Inside the Actors Studio
Guests 
Richard Dreyfuss
Season 6, Episode 614
Original Airdate: September 10, 2000
Richard Dreyfuss was born in Brooklyn on October 29, 1947, but moved to Beverly Hills at age eight. He dreamed as a child not of winning an Oscar, but of having his very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He had a couple small film roles (including one-line bits in The Graduate and Valley of the Dolls) before bursting onto the scene in the surprise hit American Grafffiti (1973).
He made the transition from bit part to ensemble role so well, he was next offered a starring role in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974). His next two films rocketed him (and director Steven Spielberg) into the stratosphere: Jaws (1975) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) were both enormous hits.
After battling sharks and encountering aliens, Dreyfuss became the youngest Best Actor Oscar winner in history in 1977 for his role in Neil Simon's The Goodbye Girl. This incredibly successful hat trick was followed by a lull in Dreyfuss' career as disappointing films and struggles with drug addiction followed.
But he bounced back in 1986 with Down and Out in Beverly Hills, a comedy co-starring Nick Nolte and Bette Midler. He followed with a variety of comedies and dramas including Tin Men (1987), Nuts (1987) with Barbra Streisand, the buddy cop movie Stakeout (1987), Moon Over Parador (1988), a remake of one of Speilberg's favorite classic films, Always (1989) and What About Bob? (1990) with Bill Murray.
He had a cameo role in Postcards from the Edge and was the Player King in Rosencrantz and Guildrenstern are Dead (both 1990). He played a scheming senator in The American President (1995), taught music in Mr. Holland's Opus (1995) and voiced the Centipede in the animated film James and the Giant Peach (1996).
Dreyfuss also continued to work on stage, including the early 1990s Mike Nichols production of Death and the Maiden on Broadway with Gene Hackman and Glenn Close. Dreyfuss, who was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, has always remained active in social issues.
