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Richard Dreyfuss
Age: 62
Height: 5' 5"
Birth Place: Brooklyn, New York, USA
Born: Oct. 29th, 1947
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Richard Dreyfuss' Main TV Roles
NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at
IMDB
BIOGRAPHY: American leading man who has played his fair share of irritating pests and brash, ambitious hustlers, Richard Dreyfuss worked his way up through bit parts (The Graduate (1967), for one) and TV before gaining attention with his portrayal of Baby Face Nelson in John Milius' Dillinger (1973). He gained prominence as a college-bound young man in American Graffiti (1973) and as a nervy Jewish kid with high hopes in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974). By the latter part of the 1970s Dreyfuss was established as a major star, playing leads (and alter-egos) for Steven Spielberg in two of the top-grossing films of the that decade: Jaws (1975) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). He won a Best Actor Oscar in his first romantic lead as an out-of-work actor in The Goodbye Girl (1977). Dreyfuss also produced and starred in the entertaining private eye movie The Big Fix (1978). After a brief lull in the early 1980s, a well-publicized drug problem and a string of box-office disappointments (The Competition (1980), Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981), The Buddy System (1984)), a clean and sober Dreyfuss re-established himself in the mid-'80s as one of Hollywood's more engaging leads. He co-starred with Bette Midler and Nick Nolte in Paul Mazursky's popular Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986). That same year he provided the narration and appeared in the opening and closing "bookends" of Rob Reiner's nostalgic Stand by Me (1986). He quickly followed that with Nuts (1987) opposite Barbra Streisand, Barry Levinson (I)'s Tin Men (1987) in a memorable teaming with Danny DeVito and Stakeout (1987) with Emilio Estevez. Dreyfuss continued working steadily through the end of the 1980s and into the 1990s, most notably in Mazursky's farce Moon Over Parador (1988), Spielberg's Always (1989), Postcards from the Edge (1990) and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990). He appeared as a member of an ensemble that included Holly Hunter, Gena Rowlands and Danny Aiello in the romantic comedy Once Around (1991) and as a pop psychiatrist, the author of several successful self-help books, who is driven to the edge by nutcase Bill Murray (I) in the popular comedy What About Bob? (1991). Dreyfuss has also remained active in the theater ("Death and Maiden", 1992) and on TV. He returned to features in the adaptation of Neil Simon (I)'s play Lost in Yonkers (1993) and followed with a supporting turn as the querulous political opponent in The American President (1995). Dreyfuss received some of the best notices of his career as a determined, inspiring music teacher coping with a deaf son and the demands of his career in Mr. Holland's Opus (1995).
TRIVIA:
- Father of 'Ben Dreyfuss' (qv).
- Brother of 'Lorin Dreyfuss' (qv).
- (October 1997) Ranked #81 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list.
- One of six actors to appear in films directed by both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg (the others are Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson, Christopher Lee, Richard Dreyfuss and Samuel L. Jackson). Richard Dreyfuss is the only one whose films weren't part of the "Star Wars" or "Indiana Jones" series.
- Made his feature film debut in _Valley of the Dolls (1967)_ (qv).
- Was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War.
- Was originally cast in the role of Joe Gideon in _All That Jazz (1979)_ (qv), but left the production during the rehearsal stage.
- Because of memory loss problems as a result of his drug addiction in the 70s and 80s, during the brief run of Complicit at the Old Vic in 2009 he controversially used an earpiece to enable the prompter to feed him his lines during performances. The play, co-starring Elizabeth McGovern and David Suchet and directed by Kevin Spacey, was widely ridiculed in the British press as a result. Commenting on his many fluffed lines, the Daily Mail's theatre reviewer quipped "We're going to need a bigger earpiece.".
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