Richard Dreyfuss Movies
Stocky, frequently bespectacled, eventually balding, and prematurely gray, Richard Dreyfuss is an unlikely candidate for a movie star. Even so, he has been one of Hollywood's most versatile, charismatic, and energetic leading men since the mid-'70s. Born in Brooklyn, NY, on October 29, 1947, Dreyfuss moved to Los Angeles with his family when he was nine. There he became friends with Rob Reiner and began acting in school productions and at the Beverly Hills Jewish Community Center. He attended San Fernando Valley State College, but was expelled after getting into a heated argument with a professor over Marlon Brando's performance in Julius Caesar (1953). Not wanting to be drafted for Vietnam, he registered as a conscientious objector and spent two years as a clerk at a Los Angeles hospital instead of enlisting.During this time, Dreyfuss started getting a few acting jobs on network television series such as Bewitched and Big Valley; he had his first film role in 1967's The Graduate, speaking the lines "Shall I call the cops? I'll call the cops" to Dustin Hoffman. He continued playing bit parts in a couple more films, but did not get his first big break until he played Baby Face Nelson in the bloody biopic Dillinger (1973). A memorable leading role as an intelligent, contemplative teen in George Lucas' American Graffiti (1973) earned Dreyfuss critical acclaim, as did his portrayal of an entrepreneurial Jewish youth in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974).
In 1975, the actor's career exploded when he starred as an arrogant shark expert in Steven Spielberg's Jaws. He worked for Spielberg again two years later, playing an average Midwestern working stiff who learns that we are not alone in the universe in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Further success followed that same year when Dreyfuss portrayed a failed actor in Neil Simon's romantic comedy The Goodbye Girl. His performance won him an Oscar, making him, at the age of 29, the youngest performer ever to receive the Best Actor honor. After that, Dreyfuss was in demand and, until 1981, he continued to find steady work in a number of films. However, none of these proved particularly popular, and the actor's career began to nosedive. Matters were worsened by his reported drug use and Hollywood party antics; in 1982, he was involved in a car accident and arrested for possession of cocaine.
Fortunately, Dreyfuss managed to turn his life around, and after appearing in the rarely seen Buddy System (1984), made a big comeback in Paul Mazursky's hit comedy Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), starring opposite Bette Midler and Nick Nolte. With his reputation restored, Dreyfuss went on to appear in lead and supporting roles in numerous films of varying quality. Highlights included Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), Postcards From the Edge (1990), What About Bob? (1991), and Quiz Show (1994). In 1996, Dreyfuss played one of his finest roles as a high school music teacher who sacrifices his dream of becoming a famous composer to help his students in Mr. Holland's Opus (1996). The role earned Dreyfuss an Oscar nomination. That same year, he won acclaim of a different sort, lending his voice to a sarcastic centipede in Tim Burton's animated adaptation of Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach. He went on to appear in Sidney Lumet's Night Falls on Manhattan (1997) and to star in Krippendorf's Tribe in 1998. The following year, he could be seen as titular Jewish gangster Lansky, a made-for-TV biopic scripted by David Mamet.
In 2001, with his film career struggling a bit, Dreyfuss took his first stab at series television since 1964's short-lived sitcom Karen. The hour-long CBS drama The Education of Max Bickford starred the actor as a college history professor opposite Marcia Gay Harden and received largely positive reviews from critics. However, despite the accolades, the show failed to garner a substantial audience and was cancelled after one season.
The next few years saw little more from Dreyfuss than voice-work and a pair of forgettable made-for-TV movies. However, in 2004, he received high-marks for his performance in director John Sayles political satire Silver City, which cast the actor as a Karl Rove-esque advisor to a dimwitted politico. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1980
- PG
Can two prodigies fall in love and stay in love, even when they are competing against one another in an international piano competition? Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving attempt to answer that question in The Competition. Richard Dreyfuss plays Paul Dietrich, a shabby prodigy slouching past the thirty year mark. Embittered at never having won an international competition and being pushed and prodded by his parents, Paul decides to enter one last time and, if he fails, he will devote himself to teaching. Since this is his last chance, he throws himself into the competition with an energy and determination comparable to Duddy Kravitz. During preparations for the competition he meets Heidi (Amy Irving), a natural talent who is does not have Paul's drive to succeed. Heidi takes one look at Paul and immediately falls in love with him. Paul feels an attraction for her but holds his feelings in check, trying to center himself on winning the competition. Looking at the burgeoning love affair with dread is Heidi's possessive music teacher Greta Vandemann (Lee Remick), who sees Heidi's relationship with Paul as compromising her talent and jeopardizing her standing in the competition. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, Amy Irving, (more)
- 1980
- R
This drama is set in Montreal when in the mid-'50s a young woman is impregnated by a petty thief who is caught and given ten years in the slammer. In the meantime, the woman bears a son and marries another. The time passes quickly and the thief is eventually released. He immediately goes to her and this nearly destroys her marriage. Fortunately, he realizes that taking the woman away from her husband will only hurt his son and so backs off. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Dale, Winston Rekert, (more)
- 1978
This 1978 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Richard Dreyfuss and features musical guest Jimmy Buffett. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, Jimmy Buffett, (more)
- 1978
- PG
Richard Dreyfuss plays Moses Wine, an ex-Sixties radical who pays the bills as a private eye. Wine is hired to stem a smear campaign against a popular political candidate. Gradually the plot thickens into a murder case, involving a hippie leader whose values, like Wine's, have been severely compromised over the years - and who plans to blow up a major LA freeway as a protest. Susan Anspach provides a great deal of dramatic (and sexual) tension as Wine's boss. Among the minor players are future stars Mandy Patinkin and F. Murray Abraham. The Big Fix was adapted by Roger L. Simon from his own novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Anspach, (more)
- 1977
- PG
- Add Close Encounters of the Third Kind to QueueAdd Close Encounters of the Third Kind to top of Queue
Steven Spielberg followed Jaws (1975), his first major box-office success, with this epic science fiction adventure about a disparate group of people who attempt to contact alien intelligence. Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) is an electrical lineman who, while sent out on emergency repairs, witnesses an unidentified flying object, and even has a "sunburn" from its bright lights to prove it. Neary's wife and children are at first skeptical, then concerned, and eventually fearful, as Roy refuses to accept a "logical" explanation for what he saw and is prepared to give up his job, his home, and his family to pursue the "truth" about UFOs. Neary's obsession eventually puts him in contact with others who've had close encounters with alien spacecraft, including Jillian (Melinda Dillon), a single mother whose son disappeared during her UFO experience, and Claude Lacombe (celebrated French filmmaker François Truffaut), a French researcher who believes that we can use a musical language to communicate with alien visitors. Lacombe's theory is put to the test when a band of government researchers and underground UFO enthusiasts (including Neary) join for an exchange with alien visitors near Devil's Tower, Wyoming. In 1980, a "Special Edition" was released. While its primary selling point was the addition of scenes inside the alien spaceship, Spielberg claimed that he also cleaned up some choppy editing in the second act. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, (more)
Marsha Mason is known as "The Goodbye Girl" because of all the live-in boyfriends who have said ta-ta to her in the past few years. A former Broadway chorus dancer, the divorced Mason lives in the Manhattan apartment of her latest lost love with her daughter Quinn Cummings. Enter arrogant actor Richard Dreyfuss, who has subleased the apartment from Mason's former boyfriend and moves in bag and baggage in the middle of the night. Dreyfuss and Mason spend the next few weeks getting in each other's way and fighting like cats and dogs. The wind is taken out of Dreyfuss' sails when he opens in a production of Richard III, which has been sabotaged by the director (Paul Benjamin), who insists that Dreyfuss portrays Richard as a hip-swinging homosexual. The play closes after one performance, and the once-overconfident Dreyfuss goes on a self-pitying drunken binge. Touched by his vulnerability, Mason begins falling in love with Dreyfuss despite her lousy track record with men. Richard Dreyfuss became the youngest ever "Best Actor" Oscar winner as a result of his performance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason, (more)
- 1976
Within months after the spectacular July 4, 1976 rescue of hostages from Uganda's Entebbe airport, there were two competing TV movies on the subject. The longest (and least) of the two was Victory at Entebbe, hurriedly shot on videotape. The story begins when Arab terrorist capture a civilian airliner and force a landing at Entebbe. Ugandan president Idi Amin (Julius Harris, substituting for recently deceased Godfrey Cambridge), struts about at the airport, insisting that he can do nothing--but apparently siding with the terrorists, especially when the Arabs begin separating and mistreating the Jewish passengers. A surprise Israeli commando raid masterminded by defense minister Shimon Peres (Burt Lancaster, who more than compensates for his miscasting with an excellent performance) rescues most of the hostages, though at least one of the passengers (played by Helen Hayes with a Jewish accent that wouldn't convince a duck) is apparently killed out of retribution while en route to hospital. The teleplay's bad dialogue, and the producers' Airport-like decision to use only big stars in the major roles (Richard Dreyfuss, Elizabeth Taylor, Kirk Douglas et. al.) tends to trivialize one of the most auspicious acts of selfless heroism of the 1970s. A far better dramatization of the incident, Raid on Entebbe, was telecast a few months later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Writer/director John Byrum filmed this bizarre and controversial period picture on one massive set. It takes place in the 1930s, and stars Richard Dreyfuss as Boy Wonder, a once-great Hollywood director, who spends all of his time in decrepitude in his rococo mansion (which will soon be leveled and replaced by a major highway), half-soused, unshaven and clad in his bathrobe and pajamas. Instead of shooting major Hollywood pictures, this impotent has-been is now reduced to shooting pornographic films with a coke-addled actress, Harlene (Veronica Cartwright) and a moronic leading man, Rex (Stephen Davies). Rex's employer, the financier Big Mac (Bob Hoskins) turns up, bringing along his shy and dim-bulb fiancee, Cathy Cake (Jessica Harper), whom he treats condescendingly but hopes to launch to megastardom as a movie actress. When Harlene overdoses, Rex and Big Mac haggle over her body. Mac then leaves Cathy with Boy Wonder, who tells the burned-out director that her one dream in life is to appear in movies, and asks if she could pose for insert shots for his next stag film. By shooting the inserts, Boy Wonder manages to regain his potency, but he is completely put off by Cathy, who suddenly realizes, after the fact, that the camera wasn't running. At that point, Big Mac returns and catches them in the filmmaking process. Although he is not really sure what went on, Big Mac vamooses with Boy Wonder's camera and paraphernalia and takes Cathy with him. Meanwhile, an aspiring thesp named Clark Gable turns up at the door, wanting Boy Wonder to direct him to stardom. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, Jessica Harper, (more)
Based on Peter Benchley's best-selling novel, Steven Spielberg's 1975 shark saga set the standard for the New Hollywood popcorn blockbuster while frightening millions of moviegoers out of the water. One early summer night on fictional Atlantic resort Amity Island, Chrissie decides to take a moonlight skinny dip while her friends party on the beach. Yanked suddenly below the ocean surface, she never returns. When pieces of her wash ashore, Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) suspects the worst, but Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton), mindful of the lucrative tourist trade and the approaching July 4th holiday, refuses to put the island on a business-killing shark alert. After the shark dines on a few more victims, the Mayor orders the local fishermen to catch the culprit. Satisfied with the shark they find, the greedy Mayor reopens the beaches, despite the warning from visiting ichthyologist Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) that the attacks were probably caused by a far more formidable Great White. One more fatality later, Brody and Hooper join forces with flinty old salt Quint (Robert Shaw), the only local fisherman willing to take on a Great White--especially since the price is right. The three ride off on Quint's boat "The Orca," soon coming face to teeth with the enemy. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, (more)
Based on a song by Leonard Cohen, this peculiar experimental film set in late-'60s San Francisco was executive-produced by game-show mogul Gene Barry, the director's father. It concerns Suzanne (Sondra Locke), who gets crucified in a film-within-a-film which receives much of the screen time. Suzanne is meant to be a Christ figure, and the story focuses on her use as a doomed symbol for the beliefs of Manson-like filmmaker Jared Martin. Richard Dreyfuss and Paul Sand are among the cast of this offbeat, grungy little film which deserves points for originality if nothing else. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1974
- PG
Richard Dreyfuss put himself on the map with his performance in this movie about how ambition and greed can drive someone at the expense of his own happiness. Duddy Kravitz (Dreyfuss) is an 18-year-old Jewish kid from Montreal whose mother is dead, and whose father drives a cab and does a little pimping on the side to pay the bills and send Duddy's older brother to medical school. Duddy has bigger dreams, and he does everything from producing films of bar mitzvahs to attempting to buy real estate to (unknowingly) smuggling heroin in order to strike it rich. Along the way, however, he alienates his girlfriend, drives his grandfather to despair, loses all his friends, and even paralyzes his best employee, while making himself more and more miserable. Duddy's desire to be a success is easy to understand, which makes this potentially unlikable character forgivable, and the film's gallery of details and characters adds realism and energy to the story. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, Micheline Lanctôt, (more)
It's the last night of summer 1962, and the teenagers of Modesto, California, want to have some fun before adult responsibilities close in. Among them are Steve (Ron Howard) and Curt (Richard Dreyfuss), college-bound with mixed feelings about leaving home; nerdy Terry "The Toad" (Charles Martin Smith), who scores a dream date with blonde Debbie (Candy Clark); and John (Paul Le Mat ), a 22-year-old drag racer who wonders how much longer he can stay champion and how he got stuck with 13-year-old Carol (Mackenzie Phillips) in his deuce coupe. As D. J. Wolfman Jack spins 41 vintage tunes on the radio throughout the night, Steve ponders a future with girlfriend Laurie (Cindy Williams), Curt chases a mystery blonde, Terry tries to act cool, and Paul prepares for a race against Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford), but nothing can stop the next day from coming, and with it the vastly different future ushered in by the 1960s. Fresh off The Godfather (1972), producer Francis Ford Coppola had the clout to get his friend George Lucas's project made, but only for $750,000 on a 28-day shooting schedule. Despite technical obstacles, and having to shoot at night, cinematographer Haskell Wexler gave the film the neon-lit aura that Lucas wanted, evoking the authentic look of a suburban strip to go with the authentic sound of rock-n-roll. Universal, which wanted to call the film Another Slow Night in Modesto, thought it was unreleasable. But Lucas' period detail, co-writers Willard Huyck's and Gloria Katz's realistic dialogue, and the film's nostalgia for the pre-Vietnam years apparently appealed to a 1973 audience embroiled in cultural chaos: American Graffiti became the third most popular movie of 1973 (after The Exorcist and The Sting), establishing the reputations of Lucas (whose next film would be Star Wars) and his young cast, and furthering the onset of soundtrack-driven, youth-oriented movies. Although the film helped spark 1970s nostalgia for the 1950s, nothing else would capture the flavor of the era with the same humorous candor and latent sense of foreboding. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, (more)
John Milius's first directorial effort in its own small way set the stage in the 1970s for a subgenre of action films that depict a nostalgia for historical figures tinged with a hard-edged skepticism. Warren Oates stars as John Dillinger, whose short-lived career as Public Enemy No.1 was, at least according to Milius, promoted by Dillinger with a self-absorbed boosterism, comforting his victims by telling them, "Someday you'll tell your grandchildren about this." The film captures the highlights of Dillinger's criminal career, as seen through the eyes of Melvin Purvis (Ben Johnson), the FBI agent whose obsession with capturing Dillinger led to Dillinger's death in the back alley of Chicago's Biograph Theater. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, (more)
- 1972
In this drama, two private investigators must find a serial killer after the 12-year investigation of the police fails miserably. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
When irascible boss T.R. Hollister (Jim Backus) threatens to pull the plug on an underwater environmental living project, employee Fred Miller (Tony Randall) and his wife, Vivian (Janet Leigh), take their family down in the deep to live for 30 days. With all the modern conveniences of a home on land, the family even invites a rock & roll band to get down and record. Merv Griffin (himself) arranges an underwater interview for his television show while Mel Cheever (Ken Berry) schemes to get Fred's job back on dry land. Two of the Miller kids, Lorrie (Kay Cole) and Tommy (Gary Tigerman), join three others (Richard Dreyfuss, Roddy McDowall, and Lou Wagner) in the rock band. Friendly dolphins fend of shark attacks as the land sharks try to scuttle the underwater project in this family film. Music is provided by Jeff Barry. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Randall, Janet Leigh, (more)
- 1968
Three teenage runaways leave home for life in the big city. Shelly (Brooke Bundy) runs away from her father (Lloyd Bochner), when communication breaks down between the success-minded dad and his daughter. Dewey (Kevin Coughlin) leaves behind life on the farm when his girlfriend suggests she may be pregnant. Deanie (Patty McCormick) is the sex-starved teen who runs away from her promiscuous mother (Lynn Bari) and her father who doesn't have a clue (Norman Fell). Dick Sargent plays the kind soul who offers the teens temporary refuge in his home. Richard Dreyfuss makes an early film appearance as a lazy, draft-dodging car thief in this youthful exploitation feature. The Gordian Knot delivers two songs as the runaways fall victim to drugs, prostitution and other urban nightmares. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brooke Bundy, Kevin Coughlin, (more)
"Just one word: plastic." "Are you here for an affair?" These lines and others became cultural touchstones, as 1960s youth rebellion seeped into the California upper middle-class in Mike Nichols' landmark hit. Mentally adrift the summer after graduating from college, suburbanite Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) would rather float in his parents' pool than follow adult advice about his future. But the exhortation of family friend Mr. Robinson (Murray Hamilton) to seize every possible opportunity inspires Ben to accept an offer of sex from icily feline Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft). The affair and the pool are all well and good until Ben is pushed to go out with the Robinsons' daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross) and he falls in love with her. Mrs. Robinson sabotages the relationship and an understandably disgusted Elaine runs back to college. Determined not to let Elaine get away, Ben follows her to school and then disrupts her family-sanctioned wedding. None too happy about her pre-determined destiny, Elaine flees with Ben -- but to what? Directing his second feature film after Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Nichols matched the story's satire of suffocating middle-class shallowness with an anti-Hollywood style influenced by the then-voguish French New Wave. Using odd angles, jittery editing, and evocative widescreen photography, Nichols welded a hip New Wave style and a generation-gap theme to a fairly traditional screwball comedy script by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham from Charles Webb's novel. Adding to the European art film sensibility, the movie offers an unsettling and ambiguous ending with no firm closure. And rather than Robert Redford, Nichols opted for a less glamorous unknown for the pivotal role of Ben, turning Hoffman into a star and opening the door for unconventional leading men throughout the 1970s. With a pop-song score written by Paul Simon and performed by Simon & Garfunkel bolstering its contemporary appeal, The Graduate opened to rave reviews in December 1967 and surpassed all commercial expectations. It became the top-grossing film of 1968 and was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Actor, and Actress, with Nichols winning Best Director. Together with Bonnie and Clyde, it stands as one of the most influential films of the late '60s, as its mordant dissection of the generation gap helped lead the way to the youth-oriented Hollywood artistic "renaissance" of the early '70s. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, (more)
- 1966
A young Richard Dreyfuss guest stars as Rodney, a warlock who wants to marry Samantha. Hoping to disrupt the relationship between Sam and her husband, Darrin, Rodney transforms himself into a dog and invades the Stephens household. Using his own special brand of witchcraft, the "shaggy" Rodney plants the seeds of suspicion in Darrin's mind. Written by Bernard Slade, "Man's Best Friend" originally aired on May 12, 1966. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York, (more)
- 1966
Yes, that's 19-year-old Richard Dreyfuss guesting in this episode as neurotic teenager Durf the Drag. Hoping to bolster Durf's confidence, kindhearted Gidget (Sally Field) agrees to go out on a date with him. The plot thickens when Gidge is afforded the opportunity to date handsome UCLA student Ed Batson (Ed Griffith)--and she can't work up the gumption to tell poor Durf. This episode was originally scheduled to air on December 1, 1965. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Part of the Biogrpahy television series from A&E, this documentary revies the career and personal life of Academy Award winning actress, Audrey Hepburn. Born Edda Kathleen van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston, in Brussels, Belgium. She trained as a ballet dancer in Amsterdam, and at the Marie Rambert school in London, making her film and stage debuts in London in 1948. Noticed by the French writer Colette, she was given the lead in the Broadway production of her novel, Gigi (1951), and went on to win international acclaim for Roman Holiday (1953, Oscar), in which she starred with Gregory Peck. One of the most enchanting stars of the 1950s and 60s, her popular film roles included Sabrina (1954), The Nun's Story (1959), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), all Oscar nominations, and My Fair Lady (1964). Contrasting roles included Two for the Road (1967), and as the blind girl terrorized in Wait Until Dark (1967, Oscar nomination). She travelled extensively as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF.
~ John Patrick Sheehan, All Movie Guide
~ John Patrick Sheehan, All Movie Guide
- Add Rudolph and the Island of Misfit Toys to QueueAdd Rudolph and the Island of Misfit Toys to top of Queue
This Christmas musical, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & the Island of Misfit Toys, relates the adventures of everyone's favorite reindeer and his beloved owner, Santa, when they come across an island populated by broken toys. Hollywood heavy-hitters Jamie Lee Curtis, Rick Moranis, and Oscar-winner Richard Dreyfuss head up the list of performers who contribute their voices to this animated, family friendly film. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rick Moranis, Jamie Lee Curtis, (more)
Richard Dreyfuss stars in this story about an Irish tenement in the 1920's that suffers a stir when a soft spoken poet who lives there is suspected of being an IRA gunman. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
