Todd Bridges
Encyclopedia
Todd Anthony Bridges is an American actor. He is best known for his childhood role as Willis Jackson
on the NBC
/ABC
sitcom Diff'rent Strokes
, and for his recurring role as Monk on the UPN
/CW
sitcom Everybody Hates Chris
. He is currently a comedic commentator on the television series TruTV Presents: World's Dumbest..., which airs on truTV.
. Bridges has a brother and sister who are both actors, Jimmy Bridges
and Verda Bridges. His mother, Betty A. Bridges, was also an actress. Todd is married to Dori Bridges and has one son, Spencir Bridges
(born July 16, 1998) who is also a child actor and appeared in the film Daddy Day Camp
and one episode on iCarly
.
. He also appeared on Little House on the Prairie
, and in the landmark miniseries Roots
. He was a regular on the Barney Miller
spinoff Fish
. But it was as young Willis Jackson on the long-running sitcom Diff'rent Strokes
that he made his name, along with fellow child co-stars Dana Plato
and Gary Coleman
. Bridges survives both Plato and Coleman, who died in May 1999 and May 2010, respectively.
Bridges appeared as a contestant on a 2006 celebrity episode of Fear Factor
, but was eliminated after the first stunt. In January 2007, he appeared as a member of the "mob" on the US version of the game show 1 vs. 100
. He appeared on MyNetworkTV
's new show, Decision House
with his wife, Dori Bridges on the episode titled, "Burned Bridges" aired on November 14, 2007. He also had a recurring role on the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris
.
In March 2008, Bridges appeared on truTV's Tru tv Presents: World's Dumbest...; he continues to appear as a frequent commentator. That same year in October, he debuted as one of the contestants on Hulk Hogan
's Celebrity Championship Wrestling
on the CMT Network. He was a member of Team Beefcake (coached by former wrestler Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake
). On the show, Bridges' wrestling persona was the character "Mr. Not So Perfect." The judges praised him for his athleticism. After reaching the finals along with Butterbean and Dustin Diamond
, Bridges was defeated by Dennis Rodman
.
on April 28, 2010 to discuss his life as a child star and legal troubles that followed.
He appeared as a contestant on the Fox
reality show Skating with Celebrities
, but was eliminated on the second episode of the show. Todd Bridges defeated Vanilla Ice
on a 2002 episode of Celebrity Boxing
.
In 2011, Bridges appeared in the video for The Black Keys
song "Howlin' for You."
In 1998, Todd Bridges and his brother James Bridges were credited with saving the life of a 51 year old paraplegic woman, Stella Kline. The woman nearly drowned when her wheelchair rolled into a lake while she was fishing. Quoting Kline, "I was thanking God that he was there, and you know, everybody's been saying nothing but bad stuff about Todd Bridges on the news and in the papers . . . He has a heart of gold." Todd Bridges remarked on the rescue, "We felt God put us there at the right time to save this lady's life, because there was no one else around."
. Cochran successfully portrayed Bridges as an abused minor who had been driven to drugs by an exploitative entertainment industry, and was now being unfairly framed. A witness finally testified that Bridges was not present at the time of the shooting. Bridges was acquitted of all charges by a jury.
In 1993, Bridges was involved in an altercation with a tenant, David Joseph Kitchen, in his house after Bridges found Kitchen in his room with a fifteen year old girl. Kitchen attacked Bridges with a sword, then Bridges retaliated by stabbing him in the chest with a kitchen knife. The prosecutors dropped the charges, concluding Bridges had acted in self-defense.
Willis Jackson (character)
Willis Jackson is a fictional character on the popular late 1970s-early 1980s television series, Diff'rent Strokes, and he was portrayed by child actor Todd Bridges.-Character background:...
on the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
/ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
sitcom Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from November 3, 1978 to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985 to March 7, 1986...
, and for his recurring role as Monk on the UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
/CW
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
sitcom Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris is an African American television period sitcom inspired by the teenage experiences of comedian Chris Rock , while growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York . The show is set from 1982 to 1987; however, Rock himself was a teenager during years...
. He is currently a comedic commentator on the television series TruTV Presents: World's Dumbest..., which airs on truTV.
Personal life
Bridges was born May 27, 1965, in San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. Bridges has a brother and sister who are both actors, Jimmy Bridges
Jimmy Bridges (actor)
James 'Jimmy' Bridges was born on September 15, 1960 in San Francisco, California. He is the son of Betty A. Bridges, an actress, and James Bridges Sr. and the brother of Todd Bridges of Diff'rent Strokes and Verda Bridges. His three daughters, Penny Bae Bridges, Brooke Marie Bridges, and Rachel...
and Verda Bridges. His mother, Betty A. Bridges, was also an actress. Todd is married to Dori Bridges and has one son, Spencir Bridges
Spencir Bridges
Spencir Bridges is an American child actor, best known for his role in Daddy Day Camp as Ben Hinton . He also had roles on iCarly, House, M.D. and ER.-Personal life:...
(born July 16, 1998) who is also a child actor and appeared in the film Daddy Day Camp
Daddy Day Camp
Daddy Day Camp is a 2007 American family comedy film directed by Fred Savage in his feature film directing debut. It was the sequel to Daddy Day Care , with a recast of the characters that appeared in the original film. The film was produced by Revolution Studios and released by TriStar Pictures...
and one episode on iCarly
ICarly
iCarly is an American sitcom that focuses on a girl named Carly Shay who creates her own web show called iCarly with her best friends Sam and Freddie. The series was created by Dan Schneider, who also serves as executive producer. It stars Miranda Cosgrove as Carly, Jennette McCurdy as Sam, Nathan...
.
Career
Bridges became the first African-American child actor to have a recurring role on a successful TV series, The WaltonsThe Waltons
The Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show centered on a family growing up in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II. The series pilot was a television...
. He also appeared on Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie (TV series)
Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's best-selling series of Little House books...
, and in the landmark miniseries Roots
Roots (TV miniseries)
Roots is a 1977 American television miniseries based on Alex Haley's fictional novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family. Roots received 36 Emmy Award nominations, winning nine. It also won a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. It received unprecedented Nielsen ratings with the finale still...
. He was a regular on the Barney Miller
Barney Miller
Barney Miller is a situation comedy television series set in a New York City police station in Greenwich Village. The series originally was broadcast from January 23, 1975 to May 20, 1982 on ABC. It was created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker...
spinoff Fish
Fish (TV series)
Fish was a spin-off television series of the sitcom Barney Miller. It starred Abe Vigoda as New York Police Department Detective Phil Fish and Florence Stanley as his wife Bernice.- Overview :...
. But it was as young Willis Jackson on the long-running sitcom Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from November 3, 1978 to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985 to March 7, 1986...
that he made his name, along with fellow child co-stars Dana Plato
Dana Plato
Dana Michelle Plato was an American actress notable for playing the role of Kimberly Drummond in the U.S. television sitcom Diff'rent Strokes.Plato appeared in over 100 television commercials as a young girl...
and Gary Coleman
Gary Coleman
Gary Wayne Coleman was an American actor, known for his childhood role as Arnold Jackson in the American sitcom Diff'rent Strokes and for his small stature as an adult. He was described in the 1980s as "one of television's most promising stars". After a successful childhood acting career, Coleman...
. Bridges survives both Plato and Coleman, who died in May 1999 and May 2010, respectively.
Bridges appeared as a contestant on a 2006 celebrity episode of Fear Factor
Fear Factor
Fear Factor is an American stunt/dare reality game show. The original Dutch version was called Now or Neverland. When Endemol USA and NBC adapted it to the American market in 2001, they changed the name to Fear Factor. The show pits contestants against each other in a variety of stunts for a...
, but was eliminated after the first stunt. In January 2007, he appeared as a member of the "mob" on the US version of the game show 1 vs. 100
1 vs. 100 (US game show)
1 vs. 100 is an American game show that was broadcast by NBC from 2006–08, and is revived on GSN with a new series which began in November 2010. As in other formats, a single player goes up against 100 other contestants . The 1 gains money for every Mob member eliminated, but loses all winnings...
. He appeared on MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
's new show, Decision House
Decision House
Decision House is a reality television series in which couples enter on-camera therapy to save marriages. It debuted on MyNetworkTV in September 2007 and aired for only one season. Executive producers were Dan Jbara and Jay McGraw, son of Dr. Phillip McGraw. Tabloid newspapers speculated that the...
with his wife, Dori Bridges on the episode titled, "Burned Bridges" aired on November 14, 2007. He also had a recurring role on the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris is an African American television period sitcom inspired by the teenage experiences of comedian Chris Rock , while growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York . The show is set from 1982 to 1987; however, Rock himself was a teenager during years...
.
In March 2008, Bridges appeared on truTV's Tru tv Presents: World's Dumbest...; he continues to appear as a frequent commentator. That same year in October, he debuted as one of the contestants on Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan
Terrance Gene "Terry" Bollea , better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American Semi-retired professional wrestler, actor, television personality, and musician currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ....
's Celebrity Championship Wrestling
Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling
Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling was an American reality television program broadcast on CMT that aired for eight episodes in 2008. The first episode aired on October 18, 2008. In Australia, the show premiered in July 2009 on the FOX8 channel. FOX8 is a subscription TV channel...
on the CMT Network. He was a member of Team Beefcake (coached by former wrestler Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake
Edward Leslie
Edward Harrison "Ed" Leslie is an American professional wrestler, best known for his work in the World Wrestling Federation under the ring name Brutus The Barber Beefcake. He later worked for World Championship Wrestling under a variety of names, mainly as "The Disciple" of real-life best friend...
). On the show, Bridges' wrestling persona was the character "Mr. Not So Perfect." The judges praised him for his athleticism. After reaching the finals along with Butterbean and Dustin Diamond
Dustin Diamond
Dustin Neil Diamond is an American actor, musician, director, and stand-up comedian best known for his role as Samuel "Screech" Powers in the television shows Saved by the Bell, Good Morning, Miss Bliss, Saved by the Bell: The College Years and Saved by the Bell: The New Class.-Career:Diamond's...
, Bridges was defeated by Dennis Rodman
Dennis Rodman
Dennis Keith Rodman is a retired American Hall of Fame professional basketball player of the National Basketball Association's Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks. Born in Trenton, New Jersey, he was nicknamed "Dennis the Menace" and "The...
.
Other work
Bridges wrote a book, "Killing Willis", discussing his drug addiction, criminal charges, and efforts to establish a public identity independent of the character, "Willis", he portrayed. He appeared on The Oprah Winfrey ShowThe Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
on April 28, 2010 to discuss his life as a child star and legal troubles that followed.
He appeared as a contestant on the Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
reality show Skating with Celebrities
Skating with Celebrities
Skating with Celebrities is a celebrity reality television show that began airing on the Fox network on January 18, 2006. The show also aired in Australia on Network Ten in early 2006 and in New Zealand in October 2008. The show was the U.S. version of Dancing on Ice, which also aired in the U.K....
, but was eliminated on the second episode of the show. Todd Bridges defeated Vanilla Ice
Vanilla Ice
Robert Matthew Van Winkle , best known by his stage name Vanilla Ice, is an American rapper, extreme athlete and home improvement television personality...
on a 2002 episode of Celebrity Boxing
Celebrity Boxing
Celebrity Boxing was a FOX television show, in which celebrities whose careers and/or notoriety had diminished were pitted against each other in exhibition boxing matches. The contestants wore headgear during the fights, which were scheduled for three rounds apiece...
.
In 2011, Bridges appeared in the video for The Black Keys
The Black Keys
The Black Keys are an American rock duo consisting of vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer/producer Patrick Carney. The band was formed in Akron, Ohio, in 2001. As of October 2011, the band has sold over 2 million albums in the U.S....
song "Howlin' for You."
In 1998, Todd Bridges and his brother James Bridges were credited with saving the life of a 51 year old paraplegic woman, Stella Kline. The woman nearly drowned when her wheelchair rolled into a lake while she was fishing. Quoting Kline, "I was thanking God that he was there, and you know, everybody's been saying nothing but bad stuff about Todd Bridges on the news and in the papers . . . He has a heart of gold." Todd Bridges remarked on the rescue, "We felt God put us there at the right time to save this lady's life, because there was no one else around."
Legal problems
In his 20s, Bridges battled a crack cocaine addiction for several years. In 1988, he was arrested and tried for the attempted murder of Kenneth "Tex" Clay, a Los Angeles area drug dealer who, prosecutors argued, had been shot by Bridges while on a binge. Bridges pleaded not guilty to the charges and was represented by the high-profile defense attorney Johnnie CochranJohnnie Cochran
Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. was an American lawyer best known for his leadership role in the defense and criminal acquittal of O. J...
. Cochran successfully portrayed Bridges as an abused minor who had been driven to drugs by an exploitative entertainment industry, and was now being unfairly framed. A witness finally testified that Bridges was not present at the time of the shooting. Bridges was acquitted of all charges by a jury.
In 1993, Bridges was involved in an altercation with a tenant, David Joseph Kitchen, in his house after Bridges found Kitchen in his room with a fifteen year old girl. Kitchen attacked Bridges with a sword, then Bridges retaliated by stabbing him in the chest with a kitchen knife. The prosecutors dropped the charges, concluding Bridges had acted in self-defense.