Dustin Hoffman
ALL ABOUT DUSTIN HOFFMAN
Full Name: Dustin Lee Hoffman
Date of Birth: 8 August 1937
Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California, USA
Spouse: Lisa Gottsegen (12 October 1980 - present) 4 children
Anne Byrne Hoffman (4 May 1969 - 6 October 1980) (divorced) 2 children
Trade Mark: Famous for taking a wide range of difficult roles, such as a crippled street hustler in Midnight Cowboy (1969); an actor pretending to be a woman in Tootsie (1982) and an autistic in Rain Man (1988).
Has a reputation for being difficult to work with.
Family: Father - Harvey Hoffman (set and furniture designer), Mother - Lillian Hoffman (amateur actress), Brother - Ronald Hoffman (attorney), Son - Maxwell Hoffman (actor; born on August 30, 1984), Jake Hoffman (actor; born on March 20, 1981), Daughter - Alexandra Hoffman, Rebecca Hoffman (actress; born on March 17, 1983), Jenna Byrne (actress; born on October 15, 1970), Karina Byrne
Salary: Rain Man (1988) $5,800,000+% of gross
Papillon (1973) $1,250,000
John and Mary (1969) $425,000
Midnight Cowboy (1969) $250,000
The Graduate (1967) $17,000
Bio:
After the release of two very different 1969 films, “Midnight Cowboy” and “True Grit”, a Life magazine cover featured a sketch of the films’ stars, Dustin Hoffman and John Wayne, and the line “A Choice of Heroes.” (The Academy chose Wayne.) A prime example of 1960s Hollywood’s tendency to reinterpret traditional notions of screen heroism, Hoffman burst upon the scene in Mike Nichols’ “The Graduate” (1967). As 21-year-old Benjamin Braddock, the nearly 30-year-old Hoffman proved emblematic for a generation that rejected the values of their parents but were still left uncertain and confused about their future. Navigating that treacherous strait between satiric caricature and Method drama, Hoffman delivered a hilarious yet profoundly moving performance. Somewhere between his comic seduction by Anne Bancroft’s Mrs. Robinson and his anguish in the film’s climactic wedding scene, Hoffman became a screen icon of unusual proportions. Although male stardom in Hollywood had featured many classically attractive or rugged types, Hoffman succeeded, in part, “because” of his unglamorous looks and short stature; he soon joined other unconventional looking performers like Barbra Streisand and Jack Nicholson as new stars for a new generation of moviegoers.
An Academy Award nomination for “The Graduate” was followed by another Oscar-nominated performance, as Ratso Rizzo in “Midnight Cowboy” (1969), a landmark in screen frankness in its depiction of the sordid world of street hustlers. Ratso was a wheezing, scruffy, dumb, tubercular loser; it was a refreshing case of a hot young actor unafraid to immerse himself in a physically unattractive character. Notable too was Hoffman’s willingness, after the success of “The Graduate,” to take a role essentially subsidiary to the lead character played by Jon Voight.
“John and Mary” (1969), though not a critical success, showed Hoffman’s ability to play a more conventional role as a young man confronting contemporary courtship rituals. He was more interesting, if amusingly out-of-place, in the Old West setting of the rambling satire “Little Big Man” (1970). Hoffman proved fascinating in Sam Peckinpah’s still controversial “Straw Dogs” (1971) as David, a timid mathematician who, on a research grant, had moved with his wife to her native village in the English countryside, partially to avoid campus unrest in the US. His manhood put to the test after his wife is assaulted, David protects his home from local toughs in a disturbing confrontation of escalating violence which he seemingly enjoys.
For “Lenny” (1974), Hoffman was nominated for an Academy Award, again in an unpleasant characterization: a complex, multi-dimensional portrait of the hard-driving social comedian Lenny Bruce. In “All the President’s Men” (1976), he played Carl Bernstein, the aggressive reporter who helped expose Nixon’s Watergate crimes. “Straight Time” (1978) failed to attract popular attention, but Hoffman’s acclaimed performance as a hard-core criminal stands as a hallmark of his approach to performance, which eschews easy sentiment in favor of three-dimensional grit.
Hoffman scored a popular success in 1979 with an atypically accessible performance (and his first Academy Award) in “Kramer vs. Kramer,” as a father who must develop a relationship with his young son when his wife walks out. If the subtext of “Kramer vs. Kramer” implied that a man could be a better mother than a woman, Hoffman’s next film, “Tootsie” (1982) tried to suggest that a man could be a better woman than a woman. In this amusing comedy about role reversal, Hoffman played an actor who masquerades as a woman in order to get a part on a soap opera and then promptly becomes a public role model as a liberated, feminist woman. Although “Tootsie” showed Hoffman’s continuing interest in transforming his physical appearance, his performance is somewhat atypically (if appropriately) warm; on some level it seems a valentine to underemployed actors, for whom Hoffman retains tremendous empathy.
His Broadway performance as Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman,” filmed in 1985, received mixed reviews. Competing with the ghost of Lee J. Cobb’s original stage performance and Hoffman’s own iconic definition as Benjamin Braddock, some found Hoffman too slight and too young–ignoring the fact that Hoffman was almost a decade older than Cobb when Cobb played the role on Broadway, and that Arthur Miller had described Loman as a small and “low” man.
After the notorious failure of “Ishtar” (1987), Hoffman won a second Academy Award for his riveting portrayal of an autistic savant in “Rain Man” (1988), hailed by some as one of the most objective, unsentimental portraits of a handicapped person in the American cinema. “Rain Man” also suggests a transitional point in screen history. Just as Hoffman came to prominence as the star for a 60s generation, his pairing in “Rain Man” opposite Tom Cruise suggests the passing of the mantle to a new star more accessible to the 80s generation of filmgoers. Viewed in a more cynical light, this project shrewdly packaged an aging respected actor with a hot young box-office champ thereby bestowing marketability upon the former and artistic credibility upon the latter.
His reputation as one of America’s greatest actors secured, Hoffman proceeded to star in a series of films that disappointed at the box office. He proved proficient in the Sidney Lumet-directed comedy-drama “Family Business,” playing the son of Sean Connery and the father of Matthew Broderick, but the screenplay let them all down. Hoffman turned in an amusing cameo in “Dick Tracy” (1990) as Mumbles (perhaps a commentary on how some critics have described his vocal delivery) but failed to convince with his somewhat stiff take on gangster Dutch Schultz in “Billy Bathgate” (1991). That same year, a costumed Hoffman fared better with a stylized portrayal of the sinister pirate captain “Hook” in Steven Spielberg’s lavish but uneven update of the Peter Pan story. Speaking with an accent inspired by pundit William Buckley, Hoffman’s villain was more comical than menacing. Though quite successful internationally (grossing approximately $200 million), “Hook” was seen as a flop at home. The failed romantic comedy “Hero” (1992) found Hoffman seemingly resuscitating Ratso Rizzo to play a small-time hood who unexpectedly performs an act of great heroism.
Hoffman bounced back big in a surprisingly traditional heroic role—first turned down by Harrison Ford—in the hit thriller “Outbreak” (1995). As a military specialist in epidemiology, Hoffman’s serious and dedicated Colonel Sam Daniels, MD is a thorn in the side of the other Army brass but the best man for the job when an unknown virus breaks out in the African rain forest and spreads to the USA. Hoffman’s behind-the-scenes reputation as a “difficult” perfectionist lent additional resonance to his performance. He followed with a turn as a petty thief in the film version of David Mamet’s play “American Buffalo” (1996).
Hoffman reunited with director Barry Levinson for a three-picture run beginning with “Sleepers” (1996), in which the actor offered a scene-stealing turn as a pony-tailed defense lawyer with substance abuse problems. “Wag the Dog” (1997) cast Hoffman as a slick Hollywood producer who is called upon to create a fake war to divert the country’s attention away from a presidential sex scandal. The actor’s droll turn as the moviemaker (reputedly inspired by Robert Evans) was the highlight of the film. “Sphere” (1998) teamed the actor with Sharon Stone, Samuel L Jackson and Peter Coyote as scientists on an underwater mission investigating the crash of a possible alien spacecraft.
In 1999, Hoffman was honored by the American Film Institute in “A Tribute to Dustin Hoffman,” a televised ceremony in where he was presented with an AFI Lifetime Achievement Award. His next major role came in 2002, with “Moonlight Mile.” Hoffman played a man whose daughter died and he and his wife (Susan Sarandon) find themselves seeking comfort in the company of her fiance (Jake Gyllenhaal). Hoffman had a brief but entertaining turn in the neo-noir caper film “Confidence” (2003) as the King, a surprisingly intimidating nightclub owner and crime boss (originally written as a burly Jesse Ventura type, the character was completely revamped with Hoffman’s input when the actor signed on to the film).
The actor than starred for the first time opposite his friend of many decades Gene Hackman in “Runaway Jury” (2003), an adaptation of the bestselling John Grisham potboiler, with Hoffman playing attorney courtly Southern attorney Wendall Rohr, who is drawn into a deadly confrontation over the attempts of a ruthless jury manipulator (Hackman)to influence the verdict of the case Hoffman’s character is passionately trying. Hoffman next joined the cast of writer-director David O. Russell’s eccentric fourth feature “I [Heart] Huckabees” (2004), playing opposite Lily Tomlin as a husband-and-wife team of “existential detectives” hired by Jason Schwartzman to unravel the mysteries that bedevil him. Hoffman followed with a charming supporting turn in “Finding Neverland” (2004) as the nervous but charming financier of the plays of “Peter Pan” creator J.M. Barrie (Johnny Depp), and he teamed with Barbra Streisand to play Ben Stiller’s eccentric parents in the comedy “Meet the Fockers” (2004), the sequel to the hit “Meet The Parents.” With his warm, genial, ever-smiling characterization of proud papa Bernie Focker, the sly Hoffman nearly stole the entire film.
Next up for the accomplished actor was an even more offbeat outing in which the once-so-serious actor provided the voice of the Shetland pony Tucker, who trains a zebra to be a race horse in the children’s film “Racing Stripes” (2005). Hoffman then gave a short—and at times ineffectual—performance as famed mobster Meyer Lansky in “The Lost City” (2006), first time director Andy Garcia’s glittering ode to pre-revolutionary Havana. In “Stranger Than Fiction” (2006), an intelligent comedy about an average IRS auditor (a bravely subdued Will Ferrell) who suddenly hears the voice of a narrator (Emma Thompson) writing his life before he lives it, including when and where he’s going to die, Hoffman gave a charming and rather droll performance as a literature professor helping the auditor come to grips with the running narrative inside his head. Hoffman was then set to be seen in “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” (2006), an 18th century thriller involving a man (Ben Whishaw) whose desperate need to connect with others leads him to try and capture the elusive aroma of young women, resulting in deadly consequences.
Trivia:
Dustin was actually considered for the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather
Dustin Hoffman played a woman named Tootsie in the film “Tootsie” and Dustin Hoffman’s actual mother’s nickname was Tootsie as well.
Dustin is the brother in law of Lee Gottsegen.
The film he got paid the most for was Rain Man $5,800,000 and profits.
Dustin was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for “Greatest Age Span Portrayed By A Movie Actor” for Little Big Man.
He portrayed a character from age 17 to age 121.
Dustin is proud of his home in the Kensington area of London.
Dustin has been great friends of Gene Hackman since 1956.
Dustin is the father to Jake, Rebecca, Maxwell and Jenna.
When first starting out Dustin had some hard times and ended up staying with Gene Hackman and his wife in their apartment.
Dustin parents named him after one of their favorite actors named “Dustin Farmum”.
Dustin was ranked 41st in the UK’s Empire magazine of Top 100 Movie Stars of all time in 1977.
Dustin has a reputation amongst his fellow actors as being difficult to work with.
Dustin is currently married to Lisa Gottsengen. They wed on October 12 1980 and since have had 4 children.
Dustin was first married to Anne Byrne Hoffman from May 4 1969 till October 6, 1980 where they got divorced after 2 children.
Dustin also trained at the Pasadena Playhouse for 2 years.
Dustin claims he went into acting because he “Did not want to work or go into the service”.
Dustin also got some formal training at Los Angeles Conservatory of Music.
While Dustin was attending College one of his friends told him to take an acting class because “Nobody Flunks Acting” so he did.
Dustin attended Santa Monica City College for a short period of time. He was forced to drop out due to bad grades.
Dustin graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1955.
Dustin is a mere 5’6 3/4″ tall.
Dustin birth name is Dustin Lee Hoffman.
Dustin was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award in 1998 for “Wag the Dog” and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy in 2000 for “The Devil’s Arithmetic.
Dustin appeared in “The Simpsons” under the name of Sam Etic.
Dustin won a People’s Choice Award in 1989 and 1990 for Favorite Motion Picture Actor.
As of 2001, Dustin has won 6 Golden Globe Awards and has been nominated 13 times.
Dustin won an Emmy Award in 1986 for the TV presentation of “Death of a Salesman”.
Dustin was nominated for an Academy Award in 1968 for “The Graduate”, again in 1970 for “Midnight Cowboy”, in ‘75 for “Lenny”, in 1983 for “Tootsie” and again in 1998 for “Wag the Dog” — he won the Academy Award in 1980 for “Kramer vs. Kramer” and again in 1989 for “Rain Man”.
Dustin composed a song “Shooting the Breeze” sung by Sting on Michael Aspel TV show (a UK series). Played piano on the show for the Sting performance.
Dustin did a TV commercial for Volkswagen automobiles in 1966.
In January 1999 Dustin was awarded $3 Million in damages and compensation in a case against a Los Angeles magazine that printed a computer generated image of Hoffman in a dress.
Quotes:
“A good review from the critics is just another stay of execution.”
“And that’s another reason to make this movie: We can put plays on film now, at a relatively small cost, and they will reach an audience they would never have reached otherwise.”
“Blame is for God and small children.”
“For me as an American, the most painful aspect of this is that I believe that that administration has taken the events of 9/11 and has manipulated the grief of the country and I think that’s reprehensible.”
“I believe - though I may be wrong, because I’m no expert - that this war is about what most wars are about: hegemony, money, power and oil.”
“I decided to become an actor because I was failing in school and I needed the credits.”
“I did a movie called Marathon Man and it was one of my best memories.”
“I did some writing and bought a book, and have been working on that as a film to act and direct in.”
“I envy people who can just look at a sunset. I wonder how you can shoot it. There is nothing more grotesque to me than a vacation.”
“I feel cheated never being able to know what it’s like to get pregnant, carry a child and breast feed.”
“I mean, I don’t think I’m alone when I look at the homeless person or the bum or the psychotic or the drunk or the drug addict or the criminal and see their baby pictures in my mind’s eye. You don’t think they were cute like every other baby?”
“I stopped working a few years ago because I just lost a spark that I’d had before. I thought I’d just try writing, and maybe start directing, but I did it very quietly.”
“I think the most insulting thing you can do to a director is to challenge when he or she is satisfied with your interpretation.”
“If there is no direct threat why are we invading?”
“If you have this enormous talent, it’s got you by the balls, it’s a demon. You can’t be a family man and a husband and a caring person and be that animal. Dickens wasn’t that nice a guy.”
“In my room as a kid… I’d play a fighter and get knocked to the floor and come back to win.”
“Life stinks, but that doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy it.”
“Myth is supposed to bring us together, but fantasy alienates us.”
“Next to that kid, we all look like onions.”
“Now, I’m simply working with people I want to work with. I just want to have good working experiences and let the dice fall where they may.”
“One thing about being successful is that I stopped being afraid of dying. Once you’re a star you’re dead already. You’re embalmed.”
“So when I told my parents I wanted to go into acting because I was flunking out of my first year of junior college, they were relieved that I had picked something other than joining the army. But I can’t imagine how they had high hopes for me.”
“Somehow I think it was declared very early on that I was the - if not the black sheep of the family, not a very good student.”
“The two basic items necessary to sustain life are sunshine and coconut milk.”
“There’s a rebirth that goes on with us continuously as human beings. I don’t understand, personally, how you can be bored. I can understand how you can be depressed, but I just don’t understand boredom.”
“Well first of all, it’s hard to shoot a movie and break for a long time and then come back and do, in a sense, one of the biggest scenes that each character had.”
“Well this is aptly called a junket, for both of us. I have never been to a house of prostitution, but I understand that you get in more than seven minutes.”
Filmography:
Dustin Hoffman Filmography as an Actor:
2008 Last Chance Harvey
2008 Kung Fu Panda
2008 The Tale of Despereaux
2007 Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emperium
2006 Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
2006 Stranger Than Fiction
2005 The Lost City
2005 Racing Stripes
2004 Meet the Fockers
2004 I Heart Huckabees
2004 Finding Neverland
2003 Runaway Jury
2003 Confidence
2002 Liberty’s Kids [Animated Series]
2002 Moonlight Mile
2001 Goldwyn: The Man and His Movies
2001 Tuesday
2000 The Directors: Barry Levinson
1999 The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
1998 Sphere
1997 Mad City
1997 AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards: Jack Nicholson
1997 Wag the Dog
1996 American Buffalo
1996 Sleepers
1995 Outbreak
1994 Comic Relief VI
1993 Earth and the American Dream
1992 Hero
1991 Remember Pearl Harbor
1991 Hook
1991 Billy Bathgate
1990 Dick Tracy
1990 The Earth Day Special
1989 Family Business
1989 Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt
1988 Rain Man
1987 Ishtar
1985 Private Conversations
1985 Death of a Salesman
1982 Tootsie
1980 AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards: Jimmy Stewart
1979 Agatha
1979 Kramer vs. Kramer
1978 Straight Time
1976 All the President’s Men
1976 Marathon Man
1974 Lenny
1973 Papillon
1972 Alfredo, Alfredo
1971 Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?
1971 Straw Dogs
1971 The Point
1970 Little Big Man
1969 John and Mary
1969 Midnight Cowboy
1968 Madigan’s Millions
1967 The Star Wagon
1967 The Tiger Makes Out
1967 The Graduate
1966 The Journey of the Fifth Horse
Dustin Hoffman Filmography as an Executive Producer:
1999 The Devil’s Arithmetic
Dustin Hoffman Filmography as a Producer:
1999 A Walk on the Moon
1978 Straight Time
Dustin Hoffman Filmography as a Songwriter:
1987 Ishtar
Dustin Hoffman Awards:
Academy
1997 Best Actor Wag The Dog
1988 Best Actor Rain Man
1982 Best Actor Tootsie
1979 Best Actor Kramer Vs. Kramer
1974 Best Actor Lenny
1969 Best Actor Midnight Cowboy
1967 Best Actor Graduate
American Film Institute
1999 Lifetime Achievement Award
Berlin International Film Festival
1989 Honorary Golden Bear
British Academy Awards
1983 Best Actor Tootsie
1969 Best Actor John And Mary
1969 Best Actor Midnight Cowboy
1968 Most Promising Newcomer Graduate
Golden Globe
1997 Best Actor in Musical or Comedy Picture Wag the Dog
1996 Cecil B. DeMille Award
1991 Best Actor - Musical or Comedy Hook
1988 Best Actor (Drama) Rain Man
1982 Best Actor - Musical or Comedy Tootsie
1979 Best Actor - Drama Kramer vs. Kramer
1976 Best Actor - Drama Marathon Man
1974 Best Actor - Drama Lenny
1969 Best Actor - Musical or Comedy John and Mary
1969 Best Actor - Drama Midnight Cowboy
1967 New Star of the Year - Male Graduate
1967 Best Actor - Musical or Comedy Graduate
L.A. Film Critics Association
1979 Best Actor Kramer vs. Kramer
New York Film Critics Circle
1979 Best Actor Kramer vs. Kramer
Screen Actors Guild
1997 Best Actor Wag the Dog
Venice International Film Festival
1996 Golden Lion for Career
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