couldn’t break away from for the remainder of his career. More such roles came in late ’70s and early ’80s films, including “Eyes of Laura Mars”, “Wise Blood”, “Ragtime” and “Istanbul”. His other notable roles of the ’80s were in “Dune”, “Red Velvet”, “Fatal Beauty” and “Mississippi Burning”. His net worth was rising steadily.
In 1988 he moved to Hollywood; the same year he provided his voice for the evil doll Chucky in the horror “Child’s Play”, the first in the popular franchise, and which he went on to in numerous sequels, which significantly improved his status as a Hollywood star, and considerably adding to his wealth.
Many opportunities came Dourif’s way during the ’90s. He landed roles in horrors such as “The Exorcist III” and “Death Machine”, while also appearing in films like “Chaindance”, “Hidden Agenda”, “London Kills Me” and “Body Parts”. All contributed to his net worth.
In the early 2000s, Dourif had numerous supporting parts in big-screen projects, most notable being that of Gríma Wormtongue in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, which earned him an Online Film Critics Society Award and Phoenix Film Critics Society Award, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. In the years since, he has landed parts in numerous films, and is currently filming “Chucky 7”, announced to be released in 2017.
Aside from films, Dourif has also been active on television, having guest starred in a number of series such as “The Equalizer”, “Miami Vice”, “Murder: She Wrote”, “The X-Files” and “Tales of the Unexpected”. He had recurring roles in the series “Star Trek: Voyager” and “Ponderosa”, before being cast as a regular in the series “Deadwood”, playing Dr. Amos ‘Doc’ Cochran from 2004 to 2006, the role earning him a nomination for Emmy, Satellite and Screen Actors Guild Awards. He later appeared in the series “Law & Order”, “Psych”, “Once Upon a Time” and “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”. All added to his net worth.
In his personal life, Dourif was married twice, firstly to Jonina Bernice with whom he had one child, while also adopting her child. In 1980 he married Janet Stephanie Charmatz and has a child with her too, but they also divorced.
Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award (1975), Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Supporting Actor (1991), Online Film Critics Society Award (2003)
Nominations
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (1975), Primetime Emmy Awards, Chicago Film Critics Association Award, Saturn Award (1990), Genie Award for Best Performance, Screen Actors Guild Award
Movies
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Mississippi Burning (1988), The Exorcist III (1990), Chaindance (1990), Body Parts (1991), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
TV Shows
Deadwood (2004-2006), Law & Order (2008), Miami Magma (2011), Once Upon a Time (2012-2014); video games: GUN (2005), Run Like Hell (2002), Dishonored (2012)
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Trademark
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Gaunt features and wild blue eyes
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The voice of Chucky in the Child's Play films
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Frightening, expressive interpretations
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Often plays eccentric or deranged characters
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Deep raspy ominous voice
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Quote
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Of course, I would like to play the guy next door, but nobody's going to hire me for that kind of role.
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The universe is dynamic. When we are creative, we are the most alive and in touch with it.
3
Gee, I certainly hope I'm not a scary person in real life. It's not like people run from me when they see me. People are usually pretty nice when they meet me. If they're scared, they keep their shuddering to themselves.
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If it wasn't for the devil, we wouldn't be here, would we?
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If it's stage, the two most important artists are the actor and the playwright. If it's film, THE most important person is the director. The director says where the camera goes.
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You know, you try to be diverse, and try to have fun and round things out.
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We all have an edge. We all are floating our psyche on top with a great ocean underneath.
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I am good when there is something central about the character. There is always a human theme I attach myself to. I am really looking for something that is moving or enlightening or something with depth as an actor. I look for these kinds of roles.
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(on getting involved in acting) Well, my mother was an actress. She married my father and moved to West Virginia where my grandfather had built a factory, and that was the end of her career. When I was young, she used to read to us all. She read Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer and King Arthur, and a bunch of really good books. She would always become all the characters; I just remember everything was very alive. I really felt I was wherever she said I was; she was very talented. She was in a play, and I went to a rehearsal and I watched her rehearse, she was doing Anastasia. She was incredible, and it just made me want to learn how to act.
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(on the difference working on big budget and low budget films) Well, when I'm working well, there's no difference at all, because I don't care. Except, you know, the place you go to after and in between is nicer, a lot of times. Independents can be the best experience of them all, because you know the crew better, you know the cinematographer better, everybody's a lot less pretentious... You have less time, because independents don't have any money, so they shoot very fast. It used to be different, independents used to have nice, long shooting schedules. It was very common; 13 or 14 weeks was a very common shooting schedule. Now six weeks is pretty average, and that's very fast to make a movie.
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(on filming Fatal Beauty (1987)) (Director) Tom (Holland) and Whoopi (Goldberg) hated each other, it was a tense set. I've never seen two people hate each other more. I don't think she liked him from the get-go, and second of all Whoopi wanted to do an anti-drug film and that's not what the film was.
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(on his acting style) Normally, the way I work is I try to learn everything kind of mechanically, without any feeling, and I let that come as it goes along. That's the way I was taught. After a certain amount of time, you get better and better and better and then it just comes. What you can do unconsciously, when it's an accident and you don't mean to do it, is the best stuff. All (acting) technique is based on when it's not working.
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Being a character actor is a very insecure life. You don't always get to do what you want. I guess the reason I've held on is because I love it.
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When I take a role, the criteria is feeding my family. That comes first. I have to work with what's available, like everybody else.
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(on working with John Huston in Wise Blood (1979)) I was very scared and uncomfortable. I was the lead. I was insecure. I didn't think I could act my way out of a paper bag, you know. Oddly enough, he was the one who left me alone the most.
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I couldn't sit through a scary movie myself to save my life. When I was young, I really loved Halloween and I loved to tell spooky stories, but that didn't last.
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[To Michael Cimino during post production in Heaven's Gate (1980)] I told Michael, you know man... This thing better be good, because if it isn't, they're gonna kill ya!
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There is nothing wrong with horror films. Their existence has definitely had an impact on me. It is important to have scary demons in our world on film. We have them in the world. That is why we are afraid, it is nice to have a visual and to have a confrontation with it.
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I am the type of person that once I make a decision, I must execute. Maybe I am a perfectionist in this way.
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I am good when there is something central about the character. There is always a human theme I attach myself to. I am really looking for something that is moving or enlightening or something with depth as an actor. I look for these kinds of roles.
21
I'm a whore. If they have a check and camera and a script and stuff for me to say, I am mostly there, unless I just can't take it. No, really, I do like to work. It just depends on whether there is a whole lot of stuff for me to choose from, because if there is I am choosy. If there's not a lot of work, then I try to find some redeeming value in the parts being offered. If it is awful, then, of course, I can't do it. But I have to say, I am pretty lucky in that there are usually things coming in. That said, sometimes it is slow.
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I prefer film to the stage. I always like the rehearsal better than I like performing.
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I'm formally trained, I don't know what classically trained really means. I've worked with Sanford Meisner. And I've worked at Circle Rep with Marshall W. Mason and Lanford Wilson and some really good people. I was lucky. I had a lot of really good influences.
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[on if he prefers to play edgier twisted characters] Well, I've been cast as them... and I like to work, so I take those roles. You know, you try to be diverse, and try to have fun and round things out.
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Fact
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Was considered to play the Joker in Batman (1989).
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In 1981, Vincent Canby listed Dourif as one of twelve actors to watch, calling Dourif "one of the most intense, most interesting young film actors of his generation".
He played the role of Stephen in a stage production of the play "When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder". Dourif was asked to reprise the role for the film version, but turned said offer down because he didn't want to work with Marjoe Gortner. The role went to Peter Firth.
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Though Dourif had not been on stage in nearly three decades, he chose to star alongside Amanda Plummer in the Off-Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' The Two-Character Play that played to critical acclaim at the New World Stages. He explained, in a filmed interview released by the producers, why he broke his 29-year hiatus from acting in live theater: "I hated the stage, did not want to do it. And then somebody said, 'Will you do a play? It's with Amanda Plummer', and I said, 'Oh shit! No. Oh God, I'm gonna have to do this...'". It opened on June 10, 2013 and closed on September 29, 2013. The play was subject to a number of performance cancellations, one relating to Dourif's absence, due to a death in the family. Plummer refused to perform without Dourif, notwithstanding the presence of an understudy.
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Parents are Jean Henri Dourif and Joan Mavis Felton.
His father was born in France, and was of three quarters French and one quarter English ancestry. His mother was born in New York, to parents from Virginia, who also had English ancestry (including deep colonial American roots).
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Moved to Los Angeles, California in 1988.
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Attended and graduated from Fountain Valley School in Colorado Springs, Colorado (1968).
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Taught acting and directing classes at Columbia University in the City of New York.
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Out of all the Child's Play films - Bride of Chucky (1998) is his favorite.
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Attended Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia in 1969 but dropped out.
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His father, who owned and operated a dye factory, died when Brad was three.
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Moved to New York City at age 19 and worked with the Circle Repertory Company, appearing in many off-Broadway and Woodstock, New York productions.
Was considered for the role of Max Cady in the remake Cape Fear (1991), which went to Robert De Niro.
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Many of his co-stars in the Lord of the Rings trilogy were under the impression that he was actually English because of the British accent he used as Grima Wormtongue throughout filming. As a method actor, he kept the accent even when he was not filming. They were shocked to hear him speak in an American accent after filming was complete. Bernard Hill believed Dourif was speaking in the worst American accent he "had ever heard in [his] life".
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Grandchild: Caden Kalani Kahalewai Dourif-Tanoue (born 2001).
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Has two daughters: Fiona Dourif and Kristina Dourif Tanoue.
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Made five trips to New Zealand while the Lord of the Rings trilogy was being filmed. He had to shave his eyebrows off each time.
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Was considered for the role of the Scarecrow in Batman Forever (1995).
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Has heard his own movie Dune (1984) described as "science fiction's answer to Heaven's Gate (1980)" (which Dourif also starred in), and he agrees totally with this summation.
$3 Million
