American leading man who has played his fair share of irritating pests and brash, ambitious hustlers, Dreyfuss worked his way up through bit parts (The Graduate, for one) and TV before gaining attention with his portrayal of Baby Face Nelson in John Milius' Dillinger. He gained prominence as a college-bound young man in American Graffiti and as a nervy Jewish kid with high hopes in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. By the latter part of the 1970s, Dreyfuss was established as a major star, playing leads (and alter-egos) for 'Steven Spielberg' in two of the top-grossing films of the that decade: Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He won a Best Actor Oscar in his first romantic lead as an out-of-work actor in The Goodbye Girl. Dreyfuss also produced and starred in the entertaining private eye movie The Big Fix. After a brief lull in the early 1980s, a well-publicized drug problem and a succession of commercial disappointments (The Competition, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, The Buddy System), a clean and sober Dreyfuss re-established himself in the mid-'as one of Hollywood's more engaging leads. He co-starred with Bette Midler and Nick Nolte in Paul Mazursky's popular Down and Out in Beverly Hills. That same year Dreyfuss provided the narration and appeared in the opening and closing "bookends" of Rob Reiner's nostalgic Stand by Me. He quickly followed up with Nuts opposite Barbra Streisand, Barry Levinson's Tin Men with Danny DeVito and Stakeout with Emilio Estevez. Dreyfuss continued working steadily through the end of the 1980s and into the 1990s, most notably in Mazursky's Moon Over Parador, Spielberg's Always, Postcards from the Edge and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. He appeared as a member of an ensemble that included Holly Hunter, Gena Rowlands and Danny Aiello in the romantic comedy _Once Around_ (1991)- and opposite Bill Murray in the successful comedy What About Bob?. Dreyfuss has also remained active in the theater (Death And The Maiden 1992) and on TV. He returned to features in the adaptation of Neil Simon's play Lost in Yonkers and followed with a supporting turn as the querulous political opponent in The American President. Dreyfuss received some of the best notices of his career as a determined, inspiring music teacher coping with a deaf son and the demands of his career in Mr. Holland's Opus.


What About Bob? (1991): $5,000,000
American Graffiti (1973): $480/week

Ranked #81 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997] Brother of Lorin Dreyfuss. Formerly, at age 30, the youngest man to win Oscar for Best Actor (The Goodbye Girl (1977)). He was beaten by Adrien Brody(29) at the 2003 ceremony. Was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. Has a great dislike for rock music. Auditioned for The Sound of Music (1965). Attributes much of his ability to end drug addiction to a life-altering vision experienced in hospital after a bad car crash. Under the influence of drugs while driving, Dreyfuss knew the crash was his fault. Though he was the only one injured, in his recovery state he was moved by the image of a beautiful little girl in a white dress. The girl served to remind him of the kind of innocent life he could have destroyed, and it compelled him to save his own life, he says, by confronting his drug demons. Claims to be a descendant of Alfred Dreyfus, who was wrongfully imprisoned at the notorious Devil's Island penal colony in French Guiana. Twice in his career he has left high profile musical productions due to his inabilty to cope with the physical demands of his roles. The first was in 1978 during pre-production of All That Jazz and most recently with the West End production of The Producers. In 2004, he announced his retirement from film acting, and that he would concentrate on theater. He implied that he decided upon this course due to a lack of recent work in film and that his greater passion was always theater. 18 October 2004 - Dropped out of his role as Max Bialystock in "The Producers" in a London production. He cited a continuing problem following back surgery and a recurring shoulder injury. He was replaced by Nathan Lane. In Stakeout (1987), his and Emilio Estevez's characters were quoting famous movie lines. Estevez said "This was no boating accident!" referring to Dreyfuss's character in Jaws (1975). During his struggling actor years, he was constantly subjected to the ridicule of Hollywood casting directors after auditioning. The actor had written up a little list of their names which he kept as a reminder that he would eventually find success. Was originally cast in the role of Joe Gideon in All That Jazz (1979), but left the production during the rehearsal stage. Passed on two sequels from films he made in the early/mid seventies: "American Graffiti" and "Jaws"... the sequels being "More American Graffiti" and "Jaws 2", both which came out in the late seventies. In each sequel his character is briefly mentioned as being away in a region with a cold climate... his "American Graffiti" character "Curt" is in Canada and his "Jaws" character "Hooper" is on an expedition in Alaska. In both sequels most of the original cast has returned to reprise their roles. Also, each original film was directed by two groundbreaking filmmakers, George Lucas and Steven Speilberg (both making their mark in the industry); and both sequels were directed by another director. In "The Buddy System" (1984), he played a mentor to Wil Wheaton's character in Wheaton's first film. Two years later, he played an adult version of Wheaton's character in "Stand by Me.". Lives in San Diego, California. Because of memory loss problems as a result of his drug addiction in the 70s and 80s, during the brief run of Complicit at the Old Vic in 2009 he controversially used an earpiece to enable the prompter to feed him his lines during performances. The play, co-starring Elizabeth McGovern and David Suchet and directed by Kevin Spacey, was widely ridiculed in the British press as a result. Commenting on his many fluffed lines, the Daily Mail's theatre reviewer quipped "We're going to need a bigger earpiece.".