Richard Dreyfuss

Richard Dreyfuss
Dreyfuss at the Big Apple Convention in Manhattan, June 8, 2008.
Born	Richard Stephen Dreyfuss
Spouse(s)	Jeramie Rain (1983-1995) Janelle Lacey (1999-?) Svetlana Erokhin (2006-)

Richard Stephen Dreyfuss (born October 29, 1947) is an Academy Award-winning American actor, known for starring in a number of films, television and theater roles since the late 1960s. He is probably best known for his roles in Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and most recently, the 2008 bio-pic W. as current Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney.

Biography

Early life

Dreyfuss was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Norman, an attorney and restaurateur, and Geraldine, a peace activist. Dreyfuss is Jewish and his surname is of Yiddish origin, believed to originate in the German city of Trier, which had a large Jewish population in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The Latin name for the city was "Treveris", of which Dreyfuss is a variant. He commented that he "grew up thinking that Alfred Dreyfus and I are of the same family."

Career

Dreyfuss's acting career began while 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 and had one line, "Shall I call the cops? I'll call the cops." He was also briefly seen as a stage hand in Valley of the Dolls, in which he had a few lines. He made a strong impression in the subsequent Dillinger, and landed a role in the 1973 hit American Graffiti, acting with other future stars such as Harrison Ford and Ron Howard. Dreyfuss played his first lead role in the Canadian film The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.

He went on to star in the box office blockbusters Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, both directed by Steven Spielberg. Dreyfuss was originally supposed to reprise his role as Hooper in Jaws 2. It fell through when Peter Benchley was asked to include this in his screenplay.

At age 30, Dreyfuss became the youngest actor to win an Best Actor Award, for his portrayal of a struggling actor in The Goodbye Girl. This record has since been surpassed by Adrien Brody.

Around 1978, Dreyfuss began using cocaine frequently; his addiction came to a head four years later, when he was arrested for possession of the drug at the scene of a collision between his car and a tree. He entered rehab and eventually made a Hollywood comeback with the film Down And Out In Beverly Hills in 1986 and Stakeout the following year.

He had a starring role opposite Bill Murray in the 1991 hit comedy What About Bob? as a psychiatrist who goes crazy while trying to cope with a particularly obsessive new patient. While growing up in Beverly Hills, he lived within six blocks of Michael Burns, who became a preeminent expert on the Dreyfus affair and the author of Dreyfus: A Family Affair, 1789-1945. Dreyfuss later worked with Burns as producer and took on the role of Georges Picquart in Prisoner of Honor, a HBO movie about the historical incident released in 1991.

Dreyfuss and Allan Carr at the Governor's Ball party after the 1989 Academy Awards

In 1994, Dreyfuss participated in the historic "Papal Concert to Commemorate the Shoah (Holocaust)" at the Vatican in the presence of Pope John Paul II, Rav Elio Toaf, chief rabbi of Rome, and Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, President of Italy. He recited Kaddish as part of a performance of Leonard Bernstein's Third Symphony with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Gilbert Levine. The event was broadcast worldwide.

Dreyfuss was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his performance as Glenn Holland in Mr. Holland's Opus (1995). Since then he has continued working in the movies, 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 2001/2002, he played Max Bickford in the television drama The Education of Max Bickford.

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 and himself for the production stated that Dreyfuss was accumulating injuries that required him to wear physical therapy supports during rehearsals. Nathan Lane was brought in to replace Dreyfuss in the London production. It later emerged that he'd been fired.

Dreyfuss teamed 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). Dreyfuss recorded the voiceover to the famous Apple, Inc., then Apple Computer, Inc., Think Different ad campaign in 1999. The text of the ad begins, "Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels..."

In 2006, he appeared as one of the survivors in the 2006 film Poseidon. Dreyfuss portrayed U.S Vice President Dick Cheney in Oliver Stone's 2008 George W. Bush bio-pic W.

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

Personal life

From 1983 until 1995, Dreyfuss was married to Jeramie Rain, with whom he had three children: Emily Robin (born 1983), Benjamin Darrow (born 1986) and Harry Spencer (born 1991). 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 San Diego.

Dreyfuss's mother died on October 19, 2000 due to complications from a stroke.

Dreyfuss 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.

On August 9, 2008, it was reported that Dreyfuss is suing his father and uncle over a 24-year-old loan he claims was never repaid. He says he gave his relatives USD$870,000 in 1984 when they owned an interest in a Los Angeles office building. In court papers filed on August 8, 2008, he claims the loan is still outstanding and that his uncle, Gilbert, has refused to turn over financial records. He is reported to be seeking repayment of the loan, plus interest and punitive damages.

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 in favor of privacy, freedom of speech, democracy, and individual accountability.

Dreyfuss has organized and promoted campaigns to inform and instruct audiences in potential erosion of individual rights, a personal initiative he began in 2006 in light of political events in the U.S. On February 16, 2006, Dreyfuss spoke at The National Press Club in Washington, D.C. in hopes of prompting a national discussion on impeachment charges against U.S. President George W. Bush. On November 17, 2006, Dreyfuss appeared on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher as a panel member to discuss teaching civics in schools. Dreyfuss currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. In 2007, Dreyfuss appeared in the youth voting documentary film 18 in '08.

Appearing on an episode of The View to promote W., Dreyfuss described Oliver Stone as a "fascist", asserting that a person can have left-wing political views and still be a fascist. He also described W. as "...6/8 of a great movie."

Academic life

Dreyfuss has semi-retired from acting, and is involved in a nation-wide enterprise to encourage the teaching of American history in American primary schools.

Currently, he is a Senior Associate Member of St. Antony's College, University of Oxford.[1]

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1967	Valley of the Dolls	Assistant stage manager	uncredited
	The Graduate	Boarding House Resident	uncredited
1968	The Young Runaways	Terry
1969	Hello Down There	Harold Webster
1973	American Graffiti	Curt Henderson
	Dillinger	Baby Face Nelson
1974	The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz	Duddy
	The Second Coming of Suzanne	Clavius
	Inserts	Boy Wonder
1975	Jaws	Matt Hooper
1976	Victory at Entebbe	Colonel Yonatan 'Yonni' Netanyahu
1977	Close Encounters of the Third Kind	Roy Neary
	The Goodbye Girl	Elliott Garfield	Academy Award for Best Actor
1978	The Big Fix	Moses Wine
1980	The Competition	Paul Dietrich
1981	Whose Life Is It Anyway?	Ken Harrison
1984	The Buddy System	Joe
1986	Down and Out in Beverly Hills	David 'Dave' Whiteman
	Stand by Me	The Writer
1987	Tin Men	Bill 'BB' Babowsky
	Stakeout	Det. Chris Lecce
	Nuts	Aaron Levinsky
1988	Moon Over Parador	Jack Noah/President Alphonse Simms
1989	Let It Ride	Jay Trotter
	Always	Pete Sandich
1990	Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead	The Player
	Postcards from the Edge	Doctor Frankenthal
1991	Once Around	Sam Sharpe
	Prisoner of Honor	Col. Picquart
	What About Bob?	Dr. Leo Marvin
1993	Lost in Yonkers	Louie Kurnitz
	Another Stakeout	Detective Chris Lecce
1994	Silent Fall	Dr. Jake Rainer
1995	The Last Word	Larry
	The American President	Senator Bob Rumson
	Mr. Holland's Opus	Glenn Holland	nominated Academy Award for Best Actor
1996	James and the Giant Peach	Centipede	voice
	Mad Dog Time	Vic
1997	Night Falls on Manhattan	Sam Vigoda
	Oliver Twist	Fagin
1998	Krippendorf's Tribe	Prof. James Krippendorf
2000	The Crew	Bobby Bartellemeo/Narrator
2001	The Old Man Who Read Love Stories	Antonio Bolivar
	Who Is Cletis Tout?	Micah Donnelly
2003	Coast to Coast	Barnaby Pierce
2004	Silver City	Chuck Raven
2006	Poseidon	Richard Nelson
2007	Suburban Girl		uncredited
	Tin Man	Mystic Man	TV miniseries
2008	My Life in Ruins	Irv
	Signs of the Time	Narrator	Screening: August 23, 2008
	W.	Dick Cheney
	America Betrayed	Narrator	post-production
2009	Leaves of Grass	TBA	filming

External links

• Richard Dreyfuss at IMDb
• Richard Dreyfuss at the Internet Broadway Database
• Performance Working in the Theatre seminar video at American Theatre Wing.org, April 1992
• Richard Dreyfuss at the Oxonian Society - video
• Template:Tvtome person
• Footage of appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher on Youtube
• Richard Dreyfuss on "Being an American" from the documentary "18 in '08"