Born in Brooklyn, New York on October 29, 1947, Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss has starred in over 30 films and has emerged as one of the most beloved movie stars in Hollywood history.
Dreyfuss was raised in Brooklyn and Queens before moving to Los Angeles at the age of nine with his father, an attorney, and his peace activist mother. As a youth in Los Angeles Dreyfuss began acting at the Beverly Hills Jewish Center, and in his teens began appearing frequently in television shows like “Karen” and “Bewitched”. The talented actor decided not to attend college, instead focusing on his acting career. He continued guest-starring in television shows and briefly appeared in the 1967 Dustin Hoffman smash “The Graduate”. Two films in 1973, “Dillinger” and George Lucas’s “American Graffiti”, helped Dreyfuss nab larger roles including his memorable turn as an ambitious, working-class young man dealing with anti-Semitism in 1974’s Oscar-nominated “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz”.
Legendary director Steven Spielberg helped Dreyfuss become an A-list star with two famous starring roles in “Jaws” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” in the mid-70s. Often noted as a doppelganger for Spielberg himself in these films, Dreyfuss gave likeably nervous performances for Spielberg, especially as a working-class stiff who has a brush with destiny in the delightful “Close Encounters”. Now on the path to stardom, Dreyfuss charmed the world in one of his greatest roles in Neil Simon’s “The Goodbye Girl”. Starring alongside Marsha Mason, Dreyfuss earned an Oscar and a Golden Globe for the hilarious film, and was at the time the youngest male to receive the Oscar for Best Actor, a record only recently broken by Adrien Brody for “The Pianist”.
Also a noted actor on stage during his early years and today, Dreyfuss suffered a Hollywood drought until 1986’s “Down and Out in Beverly Hills”, during which he overcame a well-publicized drug problem. A string of hits followed in the late 80s, including the hilarious “Stakeout” alongside Brat-Packer Emilio Estevez, Spielberg’s “Always”, “What About Bob”, and “Postcards from the Edge”. After an unsuccessful “Stakeout” sequel in 1993, Dreyfuss gave one of his most memorable performances in the touching 1995 drama “Mr. Holland’s Opus”, which earned the actor a second Oscar nomination and remains an audience classic.
The well-liked actor has continued an illustrious career on the stage and screen, starring in films like “The American President” and the popular 1999 TV film “Lansky”. Dreyfuss is currently battling nature in the disaster flick “Poseidon” alongside Kurt Russell and young stars Emmy Rossum and Josh Lucas. He continues to be a prominent and outspoken political activist, and has called for President Bush’s impeachment on the grounds of First Amendment violations.