Beau Bridges on What He Learned from Dad Lloyd and Brother Jeff: 'Respect Everyone' (Exclusive)

There’s one lesson Beau Bridges has never forgotten — and he has his dad Lloyd and brother Jeff to thank. 

The 81-year-old actor has always been protective of Jeff, eight years his junior, and he’s forever admired his dad, actor Lloyd Bridges, who died in 1998.

Hollywood became the family business (even if it didn’t feel that way), and the biggest rule Bridges learned from his relatives was simple but profound. 

"The word we heard a lot growing up was respect. You need to respect all the people that you’re working with, everybody that’s involved in making the film," he tells PEOPLE. "You need to respect yourself. You need to respect your fellow man."

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Bridges, who was born Lloyd Vernet Bridges III, has gone by the nickname Beau his entire life, and he’s credited as such in films like The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Descendants and his latest, Dreamin’ Wild, now in theaters. 

The Emmy winner and his father even starred together in the series Hearts of the West from 1993 to 1994. 

“I really loved making that series. My dad and I had a lot of scenes together,” Bridges recalls. “He was a regular in it with me. And so for that reason, it was really wonderful to work with my teacher, my mentor.”

Even with all of the success they found on the big and small screen, the family’s strong ties to Hollywood were never the focus, especially not for their father.

“We weren’t really a ‘Hollywood' family,” Bridges says. “My dad was a successful actor, but I don’t think he would’ve said that about himself. And it frustrated me. But he wanted us to really live a life of service. He had friends from all walks of life. He and my mom appreciated diversity of all kinds, and that inspired us.”

Bridges’s mother Dorothy died in 2009, but her impact on her children proves just as lasting as the lessons her husband taught them.

“My mom was wonderful at bringing the family together," the dad of five and grandfather of six explains, noting that he and Jeff, who lives about an hour and a half away from him with his wife Susan, try to get together once a month. "And now my wife Wendy does the same."

For more on Beau Bridges, pick up this week's issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now.