Dustin Lee Hoffman[According to the State of California (CA Birth Index). At Family Tree Legends. Retrieved 2008-01-23.] (born August 8, 1937)
is an American actor who has had an active career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He first drew critical praise for the 1966
Off-Broadway play
Eh? for which he won a
Theatre World Award and a
Drama Desk Award. This was soon followed by his breakout movie role as Ben Braddock in the 1967 film
The Graduate. After the success of this film, Hoffman's career has largely been focused in cinema with only sporadic returns to television and the stage. Some of his more important films are
Midnight Cowboy (1969),
Little Big Man (1970),
Lenny (1974),
All the President's Men (1976),
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979),
Tootsie (1982),
Rain Man (1988),
Hook (1991),
Sleepers (1996),
Wag the Dog (1997),
Meet The Fockers (2004), and
Last Chance Harvey (2008).
Respected for his versatility, Hoffman has won two
Academy Awards, six
Golden Globes, three
BAFTAs, three Drama Desk Awards, and an
Emmy Award. Dustin Hoffman received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999.
Early life
Hoffman was born in
Los Angeles, California,
the son of Lillian (
née Gold) and Harry Hoffman, who worked as a prop supervisor/set decorator at
Columbia Pictures before becoming a furniture salesman.
[Yahoo movies biography.][Film Reference.com biography.] Hoffman was named after stage and silent screen actor
Dustin Farnum. His brother, Ronald, is a lawyer and economist. Hoffman is from a
Jewish family, although he did not have a religious upbringing.
[Hoffman's Jewish return. Ynet.com. 19 November 2006.] He graduated from
Los Angeles High School in 1955. He enrolled at
Santa Monica College with the intention of studying medicine but left after a year to join the
Pasadena Playhouse.
Career
Early career
Hoffman began acting at the
Pasadena Playhouse with
Gene Hackman. After two years at the playhouse, Hackman headed for New York City, and Hoffman soon followed. He worked a series of odd jobs, including coat checking at restaurants, working in the typing department of the city
Yellow Pages directory, and stringing Hawaiian
leis, while getting the occasional bit television role. To support himself, he left acting briefly to teach. He worked as a professional fragrance tester for
Maxwell House. He also did the occasional
television commercial. An often-replayed segment on programs that explore actors' early work is a clip showing Hoffman touting the
Volkswagen Fastback.
In 1960, Hoffman landed a role in an
off-Broadway production and followed with a walk-on role in a
Broadway production in 1961. Hoffman then studied at the famed
Actors Studio and became a dedicated
method actor. His first critical success was in
Eh? by
Henry Livings which had its US premiere Off-Broadway at the Circle in the Square Downtown on October 16, 1966.
Through the early and mid-1960s, Hoffman made appearances in television shows and movies, including
Naked City,
The Defenders and
Hallmark Hall of Fame. Hoffman made his theatrical film debut in
The Tiger Makes Out in 1967, alongside
Eli Wallach.
Between acting jobs, Hoffman also made ends meet by teaching acting at a community college night school, and by directing off-broadway and community theater productions. In 1967, immediately after wrapping up principal filming on
The Tiger Makes Out, Hoffman flew from New York City to
Fargo, North Dakota, where he directed a production of
William Saroyan's
The Time of Your Life for the Emma Herbst Community Theatre. The $1,000 he received for the eight-week contract was all he had to hold him over until the funds from the movie materialized.
Major roles
In 1966,
Mike Nichols began casting
The Graduate. Negotiations with
Warren Beatty and
Robert Redford fell through, and Hoffman auditioned for the role. Before Hoffman, Charles Grodin had also been in consideration for the role but, according to one anecdote, refused to work for the amount offered. Hoffman had been set to play the role of Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in
Mel Brooks' 1968 movie
The Producers, but dropped out when he landed the role of Benjamin Braddock, opposite
Anne Bancroft, Brooks' wife. The film began production in March 1967. Hoffman received an
Academy Award nomination for his performance. After the success of this film, another Hoffman film,
Madigan's Millions, shot before
The Graduate, was released on the tail of the actor's newfound success. It was considered a failure at the box office.
In December 1968 Hoffman returned to Broadway to appear in the title role of
Murray Schisgal and
John Sebastian's
musical Jimmy Shine. For his performance in the production Hoffman won a
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance. Just a few weeks after leaving the production, Hoffman's next major film
Midnight Cowboy premiered in theatres across the United States on 25 May 1969. For his role as Ratso Rizzo in the film, Hoffman received his second Oscar nomination and the film won the
Best Picture honor. This was followed by his role in
Little Big Man, where he played Jack Crabb, who ages from teenager to a 121-year-old man in the film. The film was widely praised by critics, but was overlooked for an award except for a supporting nomination for
Chief Dan George.
Hoffman continued to appear in major films over the next few years.
Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?,
Straw Dogs, and
Papillon were followed by
Lenny in 1974, for which Hoffman received his third nomination for Best Actor in seven years.
Less than two years after the
Watergate scandal, Hoffman and
Robert Redford starred as
Carl Bernstein and
Bob Woodward, respectively, in
All the President's Men. Hoffman next starred in
Marathon Man, a film based on
William Goldman's novel of the same name, opposite
Laurence Olivier. Hoffman's next roles were not as successful. He opted out of directing
Straight Time but starred as a thief. His next film,
Michael Apted's
Agatha, was opposite
Vanessa Redgrave starring as
Agatha Christie.
Hoffman's next starred in
Robert Benton's
Kramer vs. Kramer as workaholic Ted Kramer whose wife unexpectedly leaves him to raise their son alone. Hoffman starred alongside
Meryl Streep in the film, which earned Hoffman his first Academy Award. The film also received the Best Picture honor, as well as Supporting Actress (Streep) and Director.
In
Tootsie, Hoffman portrays Michael Dorsey, a struggling actor who finds himself dressing up as a woman to land a role on a soap opera. His co-star was
Jessica Lange.
Tootsie earned ten Academy Award nominations, including Hoffman's fifth nomination.
Hoffman then turned to television in the role of Willy Loman in
Death of a Salesman, for which he won the 1985
Emmy Award for Outstanding lead actor in a TV movie or miniseries. He would also go on to win a
Golden Globe for the same performance.
Hoffman's largest film failure was
Elaine May's
Ishtar, with
Warren Beatty. The film received almost completely negative reviews from critics and was nominated for three
Razzie awards. However, Hoffman and Beatty enjoyed working on the film and tried to defend it.
, who later became a
country music artist, served as Hoffman's vocal coach in the film.
[James House Biography: OLDIES.Com]
In director
Barry Levinson's
Rain Man, Hoffman starred as an
autistic savant, opposite
Tom Cruise. Levinson, Hoffman and Cruise worked for two years on the film, and his performance garnered Hoffman his second Academy Award. Upon accepting, Hoffman stated softly to his fellow nominees that it was okay if they didn't vote for him because "I didn't vote for you guys either." After
Rain Man, Hoffman appeared with
Sean Connery and
Matthew Broderick in
Family Business. The film did relatively poorly with the critics and at the box office. In 1991, Hoffman voiced substitute teacher Mr. Bergstrom in the
The Simpsons episode "
Lisa's Substitute", under the pseudonym Sam Etic. As a reference to this episode, on the episode portraying the
Itchy & Scratchy movie, Lisa says that Dustin Hoffman has a cameo but doesn't use his real name.
Throughout the 1990s, Hoffman appeared in many large, studio films, such as
Dick Tracy (which reunite both him and his
Ishtar co-star Beatty, who played the titular character),
Hero and the ill-fated
Billy Bathgate (which he co-starred with
Nicole Kidman who was nominated for a
Golden Globe). Hoffman also played the title role of
Captain Hook in
Steven Spielberg's
Hook, earning a
Golden Globe nomination; in this movie, Hoffman's costume was so heavy that he had to wear an air-conditioned suit under it. Hoffman played the lead role in
Outbreak, alongside
Rene Russo,
Kevin Spacey,
Morgan Freeman,
Cuba Gooding Jr. and
Donald Sutherland. Following that, he appeared in
Sleepers with
Brad Pitt,
Jason Patric, and
Kevin Bacon. He starred opposite
John Travolta in the
Costa Gavras vehicle
Mad City.
It was in the mid-1990s that Hoffman starred in — and was deeply involved in the production of —
David Mamet's
American Buffalo, one of the very few "pure art projects" he is known for, and an early effort of film editor Kate Sanford. Hoffman gained his seventh Academy Award nomination for his role in
Wag The Dog. He next appeared in Barry Levinson's adaptation of
Sphere, opposite
Sharon Stone,
Samuel L. Jackson,
Peter Coyote,
Queen Latifah and
Liev Schreiber. Hoffman next appeared in
Moonlight Mile, followed by
Confidence opposite
Edward Burns,
Andy Garcia and
Rachel Weisz. Hoffman would finally have a chance to work with
Gene Hackman, in
Gary Fleder's
Runaway Jury, an adaptation of
John Grisham's bestselling novel.
More recently, Hoffman played theater owner
Charles Frohman in the
J. M. Barrie historical fantasia
Finding Neverland, costarring
Johnny Depp and
Kate Winslet. In director
David O. Russell's
I Heart Huckabees, Hoffman appeared opposite
Lily Tomlin as an
existential detective team.
Hoffman co-starred with
Barbra Streisand,
Robert De Niro and
Ben Stiller in 2004's
Meet the Fockers, the sequel to
Meet the Parents. Hoffman won the 2005 MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance. He was featured in cameo roles in Andy Garcia's
The Lost City and on the final episode of
HBO sitcom
Curb Your Enthusiasms fifth season. In 2006, Hoffman appeared in Stranger than Fiction, played the perfumer Giuseppe Baldini in Tom Tykwer's film Perfume: The Story of a Murderer and had a cameo in the 2006 film The Holiday.
In 2007, he was featured in an advertising campaign for Australian
telecommunications company
Telstra's Next G network,
[O'Sullivan, Matt. "Rap for Telstra over ad promise", Sydney Morning Herald, August 27, 2007.] appeared in the
50 Cent video "Follow My Lead" as a psychiatrist, and played the title character in the family film
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. In 2008, although he was reluctant to perform in an animated film, Hoffman had a prominent role in the acclaimed film
Kung Fu Panda, which was praised in part for his comedic chemistry with
Jack Black and his character's complex relationship with the story's villain. He later won the
Annie Award for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature for Kung Fu Panda. He next voiced Roscuro in
The Tale of Despereaux
and played the title character in
Last Chance Harvey.
Personal life
[
Hoffmann and family, Photographed by Ed Kavishe for Fashion Wire Press.jpg|thumb|150px|With Gottsegen (left), and Jake Hoffman (right), at [[Los Angeles Fashion Week] (2007)]]
Hoffman married Anne Byrne in May 1969.
[Dustin Hoffman at Tribute.ca. Retrieved 2008-01-23.] The couple had two children, Karina (b. 1966) and Jenna (b. 15 October 1970). Karina is adopted. The couple divorced in 1980. He married attorney Lisa Gottsegen in October 1980; they have four children —
Jacob Edward (b. 20 March 1981), Rebecca (b. 17 March 1983), Maxwell Geoffrey (b. 30 August 1984), and Alexandra Lydia (b. 27 October 1987). Hoffman also has two grandchildren. In an interview, he said that all of his children had
bar or
bat mitzvahs and that he is a more observant Jew now than when he was younger; he also lamented that he is not fluent in
Hebrew.
In 1970, Hoffman and Byrne were living in
Greenwich Village in a building next door to the townhouse destroyed by members of
The Weatherman when they detonated a bomb in the building's basement, killing three people. In the 2002 documentary
The Weather Underground, Hoffman can be seen standing in the street during the aftermath of the explosion.
A political
liberal, Hoffman has long supported the
Democratic Party and
Ralph Nader.
In 1997, he was one of a number of Hollywood stars and executives to sign an open letter to then-German Chancellor
Helmut Kohl, published as a newspaper advertisement in the
International Herald Tribune, which protested the treatment of
Scientologists in Germany.
[Bonfante, Jordan; van Voorst, Bruce (1997-02-10). "Does Germany Have Something Against These Guys?", Time]
Robert Duvall was a roommate of Hoffman's during their struggling actor years in
New York City. Duvall and Hoffman tease each other on the matter of acting training, as Duvall was trained by
Sanford Meisner whereas Hoffman was brought up on
Lee Strasberg's
method acting. Hoffman is still good friends with actor
Gene Hackman, who was also friends with Duvall during their years as starving actors.
Filmography and awards
