It wasn’t just the actor’s character that largely ruined his career. Unfortunately, there were other very dark parts in his life, which could have sent him to the thyme…
Richard Dreyfuss he reached the top, the recognition, long before he realized his talent, before he matured fundamentally, understood that Hollywood needs endurance, duration, right choices, management of celebrity. This was helped both by his collaboration with Spielberg’s early blockbuster hits, and by the Best Actor Oscar he won for his performance in The Farewell Girl before he was even 30 years old, making him the youngest actor to he mastered it. In combination with his explosive character, who did not raise much and several times treated the professionals of the field and his colleagues with contempt, they will quickly make him one of the most difficult actors in Hollywood. But it wasn’t just his character that largely ruined his career. Unfortunately, there were other very dark parts in his life, which could have sent him to the thyme…
Richard scored 75
Richard Dreyfuss, who turned 75 (born September 29, 1947) is now a veteran of the show business, completing at least five decades in acting, having first appeared at the age of 15 on television’s “In Mama’s House”, while his fame launched in the 1970s, when actors his age, who became stars of the American film industry, were trying to find their artistic stride. His story is interesting as well as instructive.
From Brooklyn neighborhoods to theater
He was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. His father was rather a controversial man, being a lawyer, restaurateur, and businessman with ties to Brooklyn gangs. His mother was an activist, fighting for peace, while he had an older sister, Lorraine, who is an actress, producer and screenwriter. His father had been disabled in World War II and left the family when Richard was 21, only to remarry several times. Dreyfus grew up in Queens, New York, and as he himself said, “I grew up thinking that Alfred Dreyfus (the French officer whose case shocked France) was in my family.”
Dreyfus began acting at a young age at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills Arts Center, under the guidance of theater teacher Bill Miller, made his television debut at age 15, and during the Vietnam War declared a conscientious objector , doing alternate duty for two years, in a Los Angeles hospital. A period when he made some appearances on television.
In the jaws of success
After some roles in the theater, he got his first major role in the comedy “American Slogans” by George Lucas, where he will shine for the first time. Soon after, Steven Spielberg would snap him up to co-star alongside Roy Sider in his smash hit, now iconic horror film Jaws of the Shark. A film that refreshed Hollywood and gave new impetus to American cinema.
It will be followed by the 1977 sci-fi masterpiece Close Encounters of the Third Kind, one of Spielberg’s best films. Dreyfus, under the guidance of Spielberg, will become the most charming unconventional hero of the 70s, where he lives with his dreams, wants to change the orderly life of the suburbs, to suck life. His uniquely compelling performance, full of positive energy, won’t win an Oscar, but it remains an icon for fans of Spielberg’s early period and the other great directors of his generation.
The Oscar and the 1 billion dollars
In the same year, 1977, the comedy “The Goodbye Girl”, directed by Herbert Ross and scripted by the important playwright Neil Simon, will be released, which would win him the Oscar for Best Actor. Dreyfuss will take Simon’s brilliant story (Oscar for Screenplay) and take it off, in his own unique way, forcing the Academy members to correct their mistake on “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and make him the youngest actor winning the Oscar—a record he would lose to Adrien Brody 25 years later. But apart from his artistic success, Dreyfus’s films in that first important five years, would reach close to 1 billion dollars in receipts!
Hills of cocaine
So, reaching the top in his late 30s and unable to handle his celebrity, he began… digging into hills of cocaine. His addiction came to an end four years later, when in 1982, while speeding in his luxury Mercedes-Benz 450 SL, he crashed into a pole and was arrested for drug possession while almost losing touch with reality. Fortunately for him, a near-fatal car accident wakes him from his drug stupor. He threw away the abuses, but also the prestige he had acquired, along with the ability to memorize the dialogues of his roles.
Countdown
In the mid-80s he would come back reborn with some good films, although the scars from his drug spree are evident. The hit “Beverly Hills Face” directed by Paul Mazerski opposite Nick Nolte, Barry Levinson’s entertaining “The Brawlers” with Danny DeVito, the delightful comedy crime adventure “The Bedbugs” by John Badham and Martin Ritt’s dramatic thriller Countdown, alongside Barbra Streisand, will bring him back to the fore. In 1989 Spielberg will remember him again and invite him to star in the good-hearted fantasy adventure “Forever”, a film that is also the last of Audrey Hepburn, while in 1991 he will star alongside Bill Murray in the excellent comedy of Mr. Frank Oz, “Finally, what will happen to Bob?” During the filming of the film, Dreyfus made a rocket of Murray, who was not one of the quietest children, with his behavior. Years later both, although they will continue to dislike each other, will agree that their rivalry, which has reached the limits of fighting, will help the chemistry of the lead couple, the success of the film.
He will star in several even less interesting films, until the dramatic “The Saga of Mr. Holland” (1995) directed by Stephen Herek, with which he will once again find himself among the Oscar candidates.
The continuation, however, will not be a march to the top again, but more of a quiet journey, with good and mediocre moments, supporting roles or mainly guest roles, which do not add anything to his resume. After all, Richard Dreyfus built his legend, took it to the heights, in the first five years of his career, with performances that marked a time of Hollywood’s heyday, which today seems very distant.
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With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
