Movies

Richard Stephen Dreyfuss (/ˈdraɪfəs/ DRY-fəs; born Dreyfus; October 29, 1947) is an American actor. He is known for starring in popular films during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, including American Graffiti (1973), Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), The Goodbye Girl (1977), The Competition (1980), Stand by Me (1986), Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), Stakeout (1987), Always (1989), What About Bob? (1991), and Mr. Holland's Opus (1995).

Dreyfuss won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1977 for The Goodbye Girl (at the time, the youngest-ever actor, at age 30, to win) and was nominated in 1995 for Mr. Holland's Opus. He has also won a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and was nominated in 2002 for two Screen Actor's Guild Awards for his portrayal of former Secretary of State Alexander Haig in the Showtime Networks ensemble film The Day Reagan Was Shot.

Early life
Dreyfuss was born on October 29, 1947, in Brooklyn, New York, the second and younger son of Norman Dreyfuss (1920–2013), an attorney, restaurateur and plastics company owner originally from a "violent gang culture in Brooklyn", and Geraldine (née Robbins; 1921–2000), a peace activist. He is the second child of three children. He has an older brother, Lorin Dreyfuss (b. 1944), who is an actor, film producer and screenplay writer, and a younger sister, Cathy. His father Norman suffered from the debilitating physical effects of a mortar explosion at the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, requiring the use of crutches, canes, and special footwear provided by the Army for the rest of his life. He left the family when his son was 21 years old, and remarried more than once; he and his son were not on speaking terms at the time of his death.

Dreyfuss was raised in the Bayside area of Queens, New York. His family is Jewish, descended from immigrants from Russia and Poland. He has commented that he "grew up thinking that Alfred Dreyfus and  are from the same family". His father disliked New York, and moved the family first to Europe, and later to Los Angeles, California, when Dreyfuss was nine. Dreyfuss attended Beverly Hills High School.