Dustin Hoffman

Dustin Lee Hoffman was born on August 8, 1937, in Los Angeles, California, the younger of two sons. His father worked as a prop supervisor at Columbia Pictures before becoming a furniture salesman. Named after silent film actor Dustin Farnum, Hoffman is from an Ashkenazi Jewish family with roots in Kiev and Iași. He grew up nonreligious and has said he realized he was Jewish around age ten. After graduating from Los Angeles High School in 1955, he briefly studied medicine at Santa Monica College before leaving to train at the Pasadena Playhouse. His aunt warned him he wasn’t good-looking enough to be an actor. He also studied with Lee Strasberg but not with Sanford Meisner or Stella Adler. Hoffman initially hoped to become a classical pianist but felt he lacked an ear for music; an acting class he took for an easy grade gave him the “acting bug.” He spent the next decade doing odd jobs and struggling to find roles, a period he later portrayed in *Tootsie*.

Hoffman’s first acting role was at the Pasadena Playhouse alongside Gene Hackman. He followed Hackman to New York City, where they lived with Robert Duvall while all three sought acting work. His small size and unusual appearance made him hard to cast, and he briefly left acting to teach. He studied at the Actors Studio and became a dedicated method actor. His Broadway debut came in 1961 with *A Cook for Mr. General*, and he worked off-Broadway and in summer stock throughout the 1960s. He served as assistant director to Ulu Grosbard on *The Days and Nights of BeeBee Fenstermaker* and appeared in a 1965 recording of *Death of a Salesman* as Bernard.

Hoffman’s film debut was in the black comedy *The Tiger Makes Out* (1967). He earned his first Oscar nomination for *The Graduate* (1967) and went on to win two Academy Awards for Best Actor: playing a divorcing father in *Kramer vs. Kramer* (1979) and an autistic savant in *Rain Man* (1988). He received additional Oscar nominations for *Midnight Cowboy* (1969), *Lenny* (1974), *Tootsie* (1982), and *Wag the Dog* (1997). Other notable films include *Little Big Man* (1970), *Straw Dogs* (1971), *Papillon* (1973), *Marathon Man* (1976), *All the President’s Men* (1976), *Ishtar* (1987), *Dick Tracy* (1990), *Hook* (1991), and *Chef* (2014). In the 21st century, he shifted mostly to supporting roles in films such as *Finding Neverland* (2004), *I Heart Huckabees* (2004), *Stranger than Fiction* (2006), *Meet the Fockers* (2004) and its sequel *Little Fockers* (2010), *The Meyerowitz Stories* (2017), and *Megalopolis* (2024). He voiced characters in *The Tale of Despereaux* (2008) and the *Kung Fu Panda* series (2008–present). His directorial debut was *Quartet* (2012).

On stage, Hoffman played Willy Loman in the 1984 revival of *Death of a Salesman* and reprised the role in a television film, winning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. He received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play for his 1989 portrayal of Shylock in *The Merchant of Venice*. He also earned three Drama Desk Awards for *Eh?* (1967), *Jimmy Shine* (1969), and *Death of a Salesman* (1984). His career accolades include two Academy Awards, four BAFTAs, five Golden Globes, and two Emmys, plus a Tony nomination. He received the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1997, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2012.