Dustin Hoffman

Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. 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. Among his numerous accolades are two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards as well as a nomination for a Tony Award. He was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1997, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999, and the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2012.

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 made his film debut with the black comedy The Tiger Makes Out (1967). He went on to receive two Academy Awards for Best Actor playing a man going through a divorce in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and an autistic savant in Rain Man (1988). He was Oscar-nominated for The Graduate (1967), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Lenny (1974), Tootsie (1982), and Wag 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, he acted in films such as Finding Neverland (2004), I Heart Huckabees (2004), and Stranger than Fiction (2006), as well as Meet the Fockers (2004) and the sequel Little Fockers (2010), The Meyerowitz Stories (2017), and Megalopolis (2024). Hoffman has voiced roles in The Tale of Despereaux (2008) and the Kung Fu Panda film series (2008–present). 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 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 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 (1902–1990) and Lillian (née Gold; 1907–1982). 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 is a lawyer and economist. Hoffman is Jewish, from an Ashkenazi Jewish family of immigrants from Kiev, 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 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.