Sean MacKenzie Bridgers (born March 15, 1968) is an American actor, screenwriter, and producer, known for his role asJohnny Burns on theHBO seriesDeadwood and as Trey Willis on theSundanceTV original seriesRectify. In addition to many roles in television and film since 1991, Bridgers received acclaim and awards for the independent filmParadise Falls, which he wrote and produced.^[1]

He received praise for his lead role inLucky McKee's horror filmThe Woman and another Modernciné film,Jug Face, as well as notable roles inSweet Home Alabama andNell. He played Old Nick in the 2015 filmRoom.^[2]

Bridgers was born in 1968 inChapel Hill, North Carolina, to Ben and Sue Ellen Bridgers. Ben was the tribal attorney for theCherokee Indian tribe and published a memoir and books of poetry. Sue Ellen Bridgers is a novelist with seven published novels.^[3]

He graduated fromSt. Andrew's-Sewanee School andWestern Carolina University.^[4] In interviews, Bridgers has mentioned that as a screenwriter he is influenced by his favorite authorMark Twain and developed an interest in acting after seeingRobert Duvall inTender Mercies at age 14. Bridgers started watching everything byTender Mercies screenwriterHorton Foote, and Duvall and Foote became his biggest creative influences.^[5]

Sean Bridgers's children are also actors. His son, Jackson, has acted in roles onJustified andDeadwood, as well as his daughter, Kate, who starred in Bridgers' 2012 short,The Birthday Present.^[6]

Bridgers has received praise for a diversity of roles in both film and television, including his role as Johnny Burns on HBO'sDeadwood, and his role as the father in Lucky McKee's feature filmThe Woman. His co-starring role in the southern-horror film, from writer/director Chad Crawford Kinkle'sSlamdance award-winning screenplay,Jug Face, released by the studio Moderncine, was another performance in the horror genre.^[7] Bridgers received praise for his performance fromFEARnet,Dread Central,Birth.Movies.Death, andStarburst Magazine critics, among others.^{[8][9][10][11]}

Bridgers has also received acclaim for his role as Trey Willis onRectify, particularly in one of the series' most notable episodes in Season 3. Reviewer Nick Hogan wrote, "this was one of the most gut-wrenching episodes ofRectify in some time. Mostly because Sean Bridgers does a masterful job portraying Trey..."^[12] Mark Walker wrote inThe Copenhagen Post that Bridgers's performance as Old Nick inRoom was "brilliantly restrained".^[13] Bridgers also starred in the critically acclaimed Epix showGet Shorty.

Bridgers, along with his producing and directing partner,Michael "Ffish" Hemschoot, have been developing a dark western, noted as a "Faustian western" that takes place inthe South during theCivil War titledArkansas Traveler. Bridgers wrote the original screenplay and is a principal in the production company Travelin' Productions with Hemschoot, producing and shooting a trailer of the film featuring a cast includingGarret Dillahunt andAngela Bettis.^[14] The resulting production was also released online as aWeb series ofthe same name in June 2017.

Actor and filmmakerRay McKinnon commented on Bridgers's screenplay:

Arkansas Traveler is one of the best un-produced scripts I have read in the last decade, it's not just the complex, larger narrative of the end of the Civil War and the amazing backdrop of the protagonist's travels, butArkansas Traveler offers the continual smaller surprises of behavior and plot – of man's inhumanity to man [and woman and child and beast] and his infinite humanity. It's universal and timeless and must get made.^[15]

Bridgers and Hemschoot, under their production companies Travelin' Productions and Colorado animation studioWorker Studio are also developing an animated documentary about decoratedWorld War II pilotJohn H. Ross.^[16]

• Sean Bridgers atIMDb
• Travelin' Productions Official Website, travelinproductions.com
• Interview with Sean Bridgers, bloody-disgusting.com

• 1968 births
• Living people
• Male actors from North Carolina
• People from Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• Western Carolina University alumni
• American male television actors
• American male film actors
• American male web series actors
• Web series directors
• Web series producers
• 20th-century American male actors
• 21st-century American male actors

• Articles with short description
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• Use mdy dates from July 2017
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