He started his career as a contract performer for Columbia Pictures, appearing in films such as Sahara (1943), A Walk in the Sun (1945), Little Big Horn (1951) and High Noon (1952).

In 1940, Bridges joined the stock company at Columbia Pictures at $75 a week, where he played small roles in features and short subjects.

[3][4] He could be seen in The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance (1941), They Dare Not Love (1941), Doctor's Alibi (1941), Blue Clay (1941), Our Wife (1941), and I Was a Prisoner on Devil's Island (1941).

Bridges' Sea Hunt character Mike Nelson was also portrayed as a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary and sometimes appeared in uniform.

Bridges was in a Western at Universal directed by George Sherman, Red Canyon (1949), and a short at MGM, Mr. Whitney Had a Notion (1949).

Bridges had the star role in Trapped (1949) directed by Richard Fleischer for Eagle Lion and Rocketship X-M (1950) for Lippert Pictures.

Bridges was blacklisted briefly in the 1950s[7] after he admitted to the House Un-American Activities Committee that he had once been a member of the Actors' Laboratory Theatre, a group found to have had links to the Communist Party USA.

On TV he did "Rise Up and Walk" for Robert Montgomery Presents (1952) and "International Incident" for Studio One in Hollywood (1952) (the latter directed by Franklin J. Schaffner).

Bridges was in "The Long Way Home" for Goodyear Playhouse (1953), and appeared in The Kid from Left Field (1953) and City of Bad Men (1953) for Fox.

He had the lead in a horse movie, Prince of the Blue Grass (1954) and returned to England to make Third Party Risk (1954) for Hammer Films.

In Hollywood Bridges supported Joel McCrea in Wichita (1955) and had the lead in Roger Corman's low-budget Apache Woman (1955).

(1955) (the latter directed by John Frankenheimer), "The Ainsley Case" for Front Row Center (1956), "Across the Dust" and "Prairie Dog Court" for Chevron Hall of Stars (1956), and "The Silent Gun" and "American Primitive" for Studio One in Hollywood (1956).

Bridges gained attention in 1956 for his emotional performance on the live anthology program The Alcoa Hour, in an episode titled "Tragedy in a Temporary Town" written by Reginald Rose and directed by Sidney Lumet.

[13] Bridges did "The Regulators" for Studio 57 (1956), "They Never Forget" for The United States Steel Hour (1957), "Ride the Wild Mare" for The Alcoa Hour (1957), "Man on the Outside" for Studio 57 (1957), "The Sound of Silence", "Figures in Clay" and "The Disappearance of Amanda Hale" for Climax!, "Heritage of Anger" (1956) and "Clash by Night" (1957) for Playhouse 90, the latter with Kim Stanley.

Bridges gained wide recognition as Mike Nelson, the main character in the television series Sea Hunt, created by Ivan Tors, which ran in syndication from 1958 to 1961.

Bridges did "Lepke" (1959) for Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1960), "Ransom" (1960) (directed by Budd Boetticher) and "Image of a Drawn Sword" (1961) for Zane Grey Theatre.

He did a TV movie The Valley of Decision (1960), "Death of the Temple Bay" for The DuPont Show with June Allyson (1961), "Who Killed Julie Greer?"

[16] Bridges followed it with "A Hero for Our Times" for Kraft Suspense Theatre (1963), "Wild Bill Hickok – the Legend and the Man" for The Great Adventure (1964), "Cannibal Plants, They Eat You Alive" for The Eleventh Hour (1964) and "Exit from a Plane in Flight" for Theater of Stars (1965).

The part went to Jeffrey Hunter for the pilot episode The Cage and ultimately to William Shatner for the first incarnation of the television series.

The Loner earned solid reviews but was cancelled due to low ratings and a perception the show was too realistic or mature for audiences who expected escapist action from westerns.

He starred in a short lived series San Francisco International Airport (1970/71) and had a support role in a feature, To Find a Man (1972).

He continued in TV movies: Haunts of the Very Rich (1972), Trouble Comes to Town (1973), Crime Club (1973), Running Wild (1973), Death Race (1973), The Whirlwind (1974, with son Beau), and Stowaway to the Moon (1975).

He had a support part in The Fifth Musketeer (1979) starring Beau and was in Disaster on the Coastliner (1979), Bear Island (1979) and This Year's Blonde (1980) (as Johnny Hyde) Bridges appeared in Airplane!

Bridges was in Shining Time Station: 'Tis a Gift (1990) then reprised his comedy career with a supporting role in Hot Shots!

He starred in a TV movie In the Nick of Time (1992) and was in Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992), Devlin (1992), and Mr. Bluesman (1993) before reprising his old role in Hot Shots!

He did "Sandkings" (1995) for The Outer Limits (1995) with Beau, The Other Woman (1995), Nothing Lasts Forever (1995), and The Deliverance of Elaine (1996) and did voice work on Peter and the Wolf (1995).

In 2011, Bridges was posthumously named as one of six recipients that year of the Lone Sailor Award, which honors former Coast Guard servicemen who forged successful careers as civilians.