Richard Dreyfuss

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Richard Dreyfuss
Birth name Richard Stephen Dreyfus
Born October 29, 1947 (age 59)
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Spouse(s) Svetlana Erokhin (March 16, 2006 - present)
Janelle Lacey (May 30, 1999 - ?) (divorced)
Jeramie Rain (March 20, 1983 - August, 1995) (divorced) 3 children
Notable roles Curt Henderson in American Graffiti

Matt Hooper in Jaws

Elliot Garfield in The Goodbye Girl

Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Academy Awards
Best Actor
Won:
The Goodbye Girl (1977)
Nominated:
Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)

Richard Stephen Dreyfuss (born October 29, 1947) is an Oscar-winning American actor.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Dreyfuss was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish American parents Norman, an attorney and restaurateur, and Geraldine, a peace activist. His surname is Yiddish (a variant spelling of the surname literally meaning tripod). He spent his early childhood in Brooklyn and in Bayside, Queens, until he moved to Los Angeles with his family at age nine.

[edit] Career

Dreyfuss's acting career began while as a youth at the Beverly Hills Jewish Center. He debuted in the TV production In Mama's House when he was fifteen. He attended the San Fernando Valley State College (later re-named California State University, Northridge) for a year. He was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War and worked in alternate service for two years as a clerk in a Los Angeles hospital. During this time, he acted in a few small TV roles on shows like Peyton Place, Gidget, Bewitched and The Big Valley. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he also performed on stage on Broadway, off-Broadway, repertory, and improvisational theater.

Dreyfuss's first film part was a small, uncredited role in The Graduate; in that film he has only one line, "Shall I call the cops? I'll call the cops." He made a strong impression in the subsequent Dillinger and landed a role in the 1973 hit American Graffiti, acting with other future stars like Harrison Ford.

Dreyfuss played his first lead role in the Canadian film The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. He went on to star in box office hits Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, both directed by Steven Spielberg. For his portrayal of a struggling actor in The Goodbye Girl, he won an Oscar (at age 30), becoming the youngest actor at the time to ever win a Best Actor Award (this record has since been surpassed by Adrien Brody).

Between 1978 and 1982, Dreyfuss acted in several films, but none did particularly well at the box office. This led to a growing drug dependency, which ended one night in 1982 when his car hit a tree, and he was arrested for cocaine possession. He entered rehab and made a Hollywood comeback with the film Down And Out In Beverly Hills. In 1995, Dreyfuss was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his performance as Glenn Holland in Mr. Holland's Opus. Since then he has continued his career not only in the movies, but also in television and on stage. In April 2004, he appeared in the revival of Sly Fox on Broadway (opposite Eric Stoltz, René Auberjonois, Bronson Pinchot and Elizabeth Berkley).

In November 2004, he was scheduled to appear in The Producers in London, but withdrew from the production a week before the opening night. The media noted that Dreyfuss was still suffering from problems relating to an operation for a herniated disc in January, and that the part of Max Bialystock in the play is a physically demanding one. His assistant for the production stated that Dreyfuss was accumulating physical injuries that required him to wear physical therapy supports during rehearsals. Nathan Lane was brought in to replace Dreyfuss in the London production.

Dreyfuss has also dabbled with writing, notably teaming up with Harry Turtledove in 1995 to write The Two Georges, a conspiracy thriller set in an alternate reality in which the American colonies remained under British rule (published by Hodder and Stoughton, ISBN 0-340-62826-X).

He appeared as one of the survivors in the 2006 film Poseidon.

Dreyfuss is currently a Senior Associate Member of St. Antony's College, University of Oxford.

He says that according to family tradition, he is either a direct descendant or at least a relative of Alfred Dreyfus.[1] This is disputed by others.[2]

[edit] Personal life

From 1983 until 1995, Dreyfuss was married to Jeramie Rain, with whom he had three children. In 1999, he married Janelle Lacey. After divorcing Lacey, he married Russian-born Svetlana Erokhin on March 16, 2006, in Harrisonburg, Virginia, while there to speak at James Madison University. Dreyfuss and Erokhin now live in New York.

He suffers from bipolar disorder. In 2006, he appeared in Stephen Fry's documentary, Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, in which Fry (who also has the disorder) interviewed him about his life with manic-depression. [1]

[edit] Political activity

He has been outspoken on the issue of media informing policy, legislation, and public opinion in recent years, both speaking and writing to express his sentiments regarding the importance of privacy, freedom of speech, democracy, and individual accountability. [2]

Dreyfuss has organized and promoted campaigns to inform and instruct audiences in potential erosion of individual rights. On 16 February 2006, Dreyfuss spoke at The National Press Club in Washington, D.C. in hopes of prompting a national discussion on the impeachable charges against President George W. Bush On 17 November, 2006, Dreyfuss appeared on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher as a panel member to discuss the importance of teaching Civics in schools.

[edit] Miscellaneous

Dreyfuss has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Blvd.

Dreyfuss was originally supposed to reprise his role as Hooper in Jaws 2 as the character who was finding the Orca in the beginning. The proposal was denied when Peter Benchley was asked to include this in the screenplay.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Washington Post, January 22, 1978
  2. ^ New York Times, October 24, 2006

[edit] Filmography

Awards
Preceded by
Peter Finch
for Network		 Academy Award for Best Actor
1977
for The Goodbye Girl		 Succeeded by
Jon Voight
for Coming Home

[edit] External links

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