Dustin Hoffman

Dustin Hoffman began his stage career at the Pasadena Playhouse before moving to New York City in the early 1960s. He appeared in off-Broadway and Broadway productions including A Cook for Mr. General (1961), The Days and Nights of BeeBee Fenstermaker (1962), Three Men on a Horse (1964), Harry, Noon and Night (1965), The Subject Was Roses (1965), and Eh? (1966), winning a Drama Desk Award for Eh?. He made his film debut in The Tiger Makes Out (1967).

Hoffman’s breakthrough came with The Graduate (1967), earning his first Academy Award nomination. He followed with Midnight Cowboy (1969), receiving a second Oscar nomination, and co-starred in John and Mary (1969), winning a BAFTA Award. In the 1970s, he starred in Little Big Man (1970), Straw Dogs (1971), Papillon (1973), and Lenny (1974), earning another Academy Award nomination for Lenny. He portrayed Carl Bernstein in All the President’s Men (1976) and starred in Marathon Man (1976). In 1979, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Kramer vs. Kramer.

In the 1980s, Hoffman starred in Tootsie (1982), receiving an Academy Award nomination, and in the Broadway revival and 1985 television adaptation of Death of a Salesman, winning an Emmy Award. He appeared in Ishtar (1987) and won his second Academy Award for Best Actor for Rain Man (1988). He also starred in Family Business (1989).

Throughout the 1990s, Hoffman appeared in Dick Tracy (1990), Billy Bathgate (1991), Hook (1991), Outbreak (1995), Sleepers (1996), Wag the Dog (1997), earning an Academy Award nomination, and Sphere (1998). He received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999.

In the 2000s, Hoffman appeared in Finding Neverland (2004), I Heart Huckabees (2004), Meet the Fockers (2004), winning an MTV Movie Award, Stranger than Fiction (2006), and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006). He voiced Master Shifu in Kung Fu Panda (2008), winning an Annie Award, and reprised the role in Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011), Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016), and Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024).

In the 2010s, Hoffman starred in the HBO series Luck (2012) and made his directorial debut with Quartet (2012). He appeared in Esio Trot (2015), earning an Emmy Award, and in The Meyerowitz Stories (2017). In 2024, he appeared in Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. He is also attached to Peter Greenaway’s Tower Stories.