Richard Dreyfuss - Biography

Last Editor: wisiunia				Richard Dreyfuss Biography -   Name : Richard Dreyfuss Birth name : Richard Stephen Dreyfus Date of birth : October 29, 1947 Place of birth : Brooklyn, New York, U.S. Profession : Actor Height : 5' 5" (1.65 m) Spouse(s) : Jeramie Rain (1983-1995), Janelle Lacey (1999-?), Svetlana Erokhin (2006-present)

Richard Dreyfuss Trivia -

He was ranked #81 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list in October 1997. He suffered a well-publicized drug problem in the early 1980s. He is brother of Lorin Dreyfuss. He is son of Geraldine Dreyfuss. At age of 30, he was the youngest man to win Oscar for Best Actor (The Goodbye Girl (1977). He was beaten by Adrien Brody(29) at the 2003 ceremony. He has three children with Jeramie Rain: daughter Emily (b. November 1983), sons Benjamin (b. June 1986) and Harry Spencer (b. August 1990). He was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, he grew up in Beverly Hills, L.A., California from an early age. He has a great dislike for rock music. He was treated for infection in right lung in a NYC hospital, April-May 2002. 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. He is uncle of Justin Dreyfuss He claims to be a descendant of Alfred Dreyfus, who was wrongfully imprisoned at the notorious Devil's Island penal colony in French Guiana. He went to the same High School as Angelina Jolie, Michael Klesic, Nicolas Cage, David Schwimmer, Lenny Kravitz, Corbin Bernsen and Gina Gershon. 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. He has a serious drug problem in the late 70s and early 80s. One of the side effects was that his memory was damaged, so much so that he still has no memory of filming the movie Whose Life Is It Anyway? 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. He was one of six actors to appear in films directed by both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg (the others are Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson, Christopher Lee, Richard Dreyfuss and Samuel L. Jackson). Richard Dreyfuss is the only one whose films weren't part of the "Star Wars" or "Indiana Jones" series. 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. He is a Civil War re-enactor. 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 2004-2005 he took a short break from acting to lecture at Oxford University. 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. He was once played by Darrell Hammond in a skit on "Saturday Night" (1975). Hammond played Dreyfuss auditioning to play C-3PO in Star Wars (1977). He was originally cast in the role of Joe Gideon in All That Jazz (1979), but left the production during the rehearsal stage. He was married to Svetlana Erokhin in Harrisonburg, Virginia while in town for a speaking engagement at James Madison Univeristy. He 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. He attended CSU Northridge along with Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) co-star, Teri Garr. 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". He made his feature film debut in Valley of the Dolls (1967). He lives in San Diego, California.

Richard Dreyfuss Detailed Biography -

Richard Stephen Dreyfuss (born October 29, 1947) is an Oscar-winning American actor. Dreyfuss was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish American parents Norman, an attorney and restaurateur, and Geraldine, a peace activist. His surname is Yiddish (a variant spelling of the surname literally meaning tripod). He spent his early childhood in Brooklyn and in Bayside, Queens, until he moved to Los Angeles with his family at age nine. In 1965, he graduated from Beverly Hills High School in Beverly Hills, California. Dreyfuss's acting career began while as a youth at the Beverly Hills Jewish Center. He debuted in the TV production In Mama's House when he was fifteen. He attended the San Fernando Valley State College (later re-named California State University, Northridge) for a year. He was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War and worked 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 like Peyton Place, Gidget, Bewitched and The Big Valley. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he also performed on stage on Broadway, off-Broadway, repertory, and improvisational theater. Dreyfuss's first film part was a small, uncredited role in The Graduate; in that film he has only one line, "Shall I call the cops? I'll call the cops." He made a strong impression in the subsequent Dillinger and landed a role in the 1973 hit American Graffiti, acting with other future stars like Harrison Ford. Dreyfuss played his first lead role in the Canadian film The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. He went on to star in box office hits Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, both directed by Steven Spielberg. For his portrayal of a struggling actor in The Goodbye Girl, he won an Oscar (at age 30), becoming the youngest actor at the time to ever win a Best Actor Award (this record has since been surpassed by Adrien Brody). Between 1978 and 1982, Dreyfuss acted in several films, but none did particularly well at the box office. This led to a growing drug dependency, which ended one night in 1982 when his car hit a tree, and he was arrested for cocaine possession. He entered rehab and made a Hollywood comeback with the film Down And Out In Beverly Hills. In 1995, Dreyfuss was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his performance as Glenn Holland in Mr. Holland's Opus. Since then he has continued his career not only in the movies, but also in television and on stage. In April 2004, he appeared in the revival of Sly Fox on Broadway (opposite Eric Stoltz, René Auberjonois, Bronson Pinchot and Elizabeth Berkley). In November 2004, he was scheduled to appear in The Producers in London, but withdrew from the production a week before the opening night. The media noted that Dreyfuss was still suffering from problems relating to an operation for a herniated disc in January, and that the part of Max Bialystock in the play is a physically demanding one. His assistant for the production stated that Dreyfuss was accumulating physical injuries that required him to wear physical therapy supports during rehearsals. Nathan Lane was brought in to replace Dreyfuss in the London production. Dreyfuss has also dabbled with writing, notably teaming up with Harry Turtledove in 1995 to write The Two Georges, a conspiracy thriller set in an alternate reality in which the American colonies remained under British rule (published by Hodder and Stoughton, ISBN 0-340-62826-X). He appeared as one of the survivors in the 2006 film Poseidon. Dreyfuss is currently a Senior Associate Member of St. Antony's College, University of Oxford. He says that according to family tradition, he is either a direct descendant or at least a relative of Alfred Dreyfus. This is disputed by others. From 1983 until 1995, Dreyfuss was married to Jeramie Rain, with whom he had three children. In 1999, he married Janelle Lacey. After divorcing Lacey, he married Russian-born Svetlana Erokhin on March 16, 2006, in Harrisonburg, Virginia, while there to speak at James Madison University. Dreyfuss and Erokhin now live in San Diego. He suffers from bipolar disorder. In 2006, he appeared in Stephen Fry's documentary, Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, in which Fry (who also has the disorder) interviewed him about his life with manic-depression. He has been outspoken on the issue of media informing policy, legislation, and public opinion in recent years, both speaking and writing to express his sentiments regarding the importance of privacy, freedom of speech, democracy, and individual accountability. Dreyfuss has organized and promoted campaigns to inform and instruct audiences in potential erosion of individual rights. On 16 February 2006, Dreyfuss spoke at The National Press Club in Washington, D.C. in hopes of prompting a national discussion on the impeachable charges against President George W. Bush On 17 November, 2006, Dreyfuss appeared on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher as a panel member to discuss the importance of teaching Civics in schools. Dreyfuss has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Blvd. Dreyfuss was originally supposed to reprise his role as Hooper in Jaws 2 as the character who was finding the Orca in the beginning. The proposal was denied when Peter Benchley was asked to include this in the screenplay. Dreyfuss recorded the voiceover to the famous Apple, Inc., then Apple Computer, Inc., Think Different ad campaign in 1999.