Dustin Lancy Farnum (May 27, 1874 – July 3, 1929) was an American singer, dancer, and actor on the stage and in silent films . Although he played a wide variety of roles, he tended toward westerns and became one of the bigger stars of the genre.
133-464: Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood , Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. His accolades include two Academy Awards , four BAFTA Awards , five Golden Globe Awards , and two Primetime Emmy Awards . Hoffman has received numerous honors, including
266-621: A Golden Globe nomination, and the narrator in Dr. Seuss Video Classics: Horton Hears a Who! (also 1992); in Hook , Hoffman's costume was so heavy that he had to wear an air-conditioned suit under it. Hoffman played the lead role in Outbreak (1995), alongside Rene Russo , Kevin Spacey , Morgan Freeman , Cuba Gooding Jr. and Donald Sutherland . In the film, Hoffman is a medical doctor, serving as
399-415: A TV movie of the same name , for which he won the 1985 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor along with a Golden Globe . Hoffman first read the play at the age of 16, but today considers the story much like his own: "It was a blueprint of my family. I was the loser, the flunky, and my brother, a high-school varsity football player, was Biff." Author Marie Brenner notes that Hoffman "has been obsessed with
532-409: A classical pianist , having studied piano during much of his youth and in college. While at Santa Monica College, he also took an acting class, which he assumed would be easy, and "caught the acting bug". He recalls: "I just was not gifted in music. I did not have an ear." Now an aspiring actor, he spent the next 10 years doing odd jobs, being unemployed, and struggling to get any available acting roles,
665-549: A 1970 British Academy Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film, although the film received mixed reviews. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy Motion Picture The film was made soon after the success of Farrow's performance in Roman Polanski 's Rosemary's Baby (1968), and Hoffman's performance in The Graduate , which prompted their being hailed on
798-562: A Colonel in the U.S. Army Medical Corps., working at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), who uncovers a newly discovered Ebola -like virus which came to the U.S. from Africa in an infected monkey. Hoffman races to stop the virus's spread and find a vaccine before it becomes a worldwide pandemic with no cure. It was one of the films that was produced by his production banner, Punch Productions. The movie
931-451: A Horse at Princeton 's McCarter Theatre and in 1965, in off-Broadway's Harry, Noon and Night with Joel Grey . On June 23, 1965, he played Mendy in a practice run of Philip Roth 's abandoned off-Broadway play The Nice Jewish Boy , directed by Gene Saks and co-starring Melinda Dillon. Grosbard and Hoffman reunited for a 1965 recording of Death of a Salesman starring Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock , with Hoffman playing Bernard. He
1064-401: A Jew?" I said, "No, but I won't play a Jew who cold-bloodedly kills another human being." ... And that's important to me, that I didn't shoot him in the end. Being a Jew is not losing your humanity and not losing your soul. Hoffman's next roles were also successful. He opted out of directing Straight Time (1978), but starred as a thief. His next film, Michael Apted 's Agatha (1979),
1197-540: A Major Donor for The Mirror Theater Ltd , alongside Paul Newman and Al Pacino , matching a grant from Laurance Rockefeller . The men were inspired to invest by their connection with Lee Strasberg , as Lee's then daughter-in-law Sabra Jones was the Founder and Producing Artistic Director of The Mirror. In 1983, Hoffman signed on to star in The Yellow Jersey , which was to be a bicycle-racing drama set during
1330-509: A Salesman and reprised the role a year later in a television film, earning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Limited Series or Movie . In 1989, he received a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play nomination for his role as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice . He has received three Drama Desk Awards , for his performances in Eh? (1967), Jimmy Shine (1969), and Death of
1463-538: A Salesman (1984), respectively. Dustin Lee Hoffman was born on August 8, 1937, in Los Angeles, California, the younger of two sons of Harry Hoffman (1908–1987) and Lillian (née Gold; 1909–1982). His father worked as a prop supervisor ( set decorator ) at Columbia Pictures before becoming a furniture salesman. Hoffman was named after stage and silent screen actor Dustin Farnum . He has an elder brother Ronald, who
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#17327973246071596-488: A button-down college graduate and track star was so convincing to Schlesinger, "he seemed unable to comprehend the fact that he was acting", notes Biskind. To help the director, whom he had never met, overcome that false impression, Hoffman met him in Times Square dressed as a homeless person, wearing a dirty raincoat, his hair slicked back and with an unshaven face. Schlesinger was sold, admitting, "I've only seen you in
1729-559: A chance to work with Gene Hackman in Gary Fleder 's Runaway Jury (also 2003), an adaptation of John Grisham 's bestselling novel. Hoffman played theater owner Charles Frohman in the J. M. Barrie historical fantasia Finding Neverland (2004), costarring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet . In director David O. Russell 's I Heart Huckabees (also 2004), Hoffman appeared opposite Lily Tomlin as an existential detective team member. In 2001, his Punch Productions company went to
1862-683: A dedicated method actor . In 1960 Hoffman was cast in a role in an off-Broadway production and followed with a bit part in his Broadway debut in production, A Cook for Mr. General (1961). In 1962, he appeared in Rabbit Run Theatre's summer stock production of Write Me a Murder in Madison, Ohio and served as an assistant director to Ulu Grosbard on The Days and Nights of Beebee Fenstermaker at off-Broadway's Sheridan Square Playhouse . In 1964, Hoffman appeared in Three Men on
1995-502: A director at the height of his powers who would take a chance and cast someone like me in that part. It took tremendous courage." Critic Sam Kashner observed strong similarities between Hoffman's character and that of Nichols when he previously acted with Elaine May in the comedy team of Nichols and May . "Just close your eyes and you'll hear a Mike Nichols—Elaine May routine in any number of scenes." Buck Henry also noticed that "Dustin picked up all these Nichols habits, which he used in
2128-402: A far more widespread use, while widescreen processes and technical improvements, such as CinemaScope , stereo sound, and others, such as 3-D , were invented to retain the dwindling audience and compete with television. However, these were generally unsuccessful in increasing profits. By 1957, Life magazine called the 1950s "the horrible decade" for Hollywood. It was dubbed a "New Hollywood" by
2261-771: A first look deal with The Walt Disney Studios. Seven years after his nomination for Wag the Dog , Hoffman got another opportunity to perform again with Robert De Niro , co-starring with Streisand and Ben Stiller in the 2004 comedy Meet the Fockers , a sequel to Meet the Parents (2000). Hoffman won the 2005 MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance. In 2005, he voiced a horse in Racing Stripes , and appeared in cameo roles in Andy García 's The Lost City and on
2394-798: A kind and he's not one character. There is no Dustin Hoffman. He is many, many people. ... He can do comedy and he can do drama. He has an enormous range, and yet he's still Dustin somewhere in there. He's intelligent and has a great sense of how to connect with people, because he's very interesting. On a day-to-day basis, he's like an actor who's making his first movie, with the enthusiasm and energy to want to make things happen and try things and experiment. After Rain Man , Hoffman appeared with Sean Connery and Matthew Broderick in Family Business (1989), directed by Sidney Lumet . The story centers on
2527-487: A life being first-rate at that which you are not passionate about. I thought that was worth making a movie about. These guys want to be Simon & Garfunkel , but they have no talent at all. They're middle-aged guys, and at the end of the movie they wind up singing " That's Amore " at a Holiday Inn in Morocco. It's fair. It's fair to make a movie about that. —Hoffman on working on Ishtar Hoffman's worst film failure
2660-526: A life of poverty", The Graduate was a gigantic box office hit for Embassy Pictures , making Hoffman a major new star at the same time. The film received near-unanimous good reviews. Time magazine called Hoffman "a symbol of youth" who represented "a new breed of actors". The film's screenwriter, Buck Henry , notes that Hoffman's character made conventional good looks no longer necessary on screen, "A whole generation changed its idea of what guys should look like. ... I think Dustin's physical being brought
2793-546: A lifestyle he was later to portray in the comedy film Tootsie . Hoffman composed a song called "Shooting the Breeze", alongside Bette Midler who wrote the words. Hoffman's first acting role was at the Pasadena Playhouse, alongside future Academy Award–winner Gene Hackman . After two years there, Hackman headed for New York City, with Hoffman soon following. Hoffman, Hackman, and Robert Duvall lived together in
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#17327973246072926-486: A major accomplishment: Midnight Cowboy makes us a gift of one of the landmark performances of movie history: Dustin Hoffman's Ratso Rizzo, with Jon Voight's Joe Buck a close second. From a cesspool of dark, foul, even taboo material, ... it rescues a true humanism that need not hide its name. Also in 1969, Hoffman co-starred with Mia Farrow in the Peter Yates 's romantic drama film John and Mary . He received
3059-401: A movie star. I wasn't going to sell out. We wanted to be really good actors. I told them, "I'm going out to make this movie. Don't worry, I'm coming right back." Hoffman was paid $ 20,000 for his role in The Graduate , but netted just $ 4,000 after taxes and living expenses. After spending that money, Hoffman filed for New York State unemployment benefits , receiving $ 55 per week while living in
3192-678: A person who critic David Denby described as "a strangely shuttered genius". Hoffman created certain character traits for Raymond. Denby noted: "Hoffman, looking suddenly older and smaller, has developed a small shuffling walk for Raymond, with shoulder bent. His eyes don't make contact with anyone else's, and he flattens his voice to a dry nasal bark." Rain Man won four Academy Awards , including Best Picture , Best Actor for Hoffman, and Best Director for Barry Levinson. Having worked closely with Hoffman for two years on filming, Levinson offered some opinions about his skill as an actor: You can't define Dustin Hoffman, because he's unique. He's one of
3325-473: A practice inspired by European art films and classical Hollywood directors such as D. W. Griffith and Alfred Hitchcock . Films with unorthodox editing included Easy Rider ' s use of jump cuts (influenced by the works of experimental collage filmmaker Bruce Conner ) to foreshadow the climax of the movie, as well as subtler uses, such as those to reflect the feeling of frustration in Bonnie and Clyde ,
3458-532: A press. In the 1950s and early 1960s, Hollywood was dominated by musicals, historical epics, and other films that benefited from the larger screens, wider framing, and improved sound. However, audience shares continued to dwindle, and had reached alarmingly low levels by the mid-1960s. Several costly flops, including Tora! Tora! Tora! , Gene Kelly 's adaptation of Hello, Dolly! and the Julie Andrews vehicle Star! , each failed attempts to replicate
3591-501: A prominent role as Shifu in the film Kung Fu Panda , which was praised in part for his comedic chemistry with Jack Black (whom he tutored in acting for an important scene) and his character's poignantly complex relationship with the story's villain. He later won the Annie Award for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature for his performance and has continued into the role in the franchise's subsequent filmed productions outside of
3724-594: A psychiatrist, and played the title character in the British family film Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium for which he was nominated for a BIFA for Best Performance by an Actor in a British Independent Film at the British Independent Film Awards 2007 . In 2008, although he was reluctant to perform in an animated feature film (despite previously performing voices in a version of The Point! and in an episode of The Simpsons ), Hoffman had
3857-420: A role on a soap opera . His co-star was Jessica Lange . Tootsie earned ten Academy Award nominations, including Hoffman's fifth nomination. Under direction by Sydney Pollack , Hoffman's role demanded "a steady bombardment of opposites—edgy then funny, romantic then realistic, soft then quivering." To film critic David Denby , Hoffman's character "embodies vulnerability and drive in perfect proportion. He has
3990-528: A sort of social and visual change, in the same way people first thought of Bogart . They called him ugly". Hoffman's success amazed friends from his early years as an actor, who told him "You were the last one I expected to make it". Biographer Jeff Lenburg wrote that "newspapers across the country were deluged with thousands of letters from fans", with one example published in The New York Times : "I identified with Ben. ... I thought of him as
4123-476: A spiritual brother. He was confused about his future and about his place in the world, as I am. It's a film one digs, rather than understands intellectually". Turner Classic Movies critic Rob Nixon notes that Hoffman represented "a new generation of actors". He credits Hoffman with breaking "the mold of the traditional movie star and brought to their roles a new candor, ethnicity, and eagerness to dive deep into complex, even unlikable characters." Nixon expands on
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4256-554: A two-room apartment in the West Village of Manhattan. He was then offered the lead in Midnight Cowboy (1969), which he accepted partly to prove many critics were wrong about his acting range and the variety of characters he could portray. Peter Biskind wrote, "it was the very contrast between his preppy character in The Graduate , and Ratso Rizzo" that appealed to Hoffman. 'I had become troubled,' recalls Hoffman, 'by
4389-500: Is a black comedy film produced and directed by Barry Levinson , who also directed Hoffman in Rain Man in 1988. The story takes place a few days before a presidential election, where a Washington, D.C. spin doctor (De Niro) distracts the electorate from a sex scandal by hiring a Hollywood film producer (Hoffman) to construct a fake war with Albania. Hoffman, as a caricature of real life producer Robert Evans , according to some, "gives
4522-594: Is a chronological list of notable films that are generally considered to be "New Hollywood" productions. Dustin Farnum He was born the eldest of three boys on May 27, 1874, in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire , the older brother of actor William Farnum , whom he closely resembled, and the lesser known silent film director Marshall Farnum (died 1917). He married Mary Cromwell in 1909, and they divorced in 1924. He then married Winifred Kingston ; they were
4655-547: Is a lawyer and economist. Hoffman is Jewish , from an Ashkenazi Jewish family of immigrants from Kyiv , Ukraine (then a part of the Russian Empire), and Iași , Romania. The family's surname was spelled Гойхман ( Goikhman ) in the Russian Empire . His upbringing was nonreligious , and he has said, "I don't have any memory of celebrating holidays growing up that were Jewish", and that he had "realized" he
4788-565: Is a watershed picture, the kind that signals a new style, a new trend." Biskind states that this review and turnaround by some critics allowed the film to be re-released, thus proving its commercial success and reflecting the move toward the New Hollywood. The impact of this film is important in understanding the rest of the American New Wave, as well as the conditions that were necessary for it. These initial successes paved
4921-434: Is described by critic Roger Ebert as "one of the great scare stories of our time, the notion that deep in the uncharted rain forests, deadly diseases are lurking, and if they ever escape their jungle homes and enter the human bloodstream, there will be a new plague the likes of which we have never seen." Critic David Denby credits Hoffman with giving the movie much of its thriller-like quality: Tanks and men pour in to herd
5054-571: Is sometimes more. He worries about every little detail." New Hollywood The New Hollywood , Hollywood Renaissance , American New Wave , or New American Cinema (not to be confused with the New American Cinema of the 1960s that was part of avant-garde underground cinema ), was a movement in American film history from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when a new generation of filmmakers came to prominence. They influenced
5187-657: The AFI Life Achievement Award and recalls the emotional impact that receiving the award had on him, "There was this reel of pictures, me playing all these different roles. I had my first—and only, thank God—panic attack. What followed was depression. ... It had to do with a central core in me, which was that I never felt I deserved success". Hoffman next appeared in Moonlight Mile (2002), followed by Confidence (2003) opposite Edward Burns , Andy García and Rachel Weisz . Hoffman finally had
5320-917: The Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1997, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999, and the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2012. Actor Robert De Niro has described him as "an actor with the everyman's face who embodied the heartbreakingly human". Hoffman studied at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music before he decided to go into acting, for which he trained at the Pasadena Playhouse . He received two Academy Awards for Best Actor , for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Rain Man (1988). His other Oscar-nominated roles are for The Graduate (1967), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Lenny (1974), Tootsie (1982), and Wag
5453-470: The Freedman v. Maryland court case in 1965 and the new ratings system in 1968 (reflecting growing market segmentation) set the scene for the New Hollywood. A defining film of the New Hollywood generation was Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Produced by and starring Warren Beatty and directed by Arthur Penn , its combination of graphic violence and humor, as well as its theme of glamorous disaffected youth,
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5586-501: The Paramount Case (which ended block booking and ownership of theater chains by film studios) and the advent of television (where Rod Serling , John Frankenheimer , Arthur Penn , Paddy Chayefsky and Sidney Lumet worked in their earlier years), both of which severely weakened both the traditional studio system and Hays Code , Hollywood studios initially used spectacle to retain profitability. Technicolor developed
5719-537: The Tour de France . Hoffman was passionate about the project, considering several directors, firstly Michael Cimino whom he later fired due to the director's uncompromising way of working. The film's producers, however, failed to find a suitable replacement, so the film was not made. In 1984, Hoffman starred as Willy Loman in the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller 's play Death of a Salesman . He reprised his role in
5852-524: The 1960s, whilst all three of them focused on finding acting jobs. Hackman remembers, "The idea that any of us would do well in films simply didn't occur to us. We just wanted to work". Hoffman's appearance—Duvall described him as Barbra Streisand in drag—and small size made him uncastable, Vanity Fair later wrote. During this period, Hoffman got occasional television bit parts, including commercials but, needing income, he briefly left acting in order to teach. Hoffman then studied at Actors Studio and became
5985-557: The 1966 off-Broadway play Eh? , for which he received a Drama Desk Award . He made his film debut in The Tiger Makes Out in 1967, alongside Eli Wallach . In 1967, immediately after wrapping up principal filming on The Tiger Makes Out , Hoffman flew from New York City to Fargo, North Dakota , where he directed productions of William Gibson 's Two for the Seesaw and William Saroyan 's The Time of Your Life for
6118-472: The April 1975 edition of Playboy , Dustin Hoffman was named after Farnum. Additionally, according to an interview on January 16, 2013, on Fresh Air with Terry Gross on NPR, Hoffman said his parents were expecting him to be a girl and did not have a boy's name ready. When his mother did have another boy, and was pressured to give him a name, she picked the name Dustin from a magazine the other lady in her room
6251-682: The Beach Boys and Hal Ashby as the Kinks ). Los Angeles Times article film critic Manohla Dargis described New Hollywood as the "halcyon age" of 1970s filmmaking, that "was less revolution than business as usual, with rebel hype". She also pointed out in her New York Times article that the era's enthusiasts insist this was "when American movies grew up (or at least starred underdressed actresses); when directors did what they wanted (or at least were transformed into brands); when creativity ruled (or at least ran gloriously amok, albeit often on
6384-558: The Bs" Roger Corman while others like celebrated cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond worked for lesser-known B movie directors like Ray Dennis Steckler , known for the 1962 Arch Hall Jr. vehicle Wild Guitar and the 1963 horror musical flick The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies . This, together with the breakdown of the Motion Picture Production Code following
6517-556: The Dog (1997). Other notable roles include in Little Big Man (1970), Papillon (1973), Marathon Man (1976), All the President's Men (1976), Ishtar (1987), Dick Tracy (1990), and Hook (1991). In the 21st century, Hoffman has appeared in films such as Francis Ford Coppola 's Megalopolis , Finding Neverland (2004), I Heart Huckabees (2004), and Stranger than Fiction (2006), as well as Meet
6650-595: The Fargo-Moorhead Community Theatre. The $ 1,000 he received for the eight-week contract was all he had to hold him over until the funds from the movie materialized. Director Mike Nichols auditioned Hoffman in 1966 for a lead role in the Broadway musical The Apple Tree but rejected him because he could not sing well enough, and gave Alan Alda the part. However, Nichols was so impressed with Hoffman's overall audition that he cast him as
6783-489: The Fockers (2004) and the sequel Little Fockers (2010) and The Meyerowitz Stories (2017). Hoffman has done voice work for The Tale of Despereaux (2008) and the Kung Fu Panda film series (2008–2024). In 2012, he made his directorial debut with Quartet . Hoffman made his Broadway debut in the 1961 play A Cook for Mr. General . He subsequently starred as Willy Loman in the 1984 revival of Death of
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#17327973246076916-502: The Hollywood Golden Age, which deals with the relationship of characters and plot. He argues that plot in classical Hollywood films (and some of the earlier New Hollywood films like The Godfather ) "tended to emerge more organically as a function of the drives, desires, motivations, and goals of the central characters". However, beginning with mid-1970s, he points to a trend that "characters became plot functions". During
7049-574: The Living Dead , The Wild Bunch , and Easy Rider while films that failed at the box office such as New York, New York , Sorcerer , Heaven's Gate , They All Laughed and One from the Heart marked the end of the era. In fact, The Wild Angels was kind of a... it was a big success for the New Hollywood . It was Roger Corman , it was Peter Fonda , Nancy Sinatra , it
7182-432: The New Hollywood consists of several different movements. The films made in this movement are stylistically characterized in that their narrative often deviated from classical norms. After the demise of the studio system and the rise of television, the commercial success of films was diminished. Successful films of the early New Hollywood era include Bonnie and Clyde , The Graduate , Rosemary's Baby , Night of
7315-407: The New Hollywood movement marked a significant shift towards independently produced and innovative works by a new wave of directors, but that this shift began to reverse itself when the commercial success of Jaws and Star Wars led to the realization by studios of the importance of blockbusters , advertising and control over production (even though the success of The Godfather was said to be
7448-519: The President's Men (1976) was made less than two years after the Watergate scandal , and starred Hoffman and Robert Redford as the real-life journalists, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward , respectively. Based on actual events, Hoffman and Redford play Washington Post reporters who uncover a break-in at the Watergate Hotel and end up investigating a political scandal that reaches all
7581-399: The anti-everything cynicism... Was everything a bummer? Was everything a drag? Was every movie about some guy with problems?" In 1980, film historian/scholar Robert P. Kolker examined New Hollywood film directors in his book A Cinema of Loneliness: Penn, Kubrick, Coppola, Scorsese, Altman , and how their films influenced American society of the 1960s and 1970s. Kolker observed that "for all
7714-458: The art cinema movement as a significant industry force with its peak in 1974–75 with Nashville and Chinatown . Geoff King sees the period as an interim movement in American cinema where a conjunction of forces led to a measure of freedom in filmmaking, while Todd Berliner says that 70s cinema resists the efficiency and harmony that normally characterize classical Hollywood cinema and tests
7847-474: The cause of establishment oppression, while in All the President's Men , he plays a reporter exposing presidential malfeasance." Vincent Canby of The New York Times described the film as "a spellbinding detective story". "The strength of the movie", he added, was "the virtually day-to-day record of the way Bernstein and Woodward conducted their investigations." The characters portrayed by Hoffman and Redford shared
7980-407: The challenge and adventure, their films speak to a continual impotence in the world, an inability to change and to create change." John Belton points to the changing demographic to even younger, more conservative audiences in the mid 1970s (50% aged 12–20) and the move to less politically subversive themes in mainstream cinema, as did Thomas Schatz, who saw the mid- to late 1970s as the decline of
8113-487: The character, to fire point-blank at the Laurence Olivier character, Dr. Szell, and kill him in that last scene. And I said that I couldn't do it. Goldman was quite upset about it, because first of all, how dare I? He wrote the book. "Your job isn't to rewrite — your job is to play it as written." ... it got nasty. I said, "Go hire someone else." I remember Goldman saying: "Why can't you do this? Are you such
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#17327973246078246-500: The character. Those little noises he makes are straight from Mike", he says. After completing The Graduate Hoffman turned down most of the film roles offered to him, preferring to go back to New York and continue performing in live theater. He returned to Broadway to appear in the title role of the musical Jimmy Shine . Hoffman won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance."I was a theater person. That's how my friends were, too, Gene Hackman and Bobby Duvall. I wasn't going to be
8379-716: The context of The Graduate , but you'll do quite well." Midnight Cowboy premiered in theaters across the United States in May 1969. For his acting, Hoffman received his second Oscar nomination and the film won Best Picture . In 1994 the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry . Biskind considers Hoffman's acting
8512-422: The contrast of that with the violence in the film: "In a sense, it is the absence of sadism — it is the violence without sadism — that throws the audience off balance at Bonnie and Clyde . The brutality that comes out of this innocence is far more shocking than the calculated brutalities of mean killers." Kael also noted the reaction of audiences to the violent climax of the movie, and the potential to empathize with
8645-502: The counterculture of the late 1960s." Easy Rider also affected the way studios looked to reach the youth market. The success of Midnight Cowboy , in spite of its "X" rating, was evidence for the interest in controversial themes at the time and also showed the weakness of the rating system and segmentation of the audience. For Peter Biskind, the new wave was foreshadowed by Bonnie and Clyde and began in earnest with Easy Rider . Biskind's book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls argues that
8778-516: The couple's young son. Hoffman won his first Academy Award , and the film also received the Best Picture honor, plus the awards for Best Supporting Actress (Streep), Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film required Hoffman to change his attitude, from being a "desensitized advertising art director" into becoming a "responsive and concerned daddy" after his wife (Streep) walks out on him and their six-year-old son, Billy. Hoffman, during
8911-455: The cover of the February 27, 1969, Time magazine as stars of their generation. This was followed by his role in Little Big Man (1970), where Jack Crabb, his character, ages from teenager to a 121-year-old man. The film was widely praised by critics, but was overlooked for an award except for a supporting nomination for Chief Dan George . Hoffman continued to appear in major films over
9044-684: The darker elements of humanity and society within the context of the American Dream in the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, with themes that were reflective of sociocultural issues and were centered around the potential meaninglessness of pursuing the American Dream as generation upon generation was motivated to possess it. In comparison, American Eccentric Cinema does not have a distinct context, its films show characters who are very individual and their concerns are very distinctive to their own personalities. The following
9177-510: The drugs he injected, made him tick like a time bomb", she says. However, notes author Paul Gardner , "directing Lenny , his most ambitious project, exhausted Fosse emotionally and physically. It turned his life inside out", with shooting days often lasting 10 to 12 hours: "The Lenny Bruce project, based on Julian Barry's play, had gone through two studios and three scripts, and was a problem child, like Lenny himself. But Fosse wanted to do it, and he wanted Dustin Hoffman". Hoffman initially turned
9310-462: The estrangement between Vito (Hoffman), a middle-aged man trying to succeed in a legitimate business, and his "hopelessly corrupt but charming father", Jesse (Connery). Critics were mostly not impressed with the story, although the individual performances were praised, especially Connery's. Because of their different acting styles and nationalities, some industry writers thought Connery and Hoffman might not work well together as close family members. "To
9443-558: The film's final cut and tried to defend it. Hoffman and Beatty were unaffected by the flop, and Ishtar became a cult film . Quentin Tarantino , for one, has called it one of his favorite movies, partly due to the humorous lyrics of the songs written by Paul Williams . Hoffman describes why he loves the film: Next came director Barry Levinson's Rain Man (1988), where Hoffman starred as an autistic savant , opposite Tom Cruise . Levinson, Hoffman and Cruise worked for two years on
9576-477: The film's period setting, was inspired by the Martin Scorsese classics Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy while Alexander Payne 's 2023 film The Holdovers took inspiration from Ashby's works. American Eccentric Cinema has been noted as influenced by this era. Both traditions have similar themes and narratives of existentialism and the need for human interaction. New Hollywood focuses on
9709-565: The film, and Hoffman's performance gained him his second Academy Award. Behind Hoffman's motivation for doing the film, he has said, "Deep inside, Rain Man is about how autistic we all are." In preparation for the part, Hoffman spent two years befriending autistic people, which included taking them bowling and to fast food restaurants. "It fed my obsession", he has stated. Hoffman worked at the New York Psychiatric Institute , affiliated with Columbia University , when he
9842-534: The final episode of HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm ' s fifth season. Hoffman appeared in Stranger than Fiction (2006), played the perfumer Giuseppe Baldini in Tom Tykwer 's film Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (also 2006). In 2007, he was featured in an advertising campaign for Australian telecommunications company Telstra 's Next G network, appeared in the 50 Cent video "Follow My Lead" as
9975-549: The franchise's television series . He next voiced Roscuro in The Tale of Despereaux . As the title character in Last Chance Harvey , Hoffman acted with co-star Emma Thompson in the story of two lonely people who tentatively forge a relationship over the course of three days. Director Joel Hopkins notes that Hoffman was a perfectionist and self-critical: "He often wanted to try things stripped down, because less
10108-600: The gang of criminals in terms of their naiveté and innocence reflecting a change in expectations of American cinema. The cover story in Time magazine in December 1967, celebrated the movie and innovation in American New Wave cinema. This influential article by Stefan Kanfer claimed that Bonnie and Clyde represented a "New Cinema" through its blurred genre lines, and disregard for honored aspects of plot and motivation, and that "In both conception and execution, Bonnie and Clyde
10241-591: The height of the studio system, films were made almost exclusively on set in isolated studios. The content of films was limited by the Motion Picture Production Code, and though golden-age film-makers found loopholes in its rules, the discussion of more taboo content through film was effectively prevented. The shift towards a "new realism" was made possible when the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system
10374-530: The hero, Babe Levy, a part-time long-distance runner and graduate student, who suddenly finds himself being pursued by a fugitive Nazi. To put himself in the mindset of someone under severe emotional distress, Hoffman did not sleep for days at a time and let his body become disheveled and unhealthy. Olivier was alarmed when Hoffman turned up on set for the dental torture scene. Hoffman explained what he had done, and Olivier replied: "Dear boy! Next time try acting. It's much easier." Goldman describes his inspiration for
10507-566: The juice of his creativity so carefully strained, that the claim to genius is justified. And for that Dustin Hoffman deserves full credit, vanishing into the Bruce persona to simply stunning effectiveness,… Hoffman captures the restlessness, the velocity of a man's mouth straining to keep pace with a jet-propelled intelligence… Lenny was nominated for six Academy Awards , including Best Picture , Best Director , Best Actor , Best Actress , Best Adapted Screenplay , and Best Cinematography . All
10640-432: The kind of wonderfully funny performance that is liable to win prizes, especially since its mixture of affection and murderous parody is so precise. Stanley (Hoffman) conducts business meetings in tennis clothes or in robe and slippers", notes critic Janet Maslin . He next appeared in another Barry Levinson film, the science fiction psychological thriller, Sphere (1998), opposite Sharon Stone . In 1999, Hoffman received
10773-410: The knack of making everything he does seem perilous, and so audiences feel protective of him and root for him." Hoffman's acting was made more difficult than necessary, however, as he was not given the rehearsal time Pollack promised, "I like to be very prepared, and I feel that the success or failure of a film is many times determined before you start principal photography. I wanted rehearsal very much. I
10906-458: The limits of Hollywood's classical model. According to author and film critic Charles Taylor ( Opening Wednesday at a Theater or Drive-In Near You ), he stated that "the 1970s remain the third — and, to date, last — great period in American movies". Author and film critic David Thomson also shared similar sentiment to the point of dubbing the era "the decade when movies mattered". Author A.D. Jameson ( I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing ), on
11039-462: The losses from expensive movie flops, led to innovation and risk-taking, allowing greater control by younger directors and producers. Therefore, in an attempt to capture that audience that found a connection to the "art films" of Europe, the studios hired a host of young filmmakers and allowed them to make their films with relatively little studio control. Some of whom, like actor Jack Nicholson and director Peter Bogdanovich , were mentored by "King of
11172-542: The making of the movie, was also going through his own divorce after a ten-year first marriage. Hoffman has said, "Giving myself permission not only to be present but to be a father was a kind of epiphany for me at that time, that I could get to through my work. ... I got closer to being a father by playing a father. That's very painful to say." The role also reminded him of his own love of children in general saying, "Children are more interesting than anything. I walk my younger child to school every day and I don't like leaving
11305-603: The male lead in the movie The Graduate (1967). This role was that of Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate who has an affair with Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father's law partner. It was Hoffman's first major role; he received an Academy Award nomination for it, but lost to Rod Steiger for In the Heat of the Night . Although Life magazine joked that "if Dustin Hoffman's face were his fortune, he'd be committed to
11438-846: The mid-1960s to a younger, more affluent, college-educated demographic: by the mid-1970s, 76% of all movie-goers were under 30, 64% of whom had gone to college. European films, both arthouse and commercial (especially the Commedia all'italiana , the French New Wave , the Spaghetti Western ), and Japanese cinema were making a splash in the United States – the huge market of disaffected youth seemed to find relevance and artistic meaning in movies like Michelangelo Antonioni 's Blowup , with its oblique narrative structure and full-frontal female nudity. The desperation felt by studios during this period of economic downturn, and after
11571-591: The mid-1990s, Hoffman starred in—and was deeply involved in the production of— David Mamet 's American Buffalo (also 1996), and an early effort of film editor Kate Sanford. In 1997, Hoffman starred opposite John Travolta in the Costa Gavras film Mad City . Hoffman gained his seventh Academy Award nomination for his performance in Wag The Dog (1997), in a role that allowed Hoffman the chance to work with both Robert De Niro and Denis Leary . The movie
11704-566: The movie a scathing review. "It is a cheap piece of bald-faced slapstick comedy," he wrote, "that treats the hideous depredations of that sleazy, moronic pair as though they were as full of fun and frolic as the jazz-age cut-ups in Thoroughly Modern Millie ..." Other notices, including those from Time and Newsweek magazines, were equally dismissive. Its portrayal of violence and ambiguity in regard to moral values, and its startling ending, divided critics. Following one of
11837-419: The narrative strategies characteristic of Hollywood films of the 1970s: Seventies cinema also dealt with masculine crises featuring flawed male characters, downbeat conclusions and pessimistic subject matters alongside hard-nosed depictions of a America reeling from tense conflicts like The Vietnam War and President Richard Nixon 's Watergate scandal . Thomas Schatz points to another difference with
11970-414: The negative reviews, Time magazine received letters from fans of the movie, and according to journalist Peter Biskind , the impact of critic Pauline Kael in her positive review of the film (October 1967, New Yorker ) led other reviewers to follow her lead and re-evaluate the film (notably Newsweek and Time ). Kael drew attention to the innocence of the characters in the film and the artistic merit of
12103-458: The next few years. Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971), Straw Dogs (also 1971), and Papillon (1973). He returned to Broadway in 1974, directing All Over Town . Hoffman next starred in Lenny (1974), for which he was again nominated for Best Actor. Lenny was based on the life of stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce , who died at the age of 40, and
12236-458: The novel: "What if someone close to you was something totally different from what you thought? In the story, Hoffman thinks his brother (Roy Scheider) is a businessman where the reality is that the man is a spy, who has been involved with the Nazi, Szell." However, Hoffman remembers a serious disagreement he had with Goldman, who also wrote the screenplay, about how the story ends: I was called on, as
12369-698: The other hand, claimed that Star Wars was New Hollywood's finest achievement that actually embodied the characteristics of the respected "serious, sophisticated adult films". Steven Hyden, writing for Grantland , called the Movie Brats the "cinematic version" of classic rock (to the point of roll calling Spielberg as the Beatles , Scorsese as the Velvet Underground , Coppola as Bob Dylan , Lucas as Pink Floyd , Robert Altman as Neil Young , Brian De Palma as Led Zeppelin , Bogdanovich as
12502-512: The overall plot cleverly mirrored one of Christie's detective novels. Agatha was generally very well received by critics, especially in the UK, and maintains an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Hoffman next starred in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) co-starring Meryl Streep and directed by Robert Benton . The film tells the story of a married couple's divorce and its impact on everyone involved, including
12635-461: The parents of radio actress Estelle "Dustine" Runyon (1925–1983). After great success in a number of stage roles, Farnum landed his first film role in 1914 in the movie Soldiers of Fortune , and later in Cecil B. DeMille 's The Squaw Man . He died of kidney failure on July 3, 1929, at Post Graduate Hospital (now NYU Langone Health ) in Manhattan , aged 55. According to an interview in
12768-500: The part down, saying: "I didn't think the script was strong enough and I wasn't sure I was the one to play the role." While considering the part, he read Lenny Bruce's autobiography and looked at films with Bruce performing stand-up to live audiences. In the same interview with Playboy he recounted: "I began to feel an affinity with him, a realization that there was a lot of Lenny Bruce in me. My wife felt it too ... I realized that I'd have to make use of my own spontaneity because he
12901-526: The period's unusual narrative practices. The 1970s, Berliner says, marks Hollywood's most significant formal transformation since the conversion to sound film and is the defining period separating the storytelling modes of the studio era and contemporary Hollywood. New Hollywood films deviate from classical narrative norms more than Hollywood films from any other era or movement. Their narrative and stylistic devices threaten to derail an otherwise straightforward narration. Berliner argues that five principles govern
13034-624: The play Eh? , by Henry Livings , which had its U.S. premiere at the Circle in the Square Theatre on October 16, 1966. Sidney W. Pink , a producer and 3D-movie pioneer, discovered Hoffman in one of his off-Broadway roles and cast him in Madigan's Millions . Through the early and mid-1960s, Hoffman made appearances in television shows and movies, including Naked City , The Defenders and Hallmark Hall of Fame . Hoffman starred in
13167-593: The play" throughout his career: "For years he has wanted to be Willy Loman; when he discovered that Arthur Miller was his neighbor in Connecticut, they began to talk about it in earnest." For Hoffman, the story also left a deep emotional impact from the time he first read it, "I read that play, and I was just destroyed by it. It was like finding out something terrible about my family. I just shook. I felt like my family's privacy had been invaded. I couldn't even talk about it for weeks". Hoffman rehearsed for three weeks with
13300-417: The play's original star, Lee J. Cobb , and remembers seeing his stage performance: "I'll never forget that period in my life. It was so vivid, so intense, watching Lee J. Cobb and his sixteen-inch guns as Willy. God, how I think about what I saw on that stage!" Brenner adds that Hoffman "has been training like a boxer for the role that so exhausted Cobb he had to be replaced after four months." The original play
13433-408: The precursor to the blockbuster phenomenon). Writing in 1968, critic Pauline Kael argued that the importance of The Graduate was in its social significance in relation to a new young audience, and the role of mass media, rather than any artistic aspects. Kael argued that college students identifying with The Graduate were not too different from audiences identifying with characters in dramas of
13566-429: The previous decade. She also compared this era of cinema to "tangled, bitter flowering of American letters in the 1850s". Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino identified in his 2022 book Cinema Speculation that: "regular moviegoers were becoming weary of modern American movies. The darkness, the drug use, the embrace of sensation-the violence, the sex, and the sexual violence. But even more than that, they became wear of
13699-461: The production code enabled New Hollywood films to feature anti-establishment political themes, the use of rock music, and sexual freedom deemed "counter-cultural" by the studios. The youth movement of the 1960s turned anti-heroes like Bonnie and Clyde and Cool Hand Luke into pop-culture idols, and Life magazine called the characters in Easy Rider "part of the fundamental myth central to
13832-580: The rank of No. 27 Hero on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains list, while Entertainment Weekly ranked All the President's Men as one of the 25 "Powerful Political Thrillers". Hoffman next starred in Marathon Man (1976), a film based on William Goldman 's novel of the same name , opposite Laurence Olivier and Roy Scheider . Its director, John Schlesinger also directed Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy in 1969. Described as "Schlesinger's thriller", by author Gene D. Phillips , Hoffman plays
13965-458: The reviews that I read of The Graduate , that I was not a character actor , which I like to think of myself as. It hurt me. Some of the stuff in the press was brutal.'" Critics assumed that director Mike Nichols got lucky by finding a typical actor with average acting ability to play the part of Benjamin Braddock. John Schlesinger , who would direct Midnight Cowboy and was seeking lead actors, held that same impression. Hoffman's performance as
14098-640: The right and responsibility of every actor or crew member to yell, 'Cut!' The films of New Hollywood influenced future mainstream and independent filmmakers such as Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson and Noah Baumbach . They also influenced both the Poliziotteschi genre films in Italy and a decade later the Cinéma du look movement in France. Todd Phillips 's 2019 DC Comics adaptation Joker , alongside
14231-501: The school. I would like to sit down on those little chairs, at those little tables, and play. And a child's love is like a drug. To have a child throw his arms about you—it's instant stoned. People talk about the rush heroin gives you: I would say children give you that rush". Benton's directing has been praised by Hoffman, who credits him for inspiring the emotional level supporting many scenes: "Perfect directors make you emotional. On Kramer vs. Kramer , Robert Benton made me emotional. He
14364-414: The significance of the film to Hoffman's career: "In The Graduate , he created a lasting resonance as Ben Braddock that made him an overnight sensation and set him on the road to becoming one of our biggest stars and most respected actors." Hoffman, however, mostly credits director Mike Nichols for taking a great risk in giving him, a relative unknown, the starring role: "I don't know of another instance of
14497-416: The studio and eventually on the audience. The new generation of Hollywood filmmakers was most importantly, from the studios' view, young, therefore able to reach the youth audience they were losing. This collective of actors, screenwriters and directors, dubbed the "New Hollywood" by the press, briefly changed the business from the producer-driven Hollywood system of the past as Todd Berliner has written about
14630-425: The studio's dime)." This era was also infamous for its excessive decadence and on-set mishaps. Incidents plaguing the behind-the-scenes of some of the horror films from this era (such as Rosemary's Baby , The Exorcist , Twilight Zone: The Movie and The Omen ) were also the subjects for the docuseries Cursed Films . Even Spielberg, who co-directed/co-produced Twilight Zone with John Landis ,
14763-893: The subjectivity of the protagonist in The Graduate and the passage of time in the famous match cut from 2001: A Space Odyssey . Also influential were the works of experimental filmmakers Arthur Lipsett , Stan Brakhage , Bruce Baillie , Jordan Belson , John Whitney , Scott Bartlett , Maya Deren and Kenneth Anger with their combinations of music and imagery and each were cited by George Lucas , Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese as influences. The New Hollywood generation of directors and screenwriters (each educated at either USC , UCLA , NYU and AFI ) such as Coppola, Lucas, Scorsese, Steven Spielberg , John Milius and Paul Schrader were sometimes jokingly labeled as "Movie Brats" or " Young Turks ". The end of
14896-477: The success of Mary Poppins , Doctor Zhivago and The Sound of Music , put great strain on the studios. By the time the Baby Boomer generation started to come of age in the 1960s, " Old Hollywood " was rapidly losing money; the studios were unsure how to react to the much-changed audience demographics. The change in the market during the period went from a middle-aged high school-educated audience in
15029-618: The surprise of many", note Connery biographers Lee Pfeiffer and Lisa Philip, "the two superstars developed an immediate rapport and chemistry that translates onto the screen." And Lumet remembered: "Sean is extremely disciplined and Dustin is very improvisational, all over the place with his lines. I didn't know where it would end up, but Sean met Dustin improvisation for improvisation, and a great deal of richness and humor came out of it." In 1991, Hoffman voiced substitute teacher Mr. Bergstrom in The Simpsons episode " Lisa's Substitute ". He
15162-490: The terrified population here and there, and Dustin Hoffman, as the supersleuth Army doctor, gives such a lip-biting, anguished performance he absolves the movie of slickness. Hoffman isn't good, exactly; he's tense, edgy, and righteous, like a B-movie actor from the fifties. Following that, he appeared in the 1996 revenge drama/legal thriller Sleepers (1996) with Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt , Jason Patric , and Kevin Bacon . In
15295-466: The types of film produced, their production and marketing, and the way major studios approached filmmaking. In New Hollywood films, the film director, rather than the studio, took on a key authorial role. The definition of "New Hollywood" varies, depending on the author, with some defining it as a movement and others as a period. The span of the period is also a subject of debate, as well as its integrity, as some authors, such as Thomas Schatz, argue that
15428-431: The way for the studio to relinquish almost complete control to these innovative young filmmakers. In the mid-1970s, idiosyncratic, startling original films such as Paper Moon , Dog Day Afternoon , Chinatown , and Taxi Driver , among others, enjoyed enormous critical and commercial success. These successes by the members of the New Hollywood led each of them in turn to make more and more extravagant demands, both on
15561-453: The way to the presidency. The film, as earlier ones, had Hoffman take on a dramatically different character than his previous one (as Lenny Bruce), although both men, Bruce and Bernstein, set their faces against abuses of institutional power, and the tendency for society to ignore such abuses. Author James Morrison compares the two roles: "As Lenny Bruce in Lenny (1974), Hoffman plays a martyr to
15694-414: Was 21. "It was a great experience for me", he said. "All my life I had wanted to get inside a prison or a mental hospital. ... I wanted to get inside where behavior, human behavior, was so exposed. All the things the rest of us were feeling and stopping up were coming out of these people." He used that experience to help him develop the character of Raymond Babbitt, a high-functioning autistic savant, yet
15827-491: Was Elaine May's Ishtar (1987), co-starring Warren Beatty , who also produced it. Hoffman and Beatty play two down-and-out singer-songwriters who travel to Morocco for a nightclub gig and get caught up in foreign intrigue. Much of the movie was filmed in Africa . The film faced severe production problems, mostly related to its $ 55 million cost, and received overwhelmingly negative reviews. However, Hoffman and Beatty liked
15960-572: Was Jewish at around the age of 10. Hoffman graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1955 and enrolled at Santa Monica College with the intention of studying medicine. But he decided to become an actor, and left in the following year to join the Pasadena Playhouse, although when he told his family about his career goal, his Aunt Pearl warned him, "You can't be an actor. You are not good-looking enough." He also studied with Lee Strasberg and has stated that he did not study with either Sanford Meisner or Stella Adler . Hoffman initially hoped to become
16093-473: Was a New Hollywood kind of movie, and it was very anti-the Old Hollywood, it was very hard-edged, violent, you know, it was not at all an Old Hollywood movie. And I didn't, I wasn't particularly aware of it. Then the following year was Bonnie and Clyde . Shadows had come out in the early '60s, so that was really the first sign of a kind of off-Hollywood movement. – Peter Bogdanovich Following
16226-501: Was a hit with audiences. The film eventually won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress ( Estelle Parsons ) and Best Cinematography . When Jack L. Warner , then-CEO of Warner Bros. , first saw a rough cut of Bonnie and Clyde in the summer of 1967, he hated it. Distribution executives at Warner Brothers agreed, giving the film a low-key premiere and limited release. Their strategy appeared justified when Bosley Crowther , middlebrow film critic at The New York Times , gave
16359-569: Was assistant director for Grosbard's 1965 off-Broadway production of A View from the Bridge starring Robert Duvall and Jon Voight, and in late 1965 stage-managed and appeared in Grosbard's The Subject Was Roses on Broadway. Hoffman's "sharply outlined and vividly colored" performance in off-Broadway's The Journey of the Fifth Horse in April 1966 was followed by another critical success in
16492-766: Was cheaper (no sets need to be built) New Hollywood filmmakers rapidly developed the taste for location shooting, resulting in a more naturalistic approach to filmmaking, especially when compared to the mostly stylized approach of classical Hollywood musicals and spectacles made to compete with television during the 1950s and early 1960s. The documentary films of D.A. Pennebaker , the Maysles Brothers and Frederick Wiseman , among others, also influenced filmmakers of this era. However, in editing, New Hollywood filmmakers adhered to realism more liberally than most of their classical Hollywood predecessors, often using editing for artistic purposes rather than for continuity alone,
16625-571: Was credited under the pseudonym Sam Etic, a play on "Semitic". Throughout the 1990s, Hoffman appeared in many large, studio films, such as Dick Tracy (1990) (where his Ishtar co-star Beatty plays the titular character), Hero (1992) and Billy Bathgate (1991) co-starring with Nicole Kidman (who was nominated for a Golden Globe ). Hoffman also played the title role of Captain Hook in Steven Spielberg 's Hook (also 1991), earning
16758-406: Was directed by Elia Kazan , who Hoffman considers "the perfect director, the best there ever was. ... God, I would have done anything to have worked with Kazan." The thing I love about Ishtar – and I love it with all of its flaws – is that it has a statement to make. And that is: It is far, far better to spend a life being second rate in something that you're passionate about, than to spend
16891-551: Was introduced and location shooting was becoming more viable. New York City was a favorite spot for this new set of filmmakers due to its gritty atmosphere. Because of breakthroughs in film technology (e.g. the Panavision Panaflex camera, introduced in 1972; the Steadicam , introduced in 1976), the New Hollywood filmmakers could shoot 35mm camera film in exteriors with relative ease. Since location shooting
17024-425: Was known for his open, free-style and critical form of comedy which integrated politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. Expectations were high that Hoffman would win an Oscar for his portrayal, especially after his similar role in Midnight Cowboy . Film critic Katharine Lowry speculates that director Bob Fosse "never gave him a chance" to go far enough into developing the character. "We never understand what, besides
17157-502: Was promised two weeks and was grieved that I didn't get it. We also followed the risky course of starting to shoot with a screenplay that wasn't completed". Fellow actor Gary Oldman reported that, during a telephone conversation with Hoffman, the latter recalled having made comments toward a "very powerful" industry figure who ensured that he was unable to find work in Hollywood for some time following Tootsie . In 1983, Hoffman became
17290-409: Was pulling so hard for me. When I didn't think I could do a scene again I'd say, "I can't give it to you, I haven't got it." Then he'd just get this look on his face and roll the camera and I'd say, "Okay, this is yours." That's what he made you want to do for him—to give him one." In Tootsie (1982), Hoffman portrays Michael Dorsey, a struggling actor who finds himself dressing up as a woman to land
17423-432: Was so disgusted by the latter's handling of a deadly helicopter accident that resulted in the death of three actors, that he ended their friendship and publicly called for the end of New Hollywood. When approached by the press about the accident, he stated: "No movie is worth dying for. I think people are standing up much more now, than ever before, to producers and directors who ask too much. If something isn't safe, it's
17556-405: Was so spontaneous. And I admired his guts ... That intimacy is what an actor tries to get ... It occurred to me that if I had known him, I would have wanted us to be friends ... and he was a provocateur, and I love to provoke." Movie critic Judith Crist gave Hoffman credit for the ultimate success of the film: What is important is that Bruce's routines are so artfully reconstructed,
17689-497: Was with Vanessa Redgrave as Agatha Christie , focussing on the missing eleven days of the author's life. The part of Archie Christie was played by Timothy Dalton , then partner of Vanessa Redgrave , and later to star in James Bond movies. Dalton's depiction of cold indifference to his wife produced a perfect foil to Hoffman's portrayal of warm compassion, humor and sensitivity. The film had both romantic and comic moments whilst
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