Dustin Lee Hoffman was born on August 8, 1937, in Los Angeles, California, the younger of two sons of Harry Hoffman (1902–1990) and Lillian (née Gold; 1907–1982).[9] His father worked as a prop supervisor (set decorator) atColumbia Pictures before becoming a furniture salesman.[10]
His upbringing wasnonreligious, and he has said, "I don't have any memory of celebratingholidays growing up that were Jewish", and that he had "realized" he was Jewish at around the age of 10.[18][19][20]
Hoffman graduated fromLos Angeles High School in 1955 and enrolled atSanta Monica College with the intention of studying medicine. But he decided to become an actor, and left in the following year to join the Pasadena Playhouse,[21] although when he told his family about his career goal, his Aunt Pearl warned him, "You can't be an actor. You are not good-looking enough."[22][23] He also studied withLee Strasberg and has stated that he did not study with eitherSanford Meisner orStella Adler.[24]
Hoffman initially hoped to become aclassical pianist, having studied piano during much of his youth and in college. While at Santa Monica College, he also took an acting class, which he assumed would be easy, and "caught the acting bug". He recalls: "I just was not gifted in music. I did not have an ear."[25] Now an aspiring actor, he spent the next 10 years doing odd jobs, being unemployed, and struggling to get any available acting roles, a lifestyle he was later to portray in the comedy filmTootsie. Hoffman composed a song called "Shooting the Breeze", alongsideBette Midler who wrote the words.[26]
Hoffman's first acting role was at the Pasadena Playhouse, alongside future Academy Award–winnerGene Hackman.[27] After two years there, Hackman headed for New York City, with Hoffman soon following. Hoffman, Hackman, andRobert Duvall lived together in the 1960s, whilst all three of them focused on finding acting jobs.[28][29] Hackman remembers, "The idea that any of us would do well in films simply didn't occur to us. We just wanted to work".[25] Hoffman's appearance—Duvall described him asBarbra Streisand in drag—and small size made him uncastable,Vanity Fair later wrote.[30] During this period, Hoffman got occasional television bit parts, including commercials but, needing income, he briefly left acting in order to teach.
DirectorMike Nichols auditioned Hoffman in 1966 for a lead role in theBroadway musicalThe Apple Tree but rejected him because he could not sing well enough, and gaveAlan Alda the part. However, Nichols was so impressed with Hoffman's overall audition that he cast him as the male lead in the movieThe Graduate (1967).[41] This role was that of Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate who has an affair with Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father's law partner. It was Hoffman's first major role; he received anAcademy Award nomination for it, but lost toRod Steiger forIn the Heat of the Night.
AlthoughLife magazine joked that "if Dustin Hoffman's face were his fortune, he'd be committed to a life of poverty",[23]The Graduate was a gigantic box office hit forEmbassy Pictures, making Hoffman a major new star at the same time. The film received near-unanimous good reviews.Time magazine called Hoffman "a symbol of youth" who represented "a new breed of actors". The film's screenwriter,Buck Henry, notes that Hoffman's character made conventional good looks no longer necessary on screen, "A whole generation changed its idea of what guys should look like. ... I think Dustin's physical being brought a sort of social and visual change, in the same way people first thought ofBogart. They calledhim ugly".[42] Hoffman's success amazed friends from his early years as an actor, who told him "You were the last one I expected to make it".[30] Biographer Jeff Lenburg wrote that "newspapers across the country were deluged with thousands of letters from fans", with one example published inThe New York Times: "I identified with Ben. ... I thought of him as a spiritual brother. He was confused about his future and about his place in the world, as I am. It's a film one digs, rather than understands intellectually".[43]: 35
Turner Classic Movies critic Rob Nixon notes that Hoffman represented "a new generation of actors". He credits Hoffman with breaking "the mold of the traditional movie star and brought to their roles a new candor, ethnicity, and eagerness to dive deep into complex, even unlikable characters."[44] Nixon expands on the significance of the film to Hoffman's career: "InThe Graduate, he created a lasting resonance as Ben Braddock that made him an overnight sensation and set him on the road to becoming one of our biggest stars and most respected actors."[44] Hoffman, however, mostly credits directorMike Nichols for taking a great risk in giving him, a relative unknown, the starring role: "I don't know of another instance of a director at the height of his powers who would take a chance and cast someone like me in that part. It took tremendous courage."[42]
Critic Sam Kashner observed strong similarities between Hoffman's character and that of Nichols when he previously acted withElaine May in the comedy team ofNichols and May. "Just close your eyes and you'll hear a Mike Nichols—Elaine May routine in any number of scenes."[42][45]Buck Henry also noticed that "Dustin picked up all these Nichols habits, which he used in the character. Those little noises he makes are straight from Mike", he says.[42] After completingThe Graduate Hoffman turned down most of the film roles offered to him, preferring to go back to New York and continue performing in live theater. He returned toBroadway to appear in the title role of the musicalJimmy Shine. Hoffman won aDrama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance. "I was a theater person. That's how my friends were, too, Gene Hackman and Bobby Duvall. I wasn't going to be a movie star. I wasn't going to sell out. We wanted to be really good actors. I told them, "I'm going out to make this movie. Don't worry, I'm coming right back."[46]
Hoffman was paid $20,000 for his role inThe Graduate, but netted just $4,000 after taxes and living expenses. After spending that money, Hoffman filed for New York Stateunemployment benefits, receiving $55 per week while living in a two-room apartment in theWest Village of Manhattan.[47] He was then offered the lead inMidnight Cowboy (1969), which he accepted partly to prove many critics were wrong about his acting range and the variety of characters he could portray.Peter Biskind wrote, "it was the very contrast between his preppy character inThe Graduate, and Ratso Rizzo" that appealed to Hoffman. 'I had become troubled,' recalls Hoffman, 'by the reviews that I read ofThe Graduate, that I was not acharacter actor, which I like to think of myself as. It hurt me. Some of the stuff in the press was brutal.'"[46] Critics assumed that directorMike Nichols got lucky by finding a typical actor with average acting ability to play the part of Benjamin Braddock.
John Schlesinger, who would directMidnight Cowboy and was seeking lead actors, held that same impression. Hoffman's performance as a button-down college graduate and track star was so convincing to Schlesinger, "he seemed unable to comprehend the fact that he was acting", notes Biskind.[46] To help the director, whom he had never met, overcome that false impression, Hoffman met him inTimes Square dressed as a homeless person, wearing a dirty raincoat, his hair slicked back and with an unshaven face. Schlesinger was sold, admitting, "I've only seen you in the context ofThe Graduate, but you'll do quite well."[46]Midnight Cowboy premiered in theaters across the United States in May 1969. For his acting, Hoffman received his second Oscar nomination and the film wonBest Picture. In 1994 the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by theLibrary of Congress and selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registry.[48][49][50] Biskind considers Hoffman's acting a major accomplishment:
Midnight Cowboy makes us a gift of one of the landmark performances of movie history: Dustin Hoffman's Ratso Rizzo, with Jon Voight's Joe Buck a close second. From a cesspool of dark, foul, even taboo material, ... it rescues a true humanism that need not hide its name.[46]
This was followed by his role inLittle Big Man (1970), where Jack Crabb, his character, ages from teenager to a 121-year-old man. The film was widely praised by critics, but was overlooked for an award except for a supporting nomination forChief Dan George. Hoffman continued to appear in major films over the next few years.Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971),Straw Dogs (also 1971), andPapillon (1973). He returned to Broadway in 1974, directingAll Over Town.[54] Hoffman next starred inLenny (1974), for which he was again nominated for Best Actor.Lenny was based on the life of stand-up comedianLenny Bruce, who died at the age of 40, and was known for his open, free-style and critical form of comedy which integrated politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. Expectations were high that Hoffman would win an Oscar for his portrayal, especially after his similar role inMidnight Cowboy. Film critic Katharine Lowry speculates that directorBob Fosse "never gave him a chance" to go far enough into developing the character. "We never understand what, besides the drugs he injected, made him tick like a time bomb", she says.[55]
However, notes authorPaul Gardner, "directingLenny, his most ambitious project, exhausted Fosse emotionally and physically. It turned his life inside out", with shooting days often lasting 10 to 12 hours:[56] "The Lenny Bruce project, based on Julian Barry's play, had gone through two studios and three scripts, and was a problem child, like Lenny himself. But Fosse wanted to do it, and he wanted Dustin Hoffman".[56] Hoffman initially turned the part down, saying: "I didn't think the script was strong enough and I wasn't sure I was the one to play the role." While considering the part, he read Lenny Bruce's autobiography and looked at films with Bruce performing stand-up to live audiences. In the same interview withPlayboy he recounted: "I began to feel an affinity with him, a realization that there was a lot of Lenny Bruce in me. My wife felt it too ... I realized that I'd have to make use of my own spontaneity because he was so spontaneous. And I admired his guts ... That intimacy is what an actor tries to get ... It occurred to me that if I had known him, I would have wanted us to be friends ... and he was a provocateur, and I love to provoke."[57] Movie criticJudith Crist gave Hoffman credit for the ultimate success of the film:
What is important is that Bruce's routines are so artfully reconstructed, the juice of his creativity so carefully strained, that the claim to genius is justified. And for that Dustin Hoffman deserves full credit, vanishing into the Bruce persona to simply stunning effectiveness,… Hoffman captures the restlessness, the velocity of a man's mouth straining to keep pace with a jet-propelled intelligence…[58]
All the President's Men (1976) was made less than two years after theWatergate scandal, and starred Hoffman andRobert Redford as the real-life journalists,Carl Bernstein andBob Woodward, respectively. Based on actual events, Hoffman and Redford playWashington Post reporters who uncover a break-in at theWatergate Hotel and end up investigating a political scandal that reaches all the way to the presidency. The film, as earlier ones, had Hoffman take on a dramatically different character than his previous one (as Lenny Bruce), although both men, Bruce and Bernstein, set their faces against abuses of institutional power, and the tendency for society to ignore such abuses. Author James Morrison compares the two roles: "As Lenny Bruce inLenny (1974), Hoffman plays a martyr to the cause of establishment oppression, while inAll the President's Men, he plays a reporter exposing presidential malfeasance."[60]
Vincent Canby ofThe New York Times described the film as "a spellbinding detective story". "The strength of the movie", he added, was "the virtually day-to-day record of the way Bernstein and Woodward conducted their investigations."[61] The characters portrayed by Hoffman and Redford shared the rank of No. 27 Hero onAFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains list, whileEntertainment Weekly rankedAll the President's Men as one of the 25 "Powerful Political Thrillers".[62]
WithBette Midler onThe Bette Midler TV Special (1977)
Hoffman next starred inMarathon Man (1976), a film based onWilliam Goldman'snovel of the same name, oppositeLaurence Olivier andRoy Scheider.[63] Its director,John Schlesinger also directed Hoffman inMidnight Cowboy in 1969. Described as "Schlesinger's thriller", by authorGene D. Phillips, Hoffman plays the hero, Babe Levy, a part-time long-distance runner and graduate student, who suddenly finds himself being pursued by a fugitive Nazi.[64] To put himself in the mindset of someone under severe emotional distress, Hoffman did not sleep for days at a time and let his body become disheveled and unhealthy. Olivier was alarmed when Hoffman turned up on set for the dental torture scene. Hoffman explained what he had done, and Olivier replied: "My dear boy, have you ever tried simply acting? It's much easier."[65]
Goldman describes his inspiration for the novel: "What if someone close to you was something totally different from what you thought? In the story, Hoffman thinks his brother (Roy Scheider) is a businessman where the reality is that the man is a spy, who has been involved with the Nazi, Szell."[66] However, Hoffman remembers a serious disagreement he had with Goldman, who also wrote the screenplay, about how the story ends:
I was called on, as the character, to fire point-blank at the Laurence Olivier character, Dr. Szell, and kill him in that last scene. And I said that I couldn't do it. Goldman was quite upset about it, because first of all, how dare I? He wrote the book. "Your job isn't to rewrite — your job is to play it as written." ... it got nasty. I said, "Go hire someone else." I remember Goldman saying: "Why can't you do this? Are you such a Jew?" I said, "No, but I won't play a Jew who cold-bloodedly kills another human being." ... And that's important to me, that I didn't shoot him in the end. Being a Jew is not losing your humanity and not losing your soul.[20]
Hoffman's next roles were also successful. He opted out of directingStraight Time (1978), but starred as a thief. His next film,Michael Apted'sAgatha (1979), was withVanessa Redgrave asAgatha Christie, focussing on the missing eleven days of the author's life. The part of Archie Christie was played byTimothy Dalton, then partner ofVanessa Redgrave, and later to star in James Bond movies. Dalton's depiction of cold indifference to his wife produced a perfect foil to Hoffman's portrayal of warm compassion, humor and sensitivity. The film had both romantic and comic moments whilst the overall plot cleverly mirrored one of Christie's detective novels.Agatha was generally very well received by critics, especially in the UK, and maintains an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Hoffman next starred inKramer vs. Kramer (1979) co-starringMeryl Streep and directed byRobert Benton. The film tells the story of a married couple's divorce and its impact on everyone involved, including the couple's young son. Hoffman won his firstAcademy Award, and the film also received the Best Picture honor, plus the awards for Best Supporting Actress (Streep), Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film required Hoffman to change his attitude, from being a "desensitized advertising art director" into becoming a "responsive and concerned daddy" after his wife (Streep) walks out on him and their six-year-old son, Billy. Hoffman, during the making of the movie, was also going through his own divorce after a ten-year first marriage. Hoffman has said, "Giving myself permission not only to be present but to be a father was a kind of epiphany for me at that time, that I could get to through my work. ... I got closer to being a father by playing a father. That's very painful to say."[57] The role also reminded him of his own love of children in general saying, "Children are more interesting than anything. I walk my younger child to school every day and I don't like leaving the school. I would like to sit down on those little chairs, at those little tables, and play. And a child's love is like a drug. To have a child throw his arms about you—it's instant stoned. People talk about the rush heroin gives you: I would say children give you that rush".[57]
Benton's directing has been praised by Hoffman, who credits him for inspiring the emotional level supporting many scenes: "Perfect directors make you emotional. OnKramer vs. Kramer, Robert Benton made me emotional. He was pulling so hard for me. When I didn't think I could do a scene again I'd say, "I can't give it to you, I haven't got it." Then he'd just get this look on his face and roll the camera and I'd say, "Okay, this is yours." That's what he made you want to do for him—to give him one."[67]
InTootsie (1982), Hoffman portrays Michael Dorsey, a struggling actor who finds himself dressing up as a woman to land a role on asoap opera. His co-star wasJessica Lange.Tootsie earned ten Academy Award nominations, including Hoffman's fifth nomination.[citation needed] Under direction bySydney Pollack, Hoffman's role demanded "a steady bombardment of opposites—edgy then funny, romantic then realistic, soft then quivering."[68] To film criticDavid Denby, Hoffman's character "embodies vulnerability and drive in perfect proportion. He has the knack of making everything he does seem perilous, and so audiences feel protective of him and root for him."[69] Hoffman's acting was made more difficult than necessary, however, as he was not given the rehearsal time Pollack promised, "I like to be very prepared, and I feel that the success or failure of a film is many times determined before you start principal photography. I wanted rehearsal very much. I was promised two weeks and was grieved that I didn't get it. We also followed the risky course of starting to shoot with a screenplay that wasn't completed".[70]
Fellow actorGary Oldman reported that, during a telephone conversation with Hoffman, the latter recalled having made comments toward a "very powerful" industry figure who ensured that he was unable to find work in Hollywood for some time followingTootsie.[71] In 1983, Hoffman became a Major Donor forThe Mirror Theater Ltd, alongsidePaul Newman andAl Pacino, matching a grant fromLaurance Rockefeller.[72] The men were inspired to invest by their connection withLee Strasberg, as Lee's then daughter-in-law Sabra Jones was the Founder and Producing Artistic Director of The Mirror.[citation needed]In 1983, Hoffman signed on to star inThe Yellow Jersey, which was to be a bicycle-racing drama set during theTour de France.[73] Hoffman was passionate about the project, considering several directors, firstlyMichael Cimino whom he later fired due to the director's uncompromising way of working.[74] The film's producers, however, failed to find a suitable replacement, so the film was not made.
In 1984, Hoffman starred asWilly Loman in the Broadway revival ofArthur Miller's playDeath of a Salesman.[75] He reprised his role in aTV movie of the same name, for which he won the 1985Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor along with aGolden Globe.[76] Hoffman first read the play at the age of 16, but today considers the story much like his own: "It was a blueprint of my family. I was the loser, the flunky, and my brother, a high-school varsity football player, was Biff."[25] AuthorMarie Brenner notes that Hoffman "has been obsessed with the play" throughout his career: "For years he has wanted to be Willy Loman; when he discovered that Arthur Miller was his neighbor in Connecticut, they began to talk about it in earnest."[77] For Hoffman, the story also left a deep emotional impact from the time he first read it, "I read that play, and I was just destroyed by it. It was like finding out something terrible about my family. I just shook. I felt like my family's privacy had been invaded. I couldn't even talk about it for weeks".[77] Hoffman rehearsed for three weeks with the play's original star,Lee J. Cobb, and remembers seeing his stage performance: "I'll never forget that period in my life. It was so vivid, so intense, watching Lee J. Cobb and his sixteen-inch guns as Willy. God, how I think about what I saw on that stage!"[77] Brenner adds that Hoffman "has been training like a boxer for the role that so exhausted Cobb he had to be replaced after four months."[77] The original play was directed byElia Kazan, who Hoffman considers "the perfect director, the best there ever was. ... God, I would have doneanything to have worked with Kazan."[77]
The thing I love aboutIshtar – and I love it with all of its flaws – is that it has a statement to make. And that is: It is far, far better to spend a life being second rate in something that you're passionate about, than to spend a life being first-rate at that which you are not passionate about. I thought that was worth making a movie about. These guys want to beSimon & Garfunkel, but they have no talent at all. They're middle-aged guys, and at the end of the movie they wind up singing "That's Amore" at a Holiday Inn in Morocco. It's fair. It's fair to make a movie about that.
Hoffman's worst film failure was Elaine May'sIshtar (1987), co-starringWarren Beatty, who also produced it. Hoffman and Beatty play two down-and-out singer-songwriters who travel toMorocco for a nightclub gig and get caught up in foreign intrigue. Much of the movie was filmed inAfrica. The film faced severe production problems, mostly related to its $55 million cost, and received overwhelmingly negative reviews. However, Hoffman and Beatty liked the film's final cut and tried to defend it.[79][80] Hoffman and Beatty were unaffected by the flop, andIshtar became acult film.Quentin Tarantino, for one, has called it one of his favorite movies, partly due to the humorous lyrics of the songs written byPaul Williams.[78]
Next came directorBarry Levinson'sRain Man (1988), where Hoffman starred as anautisticsavant, oppositeTom Cruise. Levinson, Hoffman and Cruise worked for two years on the film, and Hoffman's performance gained him his second Academy Award. Behind Hoffman's motivation for doing the film, he has said, "Deep inside,Rain Man is about how autistic we all are." In preparation for the part, Hoffman spent two years befriending autistic people, which included taking them bowling and to fast food restaurants. "It fed my obsession", he has stated.[81] Hoffman worked at theNew York Psychiatric Institute, affiliated withColumbia University, when he was 21. "It was a great experience for me", he said. "All my life I had wanted to get inside a prison or a mental hospital. ... I wanted to get inside where behavior, human behavior, was so exposed. All the things the rest of us were feeling and stopping up were coming out of these people."[57] He used that experience to help him develop the character of Raymond Babbitt, a high-functioning autistic savant, yet a person who criticDavid Denby described as "a strangely shuttered genius".[82] Hoffman created certain character traits for Raymond. Denby noted: "Hoffman, looking suddenly older and smaller, has developed a small shuffling walk for Raymond, with shoulder bent. His eyes don't make contact with anyone else's, and he flattens his voice to a dry nasal bark."[82]
Rain Man won fourAcademy Awards, includingBest Picture,Best Actor for Hoffman, andBest Director for Barry Levinson. Having worked closely with Hoffman for two years on filming, Levinson offered some opinions about his skill as an actor:
You can't define Dustin Hoffman, because he's unique. He's one of a kind and he's not one character. There is no Dustin Hoffman. He is many, many people. ... He can do comedy and he can do drama. He has an enormous range, and yet he's still Dustin somewhere in there. He's intelligent and has a great sense of how to connect with people, because he's very interesting. On a day-to-day basis, he's like an actor who's making his first movie, with the enthusiasm and energy to want to make things happen and try things and experiment.[83]
AfterRain Man, Hoffman appeared withSean Connery andMatthew Broderick inFamily Business (1989), directed bySidney Lumet. The story centers on the estrangement between Vito (Hoffman), a middle-aged man trying to succeed in a legitimate business, and his "hopelessly corrupt but charming father", Jesse (Connery). Critics were mostly not impressed with the story, although the individual performances were praised, especially Connery's.[84]
Because of their different acting styles and nationalities, some industry writers thought Connery and Hoffman might not work well together as close family members. "To the surprise of many", note Connery biographers Lee Pfeiffer and Lisa Philip, "the two superstars developed an immediate rapport and chemistry that translates onto the screen." And Lumet remembered: "Sean is extremely disciplined and Dustin is very improvisational, all over the place with his lines. I didn't know where it would end up, but Sean met Dustin improvisation for improvisation, and a great deal of richness and humor came out of it."[84]
In 1991, Hoffman voiced substitute teacher Mr. Bergstrom inThe Simpsons episode "Lisa's Substitute". He was credited under the pseudonym Sam Etic, a play on "Semitic".[85] Throughout the 1990s, Hoffman appeared in many large, studio films, such asDick Tracy (1990) (where hisIshtar co-star Beatty plays the titular character),Hero (1992) andBilly Bathgate (1991) co-starring withNicole Kidman (who was nominated for aGolden Globe). Hoffman also played the title role ofCaptain Hook inSteven Spielberg'sHook (also 1991), earning aGolden Globe nomination, and the narrator inDr. Seuss Video Classics:Horton Hears a Who! (also 1992); inHook, Hoffman's costume was so heavy that he had to wear an air-conditioned suit under it. Hoffman played the lead role inOutbreak (1995), alongsideRene Russo,Kevin Spacey,Morgan Freeman,Cuba Gooding Jr. andDonald Sutherland. In the film, Hoffman is a medical doctor, serving as a Colonel in the U.S. Army Medical Corps., working at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), who uncovers a newly discoveredEbola-like virus which came to the U.S. from Africa in an infected monkey. Hoffman races to stop the virus's spread and find a vaccine before it becomes a worldwide pandemic with no cure. It was one of the films that was produced by his production banner, Punch Productions.[86]The movie is described by criticRoger Ebert as "one of the great scare stories of our time, the notion that deep in the uncharted rain forests, deadly diseases are lurking, and if they ever escape their jungle homes and enter the human bloodstream, there will be a new plague the likes of which we have never seen."[87] CriticDavid Denby credits Hoffman with giving the movie much of its thriller-like quality:
Tanks and men pour in to herd the terrified population here and there, and Dustin Hoffman, as the supersleuth Army doctor, gives such a lip-biting, anguished performance he absolves the movie of slickness. Hoffman isn't good, exactly; he's tense, edgy, and righteous, like a B-movie actor from the fifties.[88]
Following that, he appeared in the 1996 revenge drama/legal thrillerSleepers (1996) with Robert De Niro,Brad Pitt,Jason Patric, andKevin Bacon. In the mid-1990s, Hoffman starred in—and was deeply involved in the production of—David Mamet'sAmerican Buffalo (also 1996), and an early effort of film editor Kate Sanford. In 1997, Hoffman starred oppositeJohn Travolta in theCosta Gavras filmMad City. Hoffman gained his seventh Academy Award nomination for his performance inWag The Dog (1997), in a role that allowed Hoffman the chance to work with bothRobert De Niro andDenis Leary. The movie is ablack comedy film[89] produced and directed byBarry Levinson, who also directed Hoffman inRain Man in 1988. The story takes place a few days before a presidential election, where a Washington, D.C. spin doctor (De Niro) distracts the electorate from a sex scandal by hiring a Hollywood film producer (Hoffman) to construct a fake war with Albania. Hoffman, as a caricature of real life producerRobert Evans, according to some, "gives the kind of wonderfully funny performance that is liable to win prizes, especially since its mixture of affection and murderous parody is so precise. Stanley (Hoffman) conducts business meetings in tennis clothes or in robe and slippers", notes criticJanet Maslin.[90]
He next appeared in another Barry Levinson film, the science fiction psychological thriller,Sphere (1998), oppositeSharon Stone. In 1999, Hoffman received theAFI Life Achievement Award and recalls the emotional impact that receiving the award had on him, "There was this reel of pictures, me playing all these different roles. I had my first—and only, thank God—panic attack. What followed was depression. ... It had to do with a central core in me, which was that I never felt I deserved success".[25] Hoffman next appeared inMoonlight Mile (2002), followed byConfidence (2003) oppositeEdward Burns,Andy García andRachel Weisz. Hoffman finally had a chance to work withGene Hackman inGary Fleder'sRunaway Jury (also 2003), an adaptation ofJohn Grisham's bestselling novel. Hoffman played theater ownerCharles Frohman in theJ. M. Barrie historical fantasiaFinding Neverland (2004), costarringJohnny Depp andKate Winslet. In directorDavid O. Russell'sI Heart Huckabees (also 2004), Hoffman appeared oppositeLily Tomlin as anexistential detective team member. In 2001, his Punch Productions company went to a first look deal with The Walt Disney Studios.[91]
As the title character inLast Chance Harvey, Hoffman acted with co-starEmma Thompson in the story of two lonely people who tentatively forge a relationship over the course of three days. DirectorJoel Hopkins notes that Hoffman was a perfectionist and self-critical: "He often wanted to try things stripped down, because less is sometimes more. He worries about every little detail."[25]
He appears inLittle Fockers, the critically panned yet financially successful 2010 sequel toMeet the Fockers.[93] However, his character plays a significantly smaller role than in the previous installment. In 2011, Hoffman reprised his role as Master Shifu in the commercially and critically successful animated filmKung Fu Panda 2.[94] In 2012, Hoffman's audiobook recording ofJerzy Kosinski'sBeing There was released atAudible.com. Hoffman starred in theHBOhorse racing dramaLuck, as a man involved inbookmaking and casino operations.Luck was canceled in March 2012 after three horses died on set.[95]
David Thomson ofThe Guardian described of Hoffman as a central figure of the late 60s, 70s and 80s" adding, "He is a part of what has turned out a very ambiguous vintage: it also includesJack Nicholson,Robert Redford,Warren Beatty andWoody Allen, actors who cannot quite make up their minds whether they are adorable still or national treasures."[115]
In 2017, theGotham Awards announced that they would recognize Hoffman for his lifetime achievement in film. The director of theIndependent Filmmaker Project (IFP) andMade in NY Media Center stated, "We are thrilled to present Dustin Hoffman with the Actor Tribute. Starting with his breakthrough role in the timeless classicThe Graduate to his highly praised turn in his upcoming film,The Meyerowitz Stories, Dustin's wide range of roles – often portraying antiheroes or the marginalized – and the creative choices he has embodied in these complex characters, has firmly placed him amongst the most compelling actors to have graced the screen."[116]
ActressElizabeth Marvel introduced Hoffman where she talked about the influence he has had over her career and stated, "His work is never anything less than extraordinary".[117]
In 2009, Hoffman received an Honorary Cesar Medal at theCésar Awards.[119] In 2012, Dustin Hoffman receivedKennedy Center Honors, with the following commendation: "Dustin Hoffman's unyielding commitment to the wide variety of roles he plays has made him one of the most versatile and iconoclastic actors of this or any other generation". Those who honored him at the ceremony includedRobert De Niro,Liev Schreiber,Naomi Watts, andBilly Connolly.[120]
Hoffman (center) with his wifeLisa and sonJake in 2007
After meeting in 1963,[30] Hoffman marriedAnne Byrne in May 1969.[121] He adopted Karina (born 1967), Byrne's child from a previous marriage, and with Byrne had daughter Jenna (born October 15, 1969). In 1970, Hoffman and Byrne were living inGreenwich Village in a building next door to a townhouse occupied at the time by members ofthe Weathermen, whena bomb was accidentally detonated in the townhouse's basement, killing three.[122] In the 2002 documentaryThe Weather Underground, Hoffman can be seen standing in the street during the aftermath of the explosion.[123][124] The couple divorced in 1980.
After Hoffman's separation, he began seeingLisa Gottsegen, their families having had a relationship together growing up.[125] She was finishing herJuris Doctor degree, and the couple married on October 12, 1980.[126] They have four children:Jacob Edward (born March 22, 1981), Rebecca Lillian (born March 17, 1983), Maxwell Geoffrey (born August 30, 1984) and Alexandra Lydia "Ali" (born October 27, 1987). Hoffman has a few grandchildren as of 2024.
In an interview, he said that all of his children from his second marriage hadbar orbat mitzvahs and that he is a more observant Jew now than when he was younger. He has also lamented that he is not fluent inHebrew.[127]
In 2017, seven women accused Hoffman of sexual misconduct or assault.[131][132][133][134] Anna Graham Hunter alleged that, while she was 17 and working as an intern on a TV production ofDeath of a Salesman, Hoffman made inappropriate jokes and comments around her and asked her to give him foot massages.[131][135] Hoffman released an apology to Hunter, saying "I have the utmost respect for women and feel terrible that anything I might have done could have put her in an uncomfortable situation", continuing, "I am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am."[136] Online magazineSlate reported in 2017 thatMeryl Streep had differences with Hoffman which include him slapping her in a scene and him groping her breast.[137] However, a representative for Meryl Streep responded toSlate saying it was not an accurate rendering of their 1979 meeting. Streep's representative stated "there was an offense and it is something for which Dustin apologized. And Meryl accepted that."[131][138][139][140]
In December 2017, comedianJohn Oliver unexpectedly questioned Hoffman about the allegations during the 20th anniversary screening ofWag the Dog at the92nd Street Y. "It's 'not reflective of who I am' – it's that kind of response to this stuff that pisses me off," Oliver said. "Do you understand how that feels like a dismissal?" Hoffman said he felt blindsided by the line of questioning, remarking "You've made the case better than anyone else can. I'm guilty. Because someone has alleged something, I'm guilty. You push a button. It's all over the world: I'm a predator. I'm this and that, and it's not true."[141] Hoffman has not publicly responded to the other six allegations.[142][143]
Bill Murray, who costarred with Hoffman inTootsie (1982) andThe Lost City (2005), defended him, saying, "I heard what happened to him, and Dustin Hoffman is a really decent person. He's crazy, aBorscht Belt flirt, has been his whole life. (But) he's a really sweet man."[144] ActorsChevy Chase[145] andLiam Neeson[146] also came to his defense.
^Maslin, Janet (December 26, 1997)."Film Review; If The Going Gets Tough, Get A Pet Or Start A War".The New York Times. RetrievedJuly 8, 2019.Mr. Hoffman, offering a best-case caricature of the producer Robert Evans, gives the kind of wonderfully funny performance that is liable to win prizes, especially since its mixture of affection and murderous parody is so precise. Stanley conducts business meetings in tennis clothes or in robe and slippers.
^Nelan, Bruce W. (February 10, 1997)."Does Germany Have Something Against These Guys?".Time.Archived from the original on May 20, 2013.Until last month, only the Scientologists and human-rights observers were paying much attention to what was going on in Germany. Then a startling letter appeared in the International Herald Tribune, signed by 34 show-biz celebrities and studio executives, comparing the purported discrimination suffered by Scientologists in Germany today to the "unspeakable horrors" perpetrated against the Jews in the 1930s. That comparison provoked outrage in the American Jewish community. Last week the State Department stepped in to address the charges in its influential yearly Human Rights Report. Spokesman Nicholas Burns went even further than the report, flatly accusing Germany of "discrimination" against Scientologists and of punishing them solely for their beliefs.
.jpg)
