Dustin Hoffman

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Date of Birth : Aug 8th 1937

Two-time Academy Award-winning, BAFTA-winning, and five-time Golden Globe-winning American method actor.

Hoffman performed at the Pasadena Playhouse for two years with fellow actor Gene Hackman, who were both voted notoriously by their class as “Least Likely To Succeed”, as neither actor fit into the traditional norms of the blond, surf-tanned performers in demand at the time. Determined to prove his classmates wrong, Hackman headed for New York City and told Hoffman to call him if he were to come to there. Hoffman took Hackman up on his offer and soon after followed his friend to New York, where he worked a series of odd jobs, such as coat checking at restaurants, working in the typing department of the city Yellow Pages directory, or stringing Hawaiian leis, while getting the occasional bit television role. To support himself, he left acting briefly to teach. He also worked as a professional fragrance tester for Maxwell House. Dustin used to quip that if this acting thing didn’t work out his proboscis-obnoxious would always find enough food for the table. In 1960, Hoffman landed a role in an off-Broadway production and followed with a walk-on role in a Broadway production in 1961.

Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971) featured yet another Hoffman role completely different from the rest. In the film—a dark human drama comedy directed by Ulu Grosbard—Hoffman plays a sleep-deprived and highly successful rock, pop, commercial jingle, and musical composer who finds himself in a life-crisis when reflecting on his love relationships. An anonymous man named Harry Kellerman begins to spread ridiculous lies about him.

Hoffman starred opposite John Travolta in popular Greek director Costa Gavras’ Mad City, a film about a man who takes a history museum hostage after losing his job. In the movie, Hoffman portrayed Max Brackett, a washed up reporter already in the museum when the event takes place and takes advantage of the situation as a way of reviving his career. Amongst negative reviews and terrible receipts, the film quickly left theatres and plunged into obscurity.