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Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is one of
the dominant American film actors of the late
twentieth century. 

== Biography ==
Widely considered one of the greatest actors of
his time, Hoffman was born in Los Angeles,
California and graduated from Los Angeles High
School where he was voted "least likely to
succeed." His first ambition was to be a concert
pianist and he attended the Los Angeles
Conservatory of Music. Then, with an interest in
medicine, he attended Santa Monica College for a
year before dropping out due to poor grades. In an
effort to bolster his grades during that year, he
took an acting class because he was told "nobody
flunks acting." He performed at the Pasadena
Playhouse for two years with fellow actor Gene
Hackman. The two were also roommates for a while.

Hoffman relocated to New York City where he worked
a series of odd jobs including an occasional small
television role. To support himself, he left
acting briefly to teach. In 1960, Hoffman landed a
role in an off Broadway production and followed
with a walk on role in a Broadway production in
1961. He dropped out of acting again, studied with
Lee Strasberg and became a dedicated method
acting|method actor. Hoffman made his film debut
in The Tiger Makes Out (1967). 

He came to prominence with The Graduate (1967),
playing a disaffected college graduate, though he
was nearly thirty. Hoffman received an Academy
Award nomination for his performance in The
Graduate.   In a famous career move that allowed
him to escape being typecasting (acting)|typecast,
 Hoffman got the opposite kind of role, the
disruptable pimp, Ratso in Midnight Cowboy (1969)
which got an Oscar nomination as well. 

Hoffman has a reputation within the film business
as a perfectionist, at times causing him
difficulty with directors and at other times
earning him Academy Awards, in films such as
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Rain Man (1988).

Hoffman returned to Broadway in 1983, in the role
of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. Hoffman has
his own production company, Punch Productions,
which has produced several of the films in which
he starred such as Tootsie (1982), Hero (1992
movie)|Hero (1992), and Wag the Dog (1997). 

Hoffman has two children (Karin and Jenna) with
his first wife Anne Byrne (married May 1969;
divorced in 1980), and four others (Jacob, Max,
Rebecca and Alexandra) with wife Lisa Gottsegen
(married October 1980).

== Filmography ==
*The Tiger Makes Out (1967)
*The Graduate (1967)
*Madigan's Millions (1968)
*Sunday Father (1969) (short subject)
*Midnight Cowboy (1969)
*John and Mary (1969)
*Little Big Man (1970)
*On Location: Dustin Hoffman (1971) (short
subject)
*Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those
Terrible Things About Me? (1971)
*Straw Dogs (1971)
*Alfredo, Alfredo (1972)
*Papillon (film)|Papillon (1973)
*Lenny (1974)
*The Magic of Hollywood... Is the Magic of People
(1976) (short subject)
*All the President's Men (1976)
*Marathon Man (1976)
*Straight Time (1978) (also producer)
*Agatha (film) (1979)
*Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
*Tootsie (1982)
*Private Conversations (1986) (documentary)
*Ishtar (1987)
*Rain Man (1988)
*Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989)
(documentary) (narrator)
*Family Business (1989)
*Dick Tracy (film)|Dick Tracy (1990)
*Billy Bathgate (1991)
*Hook (movie) (1991)
*Hero (1992)
*Jonas in the Desert (1994) (documentary)
*Outbreak (film)|Outbreak (1995)
*American Buffalo (1996)
*Sleepers (movie)|Sleepers (1996)
*Mad City (1997)
*Wag the Dog (1997)
*Sphere (movie)|Sphere (1998)
*The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999)
*Tuesday (2001) (short subject) (voice)
*Goldwyn (2001) (documentary) (narrator)
*Moonlight Mile (2002)
*The Shakespeare Sessions (2003) (documentary)
*Confidence (film)|Confidence (2003)
*Runaway Jury (2003)
*Freedom2speak v2.0 (2004) (documentary)
*Finding Neverland (2004)
*I ♥ Huckabees (2004)
*Meet the Fockers (2004)
*Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
(2004) (Cameo)
*Racing Stripes (2005) (voice)
*The Lost City (2005) (currently in
post-production)
*Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2005)
(currently in pre-production)
*Stranger Than Fiction (2006) (currently in
pre-production)
*Car Wars (2006) (currently in pre-production)
*The Berkeley Connection (2006) (currently
announced start of production)

== External link ==
* imdb name|id=0000163|name=Dustin Hoffman
* http://www.westlord.com/dustin-hoffman/ Dustin
Hoffman Website at WestLord
* http://www.thegoldenyears.org/hoffman.html
Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Dustin Hoffman