Richard Dreyfuss

He had an older brother, Lorin Dreyfuss (1944-2021), who was an actor, film producer and screenplay writer, and a younger sister, Cathy.

His father Norman suffered from the debilitating physical effects of a mortar explosion at the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, requiring the use of crutches, canes, and special footwear provided by the Army for the rest of his life.

He left the family when his son was 21 years old, and remarried more than once; he and his son were not on speaking terms at the time of his death.

Dreyfuss was raised in the Bayside area of Queens, New York.

His family is Jewish, descended from immigrants from Russia and Poland; the Dreyfuss family was from Rzeszow.

He has commented that he "grew up thinking that Alfred Dreyfus and [he] are from the same family" and that his great-grand aunt was Hesya Helfman, one of the assassins of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and the only one to escape execution for the deed.

His father disliked New York, and moved the family first to Europe, and later to Los Angeles, California, when Dreyfuss was nine.

Dreyfuss attended Beverly Hills High School.

Dreyfuss began acting in his youth, at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills Arts Center and the Westside Jewish Community Center, under drama teacher Bill Miller.

He debuted in the TV production In Mama's House, when he was fifteen.

He attended San Fernando Valley State College, now California State University, Northridge, for a year, and was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, working 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 such as Peyton Place, Room 222 , Gidget, That Girl, Gunsmoke, Bewitched, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, and The Big Valley.

He played a larger role in an episode in the second season of Judd, for the Defense.

Richard Stephen Dreyfuss (né Dreyfus; born October 29, 1947) is an American actor.

Dreyfuss was born on October 29, 1947, in Brooklyn, New York, the second and younger son of Norman Dreyfuss (1920–2013), an attorney, restaurateur and plastics company owner originally from a "violent gang culture in Brooklyn", and Geraldine ( Robbins; 1921–2000), a peace activist.

He is the second child of three children.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he also performed on stage on Broadway, Off-Broadway, repertory, and improvisational theater.

He was also briefly seen as a stagehand in Valley of the Dolls (1967), in which he had a few lines.

He is known for starring in popular films during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, including American Graffiti (1973), Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), The Goodbye Girl (1977), The Competition (1980), Stand by Me (1986), Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), Stakeout (1987), Nuts (1987), Always (1989), What About Bob? (1991), The American President (1995), and Mr. Holland's Opus (1995).

Dreyfuss appeared in the play The Time of Your Life, which was revived on March 17, 1972, at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles, and directed by Edwin Sherin.

Dreyfuss's first film role was a small, uncredited appearance in The Graduate.

He had one line, "Shall I get the cops? I'll get the cops."

In 1973 he starred in the CBS pilot Catch-22.

He appeared 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.

In five years, between 1973 and 1978, the films that Dreyfuss appeared in grossed upwards of $900 million.

Dreyfuss played his first lead role in the Canadian film The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974), receiving positive reviews, including praise from Pauline Kael.

Dreyfuss went on to star in box office blockbusters Jaws (1975) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), both directed by Steven Spielberg.

Dreyfuss won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1977 for The Goodbye Girl (at the time, the youngest-ever actor—age 30–to win), and was nominated in the same category for Mr. Holland's Opus in 1995.

He won the 1978 Academy Award for Best Actor at the 50th Academy Awards ceremony for his portrayal of a struggling actor in The Goodbye Girl (1977), becoming the youngest actor to do so (at the age of 30 years, 125 days old), besting Marlon Brando, who had won his first Oscar in 1955 at the age of 30 years, 360 days old.

Around 1978, Dreyfuss began using cocaine frequently; he claims to not remember anything from the production of the 1981 film Whose Life Is It Anyway?.

His addiction came to a head in 1982, when he was arrested for possession of the drug after he blacked out while driving, and his Mercedes-Benz 450 SL struck a tree.

He entered rehabilitation and eventually made a Hollywood comeback with the films Down and Out in Beverly Hills in 1986 and Stakeout the following year.

Dreyfuss had an important supporting role in the Rob Reiner movie Stand by Me, a 1986 coming-of-age drama/comedy film adapted from Stephen King's novella The Body.

Dreyfuss plays the elder Gordie Lachance (played by his Buddy System co-star Wil Wheaton), who narrates the film.

In 1988, he reunited with director Paul Mazursky to star in the political farce Moon over Parador.

In 1989, Dreyfuss reunited with Spielberg on Always, a remake of A Guy Named Joe in which he co-starred with Holly Hunter.

He had a starring role opposite Bill Murray in the 1991 comedy What About Bob?, as a psychiatrist driven to insanity by a particularly obsessive new patient.

He is the recipient of a Golden Globe and a BAFTA, and was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2002; for his starring role in the CBS drama series The Education of Max Bickford, and his portrayal of Alexander Haig in the Showtime film The Day Reagan Was Shot, respectively.

This record stood for 25 years until it was broken in 2003 by Adrien Brody, who was three weeks shy of age 30 at the time of the 75th Academy Awards ceremony.

Dreyfuss is still, however, the shortest to have ever won Best Actor, standing at about 5 foot 4¼ inches tall.