The Big Lebowski - Cast

Cast

• Jeff Bridges as Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski, a single, unemployed slacker living in Venice, California, who enjoys marijuana, White Russians, and bowling. Bridges had heard or was told by the Coen brothers that they had written a screenplay for him. The Dude is mostly inspired by Jeff Dowd, a member of the anti-war radical group the Seattle Liberation Front (The Dude tells Maude Lebowski during the film that he was one of the Seattle Seven, who were members of the SLF). A friend of the Coen brothers, Vietnam War veteran Pete Exline, also inspired aspects of the character. He actually found a twelve-year-old's homework in his stolen car.

• John Goodman as Walter Sobchak, a Vietnam veteran, The Dude's best friend, and bowling teammate. Walter places the rules of bowling second in reverence only to the rules of his religion, Judaism, as evidenced by his strict stance against "rolling" on Shabbos. He has a violent temper, and is given to pulling out a handgun (or crowbar) in order to settle disputes. He says the Gulf War was all about oil and claims to have dabbled in pacifism. He constantly references Vietnam in conversations, much to the annoyance of The Dude. Walter was based, in part, on screenwriter John Milius.

• Steve Buscemi as Theodore Donald "Donny" Kerabatsos, a member of Walter and The Dude's bowling team. Naïve and good-natured, Donny is an avid bowler and frequently interrupts Walter's diatribes to inquire about the parts of the story he missed or did not understand, provoking Walter's frequently repeated response, "Shut the fuck up, Donny!" This line is a reference to Fargo, the Coen brothers' previous film, in which Buscemi's character was constantly talking.

• David Huddleston as Jeffrey Lebowski, the "Big" Lebowski of the movie's title, is a wheelchair-bound (he lost the use of his legs in the Korean War) multi-millionaire who is married to Bunny and is Maude's father by his late wife. He refers to The Dude dismissively as "a bum" and a "deadbeat," and is obsessed with "achievement." Although he characterizes himself as highly successful and accomplished, it is revealed by Maude that he is simply "allowed" to run some of the philanthropic efforts of her mother’s estate.

• Julianne Moore as Maude Lebowski, a feminist and an avant-garde artist whose work "has been commended as being strongly vaginal." She introduced Bunny to Uli Kunkel. She beds The Dude solely to conceive a child, and wants nothing else to do with him.

• Tara Reid as Bunny Lebowski, the Big Lebowski's young "trophy wife." Born Fawn Knutsen, she ran away from the family farm outside Moorhead, Minnesota, and soon found herself making pornographic videos under the name "Bunny La Joya." According to Reid, Charlize Theron tried out for the role.

• Philip Seymour Hoffman as Brandt, the Big Lebowski's sycophant, who plays mediator between the two Lebowskis.

• Sam Elliott as The Stranger, the narrator, who sees the story unfold from a third-party perspective. His narration is marked by a thick, laid-back Texas accent. He is seen in the bar of the bowling alley, and converses directly with The Dude on two occasions. He expresses disapproval of The Dude's use of profanity and laziness, and adds the qualifier "parts of it anyway" when concluding that he enjoyed the film.

• Ben Gazzara as Jackie Treehorn, a wealthy pornographer and loan shark, who lives in Malibu, and employs the two thugs who assault The Dude at the beginning of the film. Bunny owes him a large sum of money.

• Peter Stormare, Torsten Voges, and Flea play a group of nihilists, (Uli Kunkel, Franz, and Dieter, respectively). They are German musicians (Kunkel, as "Karl Hungus," appeared in a porn film with Bunny), who, along with Kunkel's girlfriend (Aimee Mann), pretend to be the ones who kidnapped Bunny. The character of Uli originated on the set of Fargo between Ethan Coen and Stormare, who often spoke in a mock German accent.

• John Turturro as Jesus Quintana, an opponent of The Dude's team in the bowling league semifinals. A Latino North Hollywood resident who speaks with a thick Cuban American accent, and often refers to himself in the third person, insisting on the English pronunciation of his name rather than the Spanish. "The Jesus," as he refers to himself, is a "pederast" (according to Walter) who did six months in Chino for exposing himself to an 8-year old. Turturro originally thought that he was going to have a bigger role in the film but when he read the script, he realized that it was much smaller. However, the Coen brothers let him come up with a lot of his own ideas for the character, like shining the bowling ball and the scene where he dances backwards, which he says was inspired by Muhammad Ali.

Minor characters

• Jon Polito as Da Fino, a private investigator hired by Bunny's parents, the Knutsens, to entice their daughter back home. He mistakes The Dude for a "brother shamus."
• David Thewlis as Knox Harrington, the video artist
• Mark Pellegrino as Treehorn's blond thug
• Philip Moon as Woo, the rug-peeing Chinaman
• Jimmie Dale Gilmore as Smokey
• Jack Kehler as Marty, The Dude's landlord
• Leon Russom as Kohl, Malibu police chief
• Asia Carrera (uncredited) as the actress who co-starred with Bunny in the pornographic movie Logjammin'