Jeff Bridges dedicated his Critics Choice Lifetime Achievement to his late father

After being handed his award by his co-star John Goodman, who hailed him "a legend", at the bash at Los Angeles' Fairmont Century Plaza on Sunday night (15.01.23), the 73-year-old actor told the audience: "Hey, it's my dad's birthday today. January 15. I wouldn't be up here without my dad.

He's the reason I'm up here. I can remember him loving show biz so much.

He loved acting so much. As a kid, you know, I said, 'Dad, I'm not sure if I want to be an actor,' and he goes, 'What are you talking about?' I said, 'painting maybe music.' He said, 'Jeff, don't be ridiculous. Being an actor, they're going to call on you to do all those things that you're interested in. Besides that, get to tell all these wonderful stories from all these different perspectives, people that are alive.'"

Bridges gushed about "the wonderful profession" of acting as he also mentioned his "supportive" family, including his mother Dorothy - who died aged 93 in 2009 - his wife Sue Geston, 69, and their three grown-up daughters, Isabel, 41, Jessie, 39, and Haley, 37.

He said: "This is a wonderful profession. He is so right. I am so glad I listened to him. The family that I grew up in was so supportive. My mother, some of you guys might have met her, she was the best actor in the bunch. We have Beau, my sister Cindy, so supportive. And I get to be supported by my beautiful, wonderfully talented wife, Sue. We have been married for 48 years. Three incredible daughters, Isabel, Jessie, and Haley."

The Academy Award winner also confessed to needing to Google himself to jolt his memory about making "a lot of movies".

Jeff laughed: "I've got to admit I checked out IMDb to look at my stuff, to prepare for the night. I said, 'Wow. I've made a lot of movies!' My gosh. All these little lifetimes, right? These actors. It's like these little families. Families that are coming together, trying to work together and make something beautiful. Pull up this one-time magic trick of making a movie. Doing our best. So, families, that's kind of what it all comes down to."