Dustin Hoffman

• Born: August 8, 1937
• Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California

ACTOR

A versatile actor on the stage and in film, Hoffman soared in popularity after playing the engaging role of Benjamin in the acclaimed 1967 film,The Graduate.

Early Life

Dustin Hoffman was born in 1937 in Los Angeles, California, the second son of Lillian and Harry Hoffman, who was a first-generation Jew from Russia. Hoffman grew up surrounded by the influences of show business. His mother was a jazz pianist, and his father worked on props and sets for Columbia Pictures. In 1939, his older brother secured a walk-on part in the film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. His father later opened his own business, Harry Hoffman Furniture Company, which folded with the stress of the Great Depression. His mother stayed home to care for her two sons.

Hoffman’s first acting gig came when he was twelve years old. When he was in the seventh grade, Hoffman’s short stature landed him the role of Tiny Tim in a stage production of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (1843).

His mother encouraged Hoffman to play classical piano while in high school. Though musically inclined, he also enjoyed other school activities, such as track and tennis. Although Hoffman was not high-performing academically, he graduated in 1955 from Los Angeles High School before enrolling in Santa Monica City College to seek a degree in music. There he struggled to keep his grades up, and, to improve his grade point average, he took what he considered an easy course in drama performance. This class rekindled his desire to be an actor. After a brief time in college, Hoffman began lessons at the Pasadena Playhouse, where he cultivated an interest in method acting. Although performing was not easy for Hoffman, his passion for this art eventually propelled him to a lucrative and successful career.

Life’s Work

Hoffman was determined to succeed as an actor. In 1958, he left Los Angeles to further his acting career in New York. Upon arrival he lived briefly with his Pasadena Playhouse classmate, Gene Hackman, who had moved to New York with a similar goal. Later Hoffman resided with another aspiring actor, Robert Duvall. Acting jobs were scarce, so Hoffman paid his bills by working as a typist for a phone book company and as an attendant at a mental institution. Hoffman demonstrated and sold toys at Macy’s. Just as his dream was about to fade, Hoffman succeeded in gaining a role at Sarah Lawrence College in Gertrude Stein’s In Savoy: Or, Yes Is for a Very Young Man (A Play of the Resistance in France) (1946). Soon after, he was cast in a small Broadway walk-on part in A Cook for Mr. General (1961). Hoffman joined the Theatre Company of Boston and was paid for his part in Samuel Beckett’s En attendant Godot (1952; Waiting for Godot, 1954). He served as the assistant director for Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge (1956). He trained in method acting at Lee Strasberg’s well-known Actor’s Studio. When he was slated to appear in the Broadway play The Subject Was Roses (1964), which promised him the recognition of directors and film producers, he had an accident, resulting in life-threatening burns, that thwarted this opportunity. In 1965, Hoffman reemerged on stage in New York with Harry, Noon, and Night (1965). He began to gain attention for his acting, earning honors such as a Theatre World Award for Eh? (1966) and the Obie Award for best actor in The Journey of the Fifth Horse (1966), which was produced Off-Broadway.

Hoffman’s major break came with the New Hollywood filmmaking in the 1960s. His character acting style and unique looks proved advantageous when director Mike Nichols cast him as Benjamin Braddock in the 1967 motion-picture hit, The Graduate. Although Hoffman was in his thirties, he demonstrated the personality Nichols desired for the central role as a recent college graduate. This performance gained Hoffman his first Academy Award nomination and made his name recognizable to American filmgoers.

Hoffman has acted in films, television, and theater. His second Academy Award nomination was for his role as Ratso Rizzo in the 1969 best picture Midnight Cowboy, opposite Jon Voight. Other major film credits include Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things about Me? (1971), Papillon (1973), Straw Dogs (1971), Lenny (1974), All the President’s Men (1976), and Marathon Man (1976). He received yet another Oscar nod for Lenny. Hoffman at last won his first Academy Award for his role as Ted Kramer in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). His cross-dressing performance in Tootsie (1982) brought him another Academy Award nomination. Hoffman's second Oscar was earned for his performance as the savant Raymond Babbitt in Rain Man with Tom Cruise in 1988. He earned an Oscar nomination for lead actor as Stanley Motss in Wag the Dog (1997).

Hoffman then began branching out into various aspects of film and television. He produced the movies The Devil's Arithmetic and A Walk on the Moon, both in 1999. In the early 2000s, he began doing voice-overs for children's films—most notably, The Tale of Despereaux (2008) and the Kung Fu Panda series (2008–16). He also continued to perform in such popular live-action films as Runaway Jury (2003), Meet the Fockers (2004), I Heart Huckabees (2004), and Finding Neverland (2004). Hoffman finally made his directorial debut with the comedy Quartet in 2013; he had previously attempted to direct and star in 1978's Straight Time, only to hire Ulu Grosbard to helm the project instead. Hoffman went on to star in the BBC's romantic comedy series Roald Dahl's Esio Trot (2015), opposite Dame Judy Dench. After then appearing in several episodes of the new Netflix historical drama series Medici as the head of the main family, he played a patriarchal role again in the 2017 comedy-drama The Meyerowitz Stories, which was well received upon its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2019, he costarred in and served as an executive producer for the thriller Into the Labyrinth. Hoffman had planned to return to the stage in 2020 for the first time in 30 years to star in Scott Rudin's revival of Our Town. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Broadway theaters remained closed until 2021. Hoffman starred in the 2022 film As They Made Us, which was directed by Mayim Bialik. During the same year, he starred in Sam & Kate with Sissy Spacek and his son Jake Hoffman. Also in 2022, Hoffman was cast in Francis Ford Coppola's dystopian science film Megalopolis, which premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Hoffman married twice and had six children.

Significance

Hoffman has spent his lifetime pursuing his dream as an actor. He faced adversity and rejection many times before finding success in his early thirties. He gained recognition for his amazing ability to embody the complex characters he played in theater, in films, and on television. He demonstrated that hard work and persistence are often necessary to reach career goals, especially in the acting field. His performances in renowned films have enriched the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds. Hoffman received two Academy Awards, five Golden Globes, three honors from the British film industry, one Emmy Award, four Drama Desk Awards, the Cecil B. deMille Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. As Hoffman’s films continue to bridge the gap between generations, he has earned respect from younger filmgoers in his mature years. Hoffman’s energy and dedication in his performances enliven films and theater in the United States.

Bibliography

Dargis, Manohla. “Dustin Hoffman Stops Trying So Hard.” The New York Times, April 17, 2005.

Fear, David. "The Best of Dustin Hoffman: 20 Essential Roles." Rolling Stone, 8 Aug. 2017, www.rollingstone.com/movies/lists/dustin-hoffman-20-essential-roles-w495760/the-graduate-1967-w495767. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.

Grant, Meg. “Just Dustin.” AARP Magazine 52 (March/April, 2009): 30-33. C

Hattenstone, Simon. "Dustin Hoffman: Facing Down My Demons." The Guardian, 14 Dec. 2012, www.theguardian.com/film/2012/dec/14/dustin-hoffman-interview-simon-hattenstone. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.

Hoffman, Dustin. “Dustin Hoffman Has a Secret.” Interview by Meg Grant. Reader’s Digest 172 (June 2008): 36-38.

Lenburg, Jeff. Dustin Hoffman: Hollywood’s Antihero. 1983. Reprint. Lincoln, Nebr.: iUniverse, 2001.

Lenker, Maureen Lee. "Dustin Hoffman Remembers Midnight Cowboy's Un-X-pected Best Picture Win 50 Years Later." Entertainment Weekly, 7 Feb. 2020, ew.com/oscars/2020/02/07/dustin-hoffman-looks-back-midnight-cowboy-best-picture-x-rating/. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.

Sun, Michael. "Forty Years and $120 Million Later: Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopis to Debut at Cannes." The Guardian, 10 Apr. 2024, www.theguardian.com/film/2024/apr/10/francis-ford-coppola-megalopolis-cannes-film-festival-debut-forty-years. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.