Actor Beau Bridges addresses students at Port Townsend High School during an assembly Friday. — Charlie Bermant/Peninsula Daily News

PORT TOWNSEND — Actor Beau Bridges compared success in sports to achievements in acting and life while addressing Port Townsend High School students.

Bridges began his 45-minute presentation Friday by quoting his college coach, famed UCLA coach John Wooden.

“He always told us to be quick but don’t hurry, and make every day your masterpiece,” Bridges said.

“He told us that success had nothing to do with winning; it was about peace of mind, which you find by leaving the task and knowing that you have done your very best.”

Bridges, 73, has worked since he was 7 years old in film, on television and on stage. He has 191 acting credits listed on the Internet Movie Database.

Among his awards are Golden Globes in 1992 and 1994; Emmys in 1992, 1993 and 1997; and a Grammy for the audiobook An Inconvenient Truth in 2009.

Bridges addressed about 350 students packed into the high school auditorium, speaking about acting, education, history, family and appearing on “Saturday Night Live.”

Bridges was interviewed onstage by film critic Robert Horton and introduced by retired actor and Port Townsend resident John Considine, with whom he worked in the 1960s.

Bridges’ father was actor Lloyd Bridges and his brother is actor Jeff Bridges, while several of his children are involved in the film industry in one way or another.

He said he is especially proud that all his children have graduated from college, something he regrets he didn’t do.

As a member of a famous family, Beau Bridges said he had some early advantages but had to work to move ahead.

“I was fortunate to have a really great dad who was devoted to his children, but he was also a really fine actor,” Bridges said.

“He taught me a lot about acting, and then I went to work, essentially in my father’s shop.”

He paid his acting dues beginning with several television jobs in the early 1960s, learning that “anything worthwhile takes patience and preparation.”

Bridges began his presentation at the beginning, with his birth Dec. 9, 1941.

“I was born in Los Angeles two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor,” he said.

“They thought the Japanese were going to cross the ocean and bomb the California coast, so the hospital was blacked out and the windows were boarded up.”

Bridges said the hospital would heavily sedate women giving birth so they wouldn’t make noise that could disclose their location.

He characterized his brother Jeff as “crazy” and told of a prank during the brothers’ joint appearance on a 1983 episode of “Saturday Night Live.”

Jeff Bridges played a masseuse and Beau a nervous client expecting a massage from a woman.

In an unscripted moment, Jeff yanked down Beau’s pants, leaving him onstage in his underwear and covered with oil.

In real life, Jeff Bridges is a skilled masseuse.

“When the family gets together, everyone wants a massage from my brother,” his brother told the students.

On the same show, the brothers opened with embarrassing digs at each other that led to fisticuffs, egged on by the voice of Lloyd Bridges, who said snarky things about each to the other.

“We wanted to get our dad out there and put him on the show, but they were too cheap to fly him out,” Bridges said.

“So we had him tape some things and used them in the show.”

The brothers worked together in 1989’s “The Fabulous Baker Boys,” filmed in Seattle and screened at the festival.

Beau said his brother was cast first in the film and wanted him to play the second role. The studio resisted, but Jeff insisted.

“Working with your family is the best because you cut right to the gist of things, and you don’t have to play any games,” he said.

“Beau” is actually a nickname. He was born Lloyd Vernet Bridges III.

“My father was a great teacher, a great mentor,” Bridges said.

“The word I heard all the time was respect: respect for yourself, respect for your fellow man and respect for the planet.

“I’ve tried to live that way myself, as much as I can.”

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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.