Dustin Hoffman Biography (3)
Hoffman's first stage role was in the Sarah Lawrence College production of Gertrude Stein's Yes Is For A Very Young Man and led to several roles Off Broadway, which brought him to the attention of director Mike Nichols, who casted Hoffman in his Academy Award-nominated title role in The Graduate.
Hoffman has since been nominated for six more Academy Awards, for such diverse films as Midnight Cowboy, Lenny, Tootsie (a film he also produced through his company, Punch Productions), and Wag the Dog, and winning the Oscar for Kramer Vs. Kramer in 1979 and again in 1988 for Rain Man.
Other film credits include Little Big Man, Straw Dogs, Papillon, All the President's Men, Marathon Man, Straight Time, Agatha, Ishtar, Dick Tracy, Billy Bathgate, Hook, Hero, Sleepers, Sphere, American Buffalo, Outbreak, and Mad City. Hoffman recently appeared in Brad Silberling's Moonlight Mile, starring opposite Susan Sarandon.
Hoffman's stage work has been equally impressive, returning to Broadway in 1974 for his stage directorial debut, All Over Town, and in 1984 to star as Willy Loman in the revival of Death of a Salesman, which he also produced and for which he earned the Drama Desk Award for Best Actor and an Emmy Award when the production was filmed as a special presentation for television. He would reprise his long run on the London stage as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and receive a Tony Award nomination.
Hoffman also produced the feature film A Walk on the Moon, and executive produced, and won two Emmy Awards for, The Devil's Arithmetic.
His upcoming projects include: The Runaway Jury, starring opposite John Cusack, Gene Hackman, and Rachel Weisz. He can soon be seen in Neverland, starring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet and will begin production this spring on Andy Garcia's The Lost City.
Bio courtesy Lionsgate Films for "Confidence" (01-Jan-2000)