Dustin Hoffman
Acting
- Born:
- 1937-08-08
- Place of birth:
- Los Angeles, California, USA
Biography
Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. Actor Robert De Niro described him as "an actor with the everyman's face who embodied the heartbreakingly human". At a young age Hoffman knew he wanted to study in the arts, and entered into the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music; later he decided to go into acting, for which he trained at the Pasadena Playhouse in Los Angeles. His first theatrical performance was 1961's A Cook for Mr. General as Ridzinski. During that time he appeared in several guest roles on television shows like Naked City and The Defenders. He then starred in the 1966 off-Broadway play Eh? where his performance garnered him both a Theatre World Award and Drama Desk Award. His breakthrough role was as Benjamin Braddock in Mike Nichols' critically acclaimed and iconic film The Graduate (1967), for which he received his first Academy Award nomination. His next role was "Ratso" Rizzo in John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy (1969), in which he acted alongside Jon Voight; they both received Oscar nominations, and the film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. He gained success in the 1970s playing roles that shaped the craft of his acting, crossing genres effortlessly in the western Little Big Man (1970), the prison drama Papillon (1973), playing a controversial and groundbreaking comedian in Bob Fosse's Lenny (1975), Marathon Man alongside Laurence Olivier (1976), and as Carl Bernstein investigating the Watergate scandal in All the President's Men (1976). In 1979, Hoffman starred in the family drama Kramer vs. Kramer alongside Meryl Streep. They both received Academy Awards for their performances. After a three-year break from films, Hoffman returned in Sydney Pollack's show business comedy Tootsie (1982) about a struggling actor who pretends to be a woman in order to get an acting role. He returned to stage acting with a 1984 performance as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman and reprised the role a year later in a television film earning a Primetime Emmy Award. In 1987 he starred alongside Warren Beatty in Elaine May's comedy Ishtar. He won his second Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the autistic savant Ray Babbitt in the 1988 film Rain Man, co-starring Tom Cruise. In 1989, he was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for playing Shylock in a stage performance of The Merchant of Venice. In the 1990s, he made appearances in such films as Warren Beatty's action comedy adaptation Dick Tracy (1990), Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991) as Captain Hook, medical disaster Outbreak (1995), legal crime drama Sleepers (1996), and the satirical black comedy Wag the Dog (1997) alongside Robert De Niro.
Known For
Filmography
Hook: Never, Never Ending
The Revisionist
Tuner
Diamond
TOVAH
Megadoc
Twiggy
Stand-Up: The Laughing Therapy
Megalopolis
Kung Fu Panda 4
Reinventing Elvis: The 68' Comeback
Sam & Kate
Homeward Bound: A Grammy Salute to the Songs of Paul Simon
Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight
PRIDE: To Be Seen - A Soul of a Nation Presentation
As They Made Us
Billy Connolly: It’s Been a Pleasure...
Into the Labyrinth
Alan Pakula: Going for Truth
Hal
Hollywood: No Sex, Please!
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
Spielberg
Steve McQueen: American Icon
All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception, and the Spirit of I.F. Stone
Mike Nichols: An American Master
Medici: Masters of Florence
Kung Fu Panda 3
Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Scroll
Arthur Miller: A Man of His Century
The Program
Boychoir
Roald Dahl's Esio Trot
Led Zeppelin Played Here
The Cobbler
Chef
Kung Fu Panda: The Awesome Secrets Collection
All the President's Men Revisited
La Classe américaine
Close Up
Finding Your Roots
Luck
Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters
Kung Fu Panda 2
Little Fockers
Kung Fu Panda Holiday
Barney's Version
Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story
Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff
Against the Tide
Dustin!
Last Chance Harvey
The Tale of Despereaux
Michael Ballhaus - Eine Reise durch mein Leben
Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five
Visual Acoustics
Kung Fu Panda
A Better Man: The Making of 'Tootsie'
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
Trumbo
The Graham Norton Show
The Holiday
Stranger Than Fiction
Rachael Ray
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Telling the Truth About Lies: The Making of "All the President's Men"
Controversy and Acclaim: The Timelessness of a Groundbreaking Film
Close Up
Earth to America
The Reichen Show
The Lost City
Nos Bastidores de Hollywood
Racing Stripes
Meet the Fockers
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Finding Neverland
The Best of So Graham Norton
I ♥ Huckabees
Parkinson
After Midnight: Reflecting on a Classic 35 Years Later
Runaway Jury
Now Showing: Unforgettable Moments from the Movies
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
Confidence
Moonlight Mile: A Journey to Screen
Mantrap – Straw Dogs: The Final Cut
The Shakespeare Sessions
Moonlight Mile
Liberty's Kids
There's Only One Paul McCartney
V Graham Norton
Heart of the Festival
Reel Radicals: The Sixties Revolution in Film
Goldwyn: The Man and His Movies
Tuesday
Going the Distance: Remembering 'Marathon Man'
Big Brother's Little Brother
Finding the Truth: The Making of 'Kramer vs. Kramer'
Curb Your Enthusiasm
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
The Devil's Arithmetic
Billy Connolly: Erect for 30 Years
The Directors
Sphere
Warner Bros. 75th Anniversary: No Guts, No Glory
Wag the Dog
Mad City
Sleepers
American Buffalo
The Daily Show
MADtv
The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies
Outbreak
Jonas in the Desert
La Classe américaine
Aretha Franklin: Duets
Hero
Earth and the American Dream
Coucou c'est nous !
HBO First Look
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
'The Graduate' at 25
The Graduate at 25
Billy Bathgate
Hook
Dick Tracy
The Earth Day Special
Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey
The Simpsons
Family Business
Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt
Rain Man
This Morning
LIVE with Kelly and Mark
Sacrée soirée
Ishtar
Private Conversations: On the Set of ‘Death of a Salesman’
American Masters
Death of a Salesman
Night of 100 Stars II
Goldene Kamera
Tootsie
Strokes of Genius: de Kooning on de Kooning
Night of 100 Stars
Champs-Elysées
The Making of 'Tootsie'
Strokes of Genius: Arshile Gorky
Wetten, dass..?
The Sensational Shocking Wonderful Wacky 70's
Kramer vs. Kramer
Agatha
Straight Time
The South Bank Show
Bette Midler: Ol' Red Hair Is Back
Marathon Man
The Magic of Hollywood... Is the Magic of People
All the President's Men
Pressure and the Press: The Making of 'All the President's Men'
Dick Smith Make Up Artist
Lost in the Garden of the World
Lenny
Spécial cinéma
Free to Be… You and Me
Papillon
The Magnificent Rebel
Alfredo, Alfredo
On Location: Dustin Hoffman
Straw Dogs
Film '72
Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?
V.I.P. Schaukel
The Point
The Many Faces of Dustin Hoffman
Little Big Man
Treffpunkte
Arthur Penn: The Director
John and Mary
Midnight Cowboy
The Crowd Around the Cowboy
Madigan's Millions
The New Cinema
The Graduate
The Tiger Makes Out
The Star Wagon
The Journey of the Fifth Horse
NET Playhouse
ABC Stage 67
The Merv Griffin Show
The Nurses
The Mike Douglas Show
The Defenders
Naked City
Tony Awards
The Oscars
Today
Golden Globe Awards
Tower Stories
Franz Kline - Remembered