Richard Dreyfuss

Actor

• Born: October 29, 1947
• Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York

Actor

Dreyfuss is an Academy Award-winning actor whose portrayal of regular guys as well as smart-mouthed wiseacres demonstrated his versatility.

Areas of achievement: Theater; entertainment; activism

Early Life

Richard Dreyfuss is the second of three children of Norman, an attorney and later a restaurateur, and Geraldine, a homemaker and an activist. The family lived in Brooklyn until relocating in 1950 to Bayside in Queens. In February 1956, the Dreyfusses decided to sell everything and relocate the family to Europe. After about six months, with almost all their money gone, the family returned home and relocated to Los Angeles. Dreyfuss’s first experience on stage was in various Hebrew School productions. As a freshman at Beverly Hills High School, he became interested in film. While still in high school, Dreyfuss began to act professionally at the Gallery Theatre in Los Angeles. Following high school graduation, he enrolled at San Fernando Valley State College, intending to major in drama. Conflict with a professor resulted in Dreyfuss changing his major to political science, appropriate for the son of an activist mother and a father reputed to have been a socialist. When Dreyfuss was drafted, the Vietnam War was raging. Against the war, Dreyfuss applied for conscientious objector status. At his hearing in 1967, later described by Dreyfuss as terrifying, he convinced the board of his sincerity and was required to serve two years of alternative service as a file clerk on the midnight shift at Los Angeles County General Hospital. He also was required to drop out of school.

During this time, Dreyfuss was also acting, playing various minor roles on television, specializing in the neurotic, nerdy type. Then he changed his stereotype to “young psychopath,” nabbing parts in Mod Squad and Judd for the Defense. Other television shows in which he appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s included Peyton Place, Room 222, and The Big Valley. His first work in film was one line in The Graduate (1967). He also had small parts in The Young Runaways (1968) and Hello Down There (1969). Dreyfuss relocated to New York to play Stanley in Julius Epstein’s play But, Seriously . . . (1969), which closed after two days. In the summer of 1969, Dreyfuss joined a theater company in Los Angeles, and in 1971 he was back in New York in two, short-lived Off-Broadway shows. Dreyfuss returned to Los Angeles, joined the Center Theater Group, and in 1972 played Dudley in a touring production of William Saroyan’s The Time of Your Life (1939), starring Henry Fonda. In film, his portrayal of Baby Face Nelson in the film Dillinger (1973) received strong reviews. His next good role was playing Curt Henderson, the witty but nervous intellectual in American Graffiti (1973). Critics praised his work, and Dreyfuss received his first starring role in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974). Playing an aggressive, money-grubbing Jew, Dreyfuss was both praised and condemned. Those who praised saw his portrayal of the main character as incisive and with just enough innocence to allow the audience to feel sorry for him. The critics saw the abrasive actions of Kravitz as playing into negative Jewish stereotypes.

Life’s Work

Dreyfuss’s next major role was playing an ichthyologist in Jaws (1975). He turned down the part three times before consenting to play Matt Hooper. Not happy at being on location in Martha’s Vineyard and concerned that the film would be “the turkey of the year,” Dreyfuss accepted the part. The film was a resounding success, and Dreyfuss, according to some critics, stole the show with his “cheeky charm.” Strong roles followed. Dreyfus played the obsessed lineman Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1976) and the actor Elliot Garfield in The Goodbye Girl (1977), winning an Academy Award. Then Dreyfuss had a series of films that were not memorable; he developed a reputation for being difficult on the set and having an addiction to drugs. In 1982, he crashed his car into a tree, and police found cocaine and Percodan painkillers in the vehicle. Dreyfuss was arrested for possession of illegal drugs and ordered to court-appointed rehabilitation. After three months of rehabilitation, he met Jeramie Rain, a television producer and writer. They married two months later, in March 1983, and had three children, Emily, Benjamin, and Harry. Rain contracted lupus and their second child was born with cancer in one of his eyes. Despite these personal problems, Dreyfuss conquered his addictions and worked to resurrect his career by accepting a variety of parts. He played an uptight businessman in Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), an aluminum siding con man in Tin Men (1987), an inexperienced public defender in Nuts (1987), and an actor turned dictator in Moon over Parador (1988). Success in these roles and his strong work ethic revised his image in Hollywood.

His depiction of the anal psychiatrist in What about Bob (1991) was a perfect counterpart to Bill Murray’s portrayal of Bob, his neurotic patient. Other roles followed, some small but important parts, such as Senator Rumsen in The American President (1994). One of his best roles was as the music teacher in Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995). Playing Glenn Holland, who had tried for thirty years to compose his symphony but was continually interrupted by commitments to his students and his family, Dreyfuss was nominated for an Academy Award. His work on the film prompted his interest in teaching of the arts in public schools, and, with the film’s director Stephen Herek, he founded Mr. Holland’s Foundation, to raise funds and support for music education.

In 2006, he appeared in the remake of the film Poseidon. Dreyfuss portrayed Vice President Dick Cheney in W., Oliver Stone's biopic about President George W. Bush. He had recurring roles on the television shows Weeds in 2010, Parenthood in 2011, and Your Family or Mine in 2015, and he has done voice work as himself for two episodes of Family Guy. In 2016, Dreyfuss portrayed Bernie Madoff, an investment advisor who ran the largest Ponzi scheme in US history, in the ABC television film Madoff.

In addition to roles in film, Dreyfuss has acted in Broadway productions. His role in the 1992 production of Ariel Dorfman’s play Death and the Maiden, a critique of Chilean politics, demonstrated Dreyfuss’s continuing interest in politics. He has worked as a producer, and he cowrote a novel with science-fiction author Harry Turtledove. The Two Georges (1995) is a what-if detective story, combining Dreyfuss’s interests in politics and in history. The alternative-history story concerns the theft and recovery of a painting that symbolizes the continuing union of North America and Britain. The premise is there had never been a separation between the United States and England, and to ransom the painting, the Sons of Liberty, a terrorist group, demands American independence from Britain. The book was nominated for the Sidewise Award for Alternative History. In 2001 and 2002, Dreyfuss played the title character in the critically acclaimed short-lived television drama The Education of Max Bickford. Dreyfuss has continued to act and to be involved in political issues. His interest in history resulted in a nationwide campaign to encourage the teaching of American civics in American public schools. To further this aim, he funded the nonprofit Dreyfuss Initiative in 2008. Dreyfuss divorced Rain in 1995. In 1999, he married accountant Janelle Lacey; they divorced in 2005. He married Svetlana Erokhin on March 16, 2006.

Significance

Dreyfuss is noted for his adept characterizations of guys who range from uptight neurotics to wisecracking charmers. Not afraid to take a chance on a variety of roles, Dreyfuss can pull his weight as a lead actor and in a supporting role.

Bibliography

Dreifus, Claudia. “Richard Dreyfuss.” Progressive (May 1993): 32-36. Print.

Dreyfuss, Richard. Interview by Nathan Rabin. A.V. Club. Onion, 8 Oct. 2009. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.

Kahn, Joseph P. “The Education of Richard Dreyfuss: He No Longer Cares to Be a Film Star.” Boston Globe 7 Feb. 2007: F1. Print.

Klemesrud, Judy. “Richard Dreyfuss Has Already Written His Oscar Speech.” New York Times 27 Oct. 1974: 143. Print.

Ryan, James. “The Comeback Kid Tries Again.” New York Times 14 Jan. 1996: H11. Print.