Jeff Bridges felt guilty after learning the scale of global hunger in the 1980s; he joined Hollywood stars to raise $176,000 through an anti-hunger television special | World News

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In January 1985, as critics debated whether Starman would make Jeff Bridges a star, the 35-year-old actor gave a breakfast interview to the Los Angeles Times to discuss world hunger. In the interview with the Los Angeles Times, He told reporter Deborah Caulfield that learning how many people die of starvation left him feeling tremendously guilty, since he enjoyed eating in nice restaurants and living in a nice home. He had been involved with the End Hunger Network for six years and had organised a benefit screening of the film. With other entertainers, he helped produce a television special that raised $176,000 with plans to air it in 50 more cities.

How did Jeff Bridges help launch a global anti-hunger movement

Bridges had been involved with the End Hunger Network for six years and had recently organised a screening of Starman to benefit it. He told the paper he became involved when he learned about the immensity of the problem. He identified two facts in particular. The first was that the number of people who died at Hiroshima dies of starvation every three days. The second was that more people die in five years from hunger and related diseases than in all the wars, revolutions and murders of the previous 150 years.Bridges said the most impressive fact was that hunger did not have to continue. He attributed this view to both conservative and liberal experts, who say there is plenty of food and technology available. He added that these resources had already ended hunger in about 40 countries since the Second World War. The figures in this section are Bridges’s own statements.

How did Bridges bring Hollywood stars together to fight global hunger

This left Bridges feeling “tremendously guilty”. He told the Times that he first felt he had to make some kind of giant, sacrificial gesture that he was not willing to make. He explained his reluctance in personal terms, saying that he liked eating in nice restaurants, flying first-class and living in a nice home.Rather than dwelling on that guilt, Bridges worked with friends to form an entertainment-industry contingent focused on world hunger. The article names Bud Cort, Dennis Weaver and Valerie Harper among them, along with his brother Beau and others. Bridges also linked the cause to his latest film, saying that in a way it was what Starman was about: that humanity is often at its best when things are at their worst, though people can become too calloused to see their own beauty.

How did Bridges’ anti-hunger television special raise $176,000

In the year before the interview, the group produced a show on the subject of hunger. The programme was hosted by Burt Lancaster, Gregory Peck and Jack Lemmon. When it aired in Los Angeles, the article states, it raised $176,000.The article adds that Bridges said plans were under way to air the special in 50 more cities in 1985. The same piece shows that his work on the issue ran alongside his film career, with the Starman benefit screening, the television special, and the upcoming Jagged Edge all discussed in the same interview. Bridges was searching for a project that could star the Bridges family, including his father Lloyd and his two brothers.