Dustin Hoffman life and biography

Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters.

Though not a classically handsome leading man, Dustin Hoffman quickly became a major actor in Hollywood, appearing in many major films produced in the 1960s through early 2000s. Hoffman took roles in films both edgy and commercial, in all genres. He received numerous honors for his work, including several Academy Awards.

Born on August 8, 1937, in Los Angeles, California, Hoffman was the second son of Harvey and Lillian Hoffman. His father worked as a prop supervisor at the Columbia movie lot, and later moved into designing and selling furniture. Raised in Los Angeles with his elder brother Ron, Hoffman was attending Los Angeles High School when he became interested in acting. He told Leslie Bennetts of the New York Times, "A big reason I went into acting was social: it was to meet girls. I wasn't athletic, I was a very bad student, there wasn't anything I felt I could do. Acting was the first time in my life when I felt attractive, the first time I felt as though I knew what I was doing. I loved it."
After briefly attending Santa Monica City College and dropping out, Hoffman studied music at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and Arts and acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. He also studied acting with Lee Strasberg, Lonny Chapman, and Barney Brown. Hoffman moved from Los Angeles to New York City to further his career and become a stage character actor.
While auditioning for many stage roles, Hoffman held a number of other jobs to support himself. He worked as a janitor in a dance studio, coat checker, dishwasher, and sold toys at Macy's. Hoffman made his stage debut in 1960 in Yes Is for a Very Young Man at Sarah Lawrence College. The following year, he made his Broadway debut in A Cook for Mr. General. That same year, Hoffman had his television debut in an episode of Naked City.
For the first two-thirds of the 1960s, Hoffman concentrated on the stage, appearing in a number of productions in the Northeast. In 1964, he appeared in several productions as a member of the Theatre Company of Boston, including Endgame and In the Jungle of Cities. In New York City the following year, Hoffman had roles in Harry, Noon and Night at the American Place Theatre. Other prominent New York roles for Hoffman included The Exhaustion of Our Son's Love and Eh?.
Hoffman also ventured into stage work. He worked on two productions for director Ulu Grosbard, serving as his assistant on a 1965 production of A View from the Bridge and a stage manager for a production that same year of The Subject Was Roses. Hoffman went on to direct at least two Broadway productions, Jimmy Shine in 1968 and All Over Town in 1974.
While Hoffman found success on stage, film proved to be the medium that made him a star. After making his film debut in 1967's Tiger Makes Out, the actor shot to stardom with another film released that year, The Graduate. In the film, which became a classic, Hoffman played 21-year-old Benjamin Brad-dock, a confused young man who is unsure of his future. His performance garnered him an Academy Award nomination and made him a leading man in film despite his short stature and lack of marquee good looks.
Hoffman's next film role was very different, but also went on to become a classic in American cinema. In 1969, he played the physically challenged street hustler Ratso Rizzo in the controversial Midnight Cowboy, the first X-rated film to be released by a major studio. His supporting role also led to an Academy Award nomination for best actor, while the film itself won the best picture Oscar. The same year Midnight Cowboy was released, Hoffman married his first wife, ballerina Anne Byrne. The couple had two children, Karina, a daughter from Byrne's first marriage whom Hoffman adopted, and Jenny.
As a film actor, Hoffman repeatedly took on challenging, complex roles, though not all of his films were hits. The 1969 film John and Mary focused on contemporary courtship, while 1970's Little Big Man was a western. In 1971, Hoffman also appeared in Straw Dogs as a mathematician who embraces violent solutions to attacks on his home. Seven years later, he played a committed criminal in Straight Time.
Hoffman also appeared in more acclaimed films in the 1970s. He received his third Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of comedian Lenny Bruce in 1974's Lenny. Hoffman scored another hit with 1976's All the President's Men. He played Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein in the drama about the men who helped reveal the Watergate scandal earlier in the decade.
Hoffman continued his reign at the box office with the 1979 hit Kramer vs. Kramer. Hoffman played Ted Kramer, an advertising executive with no real connections with his son or wife, played by Meryl Streep, until she walks out on him and their son. Hoffman's character is forced to raise his son alone. Hoffman's portrayal of Kramer won the actor his first Academy Award.
While filming Kramer vs. Kramer, Hoffman's own marriage was falling apart, something he drew on emotionally for the role. He divorced his first wife in 1980, and re-married in October of that year. Hoffman's second wife was Lisa Gottsegen, an attorney, and the couple went on to have four children: Jacob, Rebecca, Max, and Alexandra.
After Kramer vs. Kramer, Hoffman did not appear in another film for three years. When he returned to acting, he took on another unusual role. In the comedy Tootsie, Hoffman played an underemployed actor named Michael Dorsey. Because Dorsey has problems finding roles, he decides to dress as a woman to try out for a soap opera. The woman he creates, a middle-aged Southern actress named Dorothy Michaels, gets the role in the soap and becomes an icon, but the actor playing her falls for a co-star on the soap, played by Jessica Lange.
While Tootsie was popular with both critics and audiences, filming had not gone smoothly. Hoffman had a hand in developing the script, but was reportedly difficult on the set. He and director Sydney Pollack often clashed. However, Hoffman was proud of the product and attached to the characters he played. He told Leslie Bennetts of New York Times, "I really liked her. I started to feel about her the way I had never felt about a character before. She made me very emotional, very emotional. I still haven't understood it completely."
Though Hoffman had a solid film career, he never forgot his love of the stage. Throughout his career, he continued to appear in stage roles. One role he had coveted for many years was that of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman which he got to play in 1984 in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York City to many positive notices. The production was taped for a television special in 1985. In 1989, Hoffman played Shylock in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice in London and New York City.
Hoffman occasionally picked some unsuccessful projects. In 1987, he had a co-starring role with Warren Beatty in Ishtar, one of the worst film failures of all time. Shot in Morocco and New York City, the film focused on Hoffman and Beatty's characters, two failing singer-songwriters who have to get to Morocco to get work. The film went over budget, and at the time, was the most expensive comedy ever made with a $50 million price tag. After filming, there were many delays before it was finally released. Ishtar had to gross $100 million just to break even, but did not come close. The film opened to horrible reviews, and completely failed with critics and film audiences.
Hoffman was able to able to bounce back with his next role, autistic savant Raymond Babbitt in 1988's Rain Man. In this challenging role, Hoffman's character is kidnapped from his institution by his younger adult brother Charlie, played by Tom Cruise, so that he can get his hands on their father's estate from his brother's caretakers. Unlike Ishtar, Rain Man had critical and box office acclaim. Hoffman won an Academy Award for his performance.
After Rain Man, Hoffman did not have much box office success in the early 1990s. While his films had varying degrees of merit, they just did not bring in audiences. For example, Hoffman played the title character in 1991's Billy Bathgate, which was a huge box office failure. While 1991's Hook, directed by Steven Spielberg, did not fail as badly, another film released the next year flopped completely. In Hero, Hoffman played criminal Bernie LaPlanta who saves a number of passengers from a burning plane, risking his life, but does not receive acclaim for what he did because he allowed an imposter to take the credit.
By the mid-1990s, Hoffman began appearing in hits again. He played the lead in the drama Outbreak in 1995. Hoffman played Colonel Sam Daniels, a doctor who helps save the world from an infectious disease. He also appeared in quality films like American Buffalo, playing the thief in this adaptation of the David Mamet play.
The late 1990s and early 2000s were a time of continued success for Hoffman. At the end of the 1990s, he had starred in three films directed by Barry Levinson. Hoffman played a lawyer with a drug problem in 1996's Sleepers. In 1997's Wag the Dog, Hoffman played a Hollywood producer who creates a fake war to help make Americans pay less attention to a sex scandal involving their president. Hoffman and the film received many great reviews, with Hoffman being considered one of the best parts of the film.
He also nominated for another Academy Award. Hoffman's last film with Levinson was Sphere, playing a scientist working under water.
Hoffman's roles in the early 2000s continued to be varied and interesting. In 2002's Moonlight Mile, he played the father of an adult daughter who dies, and he and his wife find comfort in their relationship with her fiancé. The following year, Hoffman appeared in Runaway Jury, based on a novel by John Grisham. Hoffman played a Southern lawyer named Wendall Rohr. In 2004, Hoffman had one of the lead roles in I (Heart) Huckabees, as part of an existential detective duo with his film wife played by Lily Tomlin.
Some of Hoffman's later films were sizable hits. He had a supporting role in 2004's Finding Neverland, which starred Johnny Depp as playwright J.M. Barrie; Hoffman played the financier of his plays. Hoffman had a bigger hit in the 2005 comedy Meet the Fockers. In the sequel to 2000's Meet the Parents, Hoffman played the father of Greg (Gaylord) Focker, with Barbra Streisand as his film wife. That same year, Hoffman provided the voice of Tucker, a Shetland pony, in the family comedy Racing Stripes.
Of his drive as an actor and person, Hoffman told Bernard Weinraub of New York Times, "I've had to reinvent myself every day. I wasn't in a club in high school, I was never in the 'in' group, and in a way that's stuck with me . I've always felt like the underdog, right from the get-go, ever since even The Graduate. I really believed that was a fluke and I refused to believe I had arrived. And in a way I've been hanging on by my fingertips for the whole ride."

Awards:

Obie Award for best actor, Village Voice, for The Exhaustion of Our Son's Love, 1966;
Drama Desk Vernon Rice Award for performance for Eh?, 1967;
Theatre World Award for Eh?, 1967;
Golden Globe Award for most promising newcomer-male, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, for The Graduate, 1967;
BAFTA award for most promising newcomer, for The Graduate, 1968;
BAFTA award for best actor, for both Midnight Cowboy and John and Mary, 1969;
Drama Desk Award for outstanding performance, for Jimmy Shine, 1969; National Association of Theater Owners Star of the Year Award, 1976;
New York Film Critics Circle Award for best actor, for Kramer vs. Kramer, 1979;
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for best actor, for Kramer vs. Kramer, 1979;
Golden Globe Award for best actor in a motion picture (drama), Hollywood Foreign Press Association, for Kramer vs. Kramer, 1979;
Academy Award for best actor, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, for Kramer vs. Kramer, 1979;
National Society of Film Critics Award for best actor, for both Kramer vs. Kramer and Agatha ;
National Society of Film Critics Award for best actor, for Tootsie, 1982;
Golden Globe Award, best actor in a motion picture (musical or comedy), Hollywood Foreign Press Association, for Tootsie, 1982;
BAFTA award for best actor, for Tootsie, 1983;
Drama Desk Award for outstanding actor in a play, for Death of Salesman 1984;
Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for best actor in a play for Death of Salesman, 1984;
Golden Globe Award for best actor in a television movie, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, for Death of a Salesman, 1985;
Emmy Award for outstanding lead actor in a miniseries or a special, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, for Death of a Salesman, 1986;
Academy Award for best actor, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, for Rain Man, 1988; People's Choice Award for favorite dramatic movie actor, 1989;
Breline Film Festival Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement, 1989;
Honorary Associate of Arts degree, Santa Monica College, 1989;
People's Choice Award for world's favorite movie actor, 1990;
French Order of Arts and Letters, 1995;
Venice Film Festival Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, 1996;
Cecil B. DeMille Award, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, 1997;
BAFTA Britannia Award, 1997; American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, 1999.

Read more