Actors - Richard Dreyfuss

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	Actors - Richard Dreyfuss

Richard Stephan Dreyfuss (born October 29, 1947, in Brooklyn, New York) is an Oscar-winning American actor.

Acting 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 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 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
, where he had 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, 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 possession of cocaine. He entered rehab and made a Hollywood comeback with the film Down And Out In Beverly Hills, proving that he was still one of Hollywood's most accomplished actors. 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.

He will next appear as one of the survivors in the The Poseidon Adventure
remake -- entitled Poseidon -- alongside Kurt Russell and Josh Lucas.

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

Personal life

He was born to a Russian-Jewish family as the son of attorney Norman and Geraldine "Gerry" Dreyfuss (born on March 10, 1921, in New York, died on October 19, 2000, in Los Angeles) in Brooklyn, New York. His surname is German, 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.

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