The Life and Career of Academy Award Winning Actor Dustin Hoffman

The Life and Career of Academy Award Winning Actor Dustin Hoffman This multi award-winning actor is famous for taking on incredibly difficult roles, and one of these involved him dressing as a woman. Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we’ll be taking a look at the career of Dustin Hoffman. Dustin Lee Hoffman was born on August 8th, 1937 in Los Angeles, California. He was named after silent film actor Dustin Farnum, but Hoffman’s film roots spread even further: his father was a set dresser and prop supervisor at Columbia Studios before the Great Depression. Hoffman was a class clown and a natural performer in his youth. He used these skills to participate in school plays. However, he lost interest in entertaining others when he developed acne and needed braces as a teen. Fortunately, a professor at the Santa Monica City College re-kindled his love of the stage. This caused him to take up studies at the Pasadena Playhouse, where he befriended a fellow student named Gene Hackman. The pair headed to New York together, and became roommates for a short time while auditioning for acting roles. Hoffman was forced to take any work he could find, including jobs as a waiter and a janitor. However, after developing himself as a committed method actor, he eventually made it to Broadway. After several years on stage, Hoffman landed bit parts on television and in film. However, his breakout role came in 1967’s coming of age film “The Graduate.” Not only was this movie a massive box office success, but the project also earned Hoffman a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for best actor. Hoffman continued to impress critics, and just two years later he earned another Oscar nod for his role in 1969’s “Midnight Cowboy.” Over the next decade Hoffman appeared in a variety of projects, and earned recognition for such films as “John and Mary,” “Little Big Man,” “Straw Dogs,” “Lenny,” “All the President’s Men” and “Marathon Man.” Hoffman finally took home his first Oscar for his portrayal of a divorced man who learns to care for his son, but is then forced to fight for custody in 1979’s “Kramer vs. Kramer.” Despite the massive success of his career, Hoffman was in turmoil off camera. This period saw the end of his first marriage, the death of his mother, and ongoing lawsuits with several Hollywood studios over his loss of creative control. Unfortunately, he also lost several close friendships around this time as a result of his fierce temper and perfectionism on set. Hoffman eventually rebounded, remarried and sought Oscar gold once again. This time he wooed the Academy as a volatile actor who is forced to cross dress to land a soap opera role in 1982’s “Tootsie.” A few years later, Hoffman impressed again as an autistic savant opposite Tom Cruise in 1988’s “Rain Man.” Hoffman found it difficult to recreate the success he won during the 1980s over the next decade. But while he did not manage any major Oscar buzz in the early 1990s, he still entertained audiences in several notable roles. These included the criminal Mumbles in “Dick Tracy,” and the iconic pirate Hook in 1991’s blockbuster of the same name. That same decade, Hoffman attracted interest for other major projects. These included his role as a colonel in 1995’s epidemic disaster film “Outbreak,” a washed-up lawyer in 1996’s “Sleepers,” a television journalist in “Mad City,” a producer in 1997’s “Wag the Dog,” and a psychologist in 1998’s sci-fi thriller “Sphere.” Following the turn of the millennium, Hoffman played a lawyer with morals in “Runaway Jury,” a theater owner in “Finding Neverland,” and Ben Stiller’s father in 2004’s “Meet the Fockers” and its subsequent sequels. Soon after, he became the owner of a magical toy store in “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium,” and lent his voice to Master Shifu in “Kung Fu Panda” and its sequel. In 2010, Hoffman garnered a Genie Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role for portraying Izzy Panofsky in Mordecai Richler’s “Barney’s Version.” He is the only actor ever to have had top billing in three films that won the Best Picture Oscar. With his devotion to his art and his ability to entertain, Dustin Hoffman continues to dazzle audiences.