During the scripted intro of 1998’s The Big Lebowski, cowboy narrator Sam Elliott proclaims with a slow drawl: “He is the Dude. His rumpled look and relaxed manner suggest a man in whom casualness runs deep.”
The prophetic line doesn’t just speak volumes about the film’s lead character. It also describes the real-life Dude, Jeff Dowd, who inspired Joel and Ethan Coen to create a cinematic icon.
The film in turn spawned the pop phenomenon known as the Lebowski Fest, a nationwide circuit of fan events that arrives for the first time in Tampa Feb. 25-26.
Dowd, 61, like Bridges’ lead character in the beloved psychedelic comedy/Raymond Chandler knock-off, is himself an amiable, philosophical and laid-back fella nicknamed “The Dude.” A Hollywood producer/ promoter and champion of independent films, as well as a onetime environmental and antiwar activist, Dowd helped get both the Seattle Film Festival and Sundance off the ground. It was Robert Redford who indirectly brought him and the Coens together.
This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2011.