Bradford Claude Dourif (born March 18, 1950) is an Academy Award- and Emmy-nominated American film and television actor, best known for his role as Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Gríma Wormtongue in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and as the voice of Chucky in the Child's Play series.
Dourif was born in Huntington, West Virginia. His father, Jean Dourif, was an art collector and owned and operated a dye factory. After Dourif's father died in 1953, his actress mother, Joan (née Bradford), remarried champion golfer William C. Campbell, who helped raise Dourif and his five siblings (three sisters and two brothers). From 1963 to 1965, Dourif attended Aiken Preparatory School in Aiken, South Carolina. There he pursued his interests in art and acting. Although he briefly considered becoming an artist, he was eventually inspired to become an actor by his mother's participation as an actress in a community theater. After Aiken Prep, he attended Fountain Valley School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, graduating in 1969.
Starting in school productions, he progressed to community theater, joining up with the Huntington Community Players, while attending Marshall University of Huntington. At age 19, he quit his hometown college and headed to New York City, where he worked with the Circle Repertory Company. During the early 1970s, Dourif appeared in a number of plays, off-Broadway and at Woodstock, New York, including The Ghost Sonata, The Doctor in Spite of Himself, and When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?, in which he was spotted by director Miloš Forman who cast him in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).
Although this film is frequently cited as his film debut, in fact, Dourif made his first big-screen appearance with a bit part in W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975). Nevertheless, his portrayal of the vulnerable Billy Bibbit in Forman's film was undoubtedly his big break, earning him a Golden Globe (Best Actor Debut) and a British Academy Award (Supporting Actor): he was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Skeptical of his instant stardom, Dourif returned to New York, where he continued in theater and taught acting and directing classes at Columbia University until 1988, when he moved to Hollywood.
Despite his attempts to avoid typecasting, he frequently plays eccentric or disturbed characters, starting in Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), John Huston's Wise Blood (1979), and Forman's Ragtime (1981). Dourif then teamed up with director David Lynch for Dune (1984) and Blue Velvet (1986).
He has appeared in a number of horror films, notably as the voice of the evil killer doll Chucky in Child's Play (1988) and its sequels. Dourif broke from the horror genre with roles in Fatal Beauty 1987), Mississippi Burning (1988), Hidden Agenda (1990), and London Kills Me (1991). He also played Gríma Wormtongue in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
On television, Dourif appeared in The X-Files episode "Beyond the Sea", for which he received an Emmy nomination portraying Luther Lee Boggs. He also played a murderous psychopath who eventually redeems himself, in a three-episode story arc on Star Trek: Voyager: Lon Suder, and has guest-appeared in shows such as Babylon 5.
He is a fan of video games and appeared as Saavedro in Myst III: Exile (2001), the third game in the popular Myst franchise, and as the sadistic preacher Reed in GUN (2005).
Dourif was cast as The Scarecrow in Batman Forever, while Tim Burton was attached to the project. However, Joel Schumacher eventually took over the project, and instead cast Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face and Jim Carrey as The Riddler.
Dourif played Doc Cochran in the HBO series Deadwood. He recently voiced Chucky in the fifth Child's Play film, Seed of Chucky, appeared in the film Sinner, and played Sheriff Brackett in Rob Zombie's version of Halloween.
Dourif was formerly married to businesswoman and self-proclaimed psychic Joni Dourif, with whom he has two daughters, Kristina and Fiona. He lives in Manhattan and plays the didgeridoo, an Australian Aboriginal musical instrument.
