ACTOR · BORN 1947
Richard Dreyfuss
- Born
- 29 October 1947, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
- Known for
- Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Poseidon (2006), American Graffiti (1973)
41 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
Richard Dreyfuss (born 29 October 1947) is an actor best known for Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Poseidon.
Richard Dreyfuss over the years
41 Interesting Facts About Richard Dreyfuss
Interesting Facts (16)
- #001
Richard Dreyfuss credits a life-changing vision in hospital after a bad car crash with helping him beat his drug addiction. He had been high at the wheel and knew the crash was his fault, and though he was the only one hurt, the image of a beautiful little girl dressed in white stayed with him as he recovered. She reminded him, he said, of the kind of innocent life he could destroy, and that forced him to face his drug demons and save his own life.
Richard Dreyfuss: portraitImage: Wikimedia Commons · Super Festivals from Ft. Lauderdale, USA, CC BY 2.0 - #002
Richard Dreyfuss had a serious drug problem in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and it damaged his memory so badly that he still can't remember making Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981).
- #003
In Stakeout (1987), the characters played by Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez trade famous movie quotes, and Estevez's "This was no boating accident!" is a nod to Dreyfuss's own line in Jaws (1975).
- #004
- #005
Richard Dreyfuss co-wrote the 1995 novel "The Two Georges" with Hugo Award-winning science fiction author Harry Turtledove, an alternate history in which the American Revolution failed and America is still part of the British Empire.
- #006
Richard Dreyfuss is one of five actors who have been in films directed by both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, along with Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson, Christopher Lee and Samuel L. Jackson, and the only one of them whose films aren't part of the "Star Wars" or "Indiana Jones" series.
- #007
Richard Dreyfuss first became a father at 36, when his first wife, Jeramie Rain, gave birth to daughter Emily Dreyfuss in November 1983.
- #008
Richard Dreyfuss started using cocaine heavily around 1978, and his addiction peaked four years later, in 1982, when he blacked out at the wheel, crashed his Mercedes-Benz 450 SL into a tree and was arrested for drug possession. He went into rehab and later made his Hollywood comeback with Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986) and Stakeout (1987).
- #009
Richard Dreyfuss became a father again at 38, when his first wife, Jeramie Rain, had their son Ben Dreyfuss in June 1986.
- #010
Richard Dreyfuss became a father for the third time at 42, when his first wife, Jeramie Rain, had their son Harry Dreyfuss in August 1990.
- #011
Jane Fonda's role in The China Syndrome (1979) was originally written with Dreyfuss in mind, but when he pulled out over money, it was rewritten as a woman and went to Fonda.
- #012
In November 2004, Richard Dreyfuss was due to star in The Producers in London but left the show a week before opening. The press noted that he was still having trouble after back surgery in January and that Max Bialystock is a physically demanding role, and both he and his assistant said injuries had piled up in rehearsals, leaving him needing physical therapy supports. In the end he was fired. He made his West End debut at The Old Vic in 2009.
- #013
Empire (UK) magazine ranked Richard Dreyfuss 81st on "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time."
- #014
Granada Television in the United Kingdom reportedly optioned The Two Georges (1995), the steampunk detective thriller Richard Dreyfuss co-wrote with Harry Turtledove, for a miniseries in the late 1990s, but nothing came of it.
- #015
Shooting Moon Over Parador (1988) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1987, Richard Dreyfuss stayed at the world-famous Copacabana Palace Hotel.
- #016
In June 2011 the Grand Master of Masons of the District of Columbia made Richard Dreyfuss a Mason "at sight," and he is also a 32nd Degree Scottish Rite Mason.
Behind the Scenes (5)
- #017
He discussed his bipolar disorder diagnosis in the documentary Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive (2006), in which Stephen Fry (who also has the disorder) interviewed Dreyfuss about his experience with it.
- #018
He took the role of Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) after it was turned down by Al Pacino and Gene Hackman.
- #019
He is a Civil War reenactor.
- #020
He was initially discussed for the role of Andy McGee (Charlie's father) in John Carpenter's version of Firestarter (1984), but both Carpenter and Dreyfuss were later replaced by Mark L. Lester and David Keith in the film's final version.
- #021
His father, Norman Dreyfuss, was wounded in combat during World War II. He graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 1946.
Characters & Cast (7)
- #022
During his struggling years, Richard Dreyfuss was constantly belittled by Hollywood casting directors after auditions, and he wrote some of their names on a short list to remind himself that he would make it one day.
- #023
Richard Dreyfuss auditioned to play one of the Von Trapp children in The Sound of Music (1965), but couldn't dance.
- #024
Because of memory problems left over from his drug addiction in the 1970s and 1980s, Richard Dreyfuss controversially had his lines fed to him through an earpiece during the short 2009 run of "Complicit" at the Old Vic. The play, which co-starred Elizabeth McGovern and David Suchet and was directed by Kevin Spacey, was widely ridiculed in the British press as a result, and the Daily Mail's theater critic, noting his many fumbled lines, quipped, "We're going to need a bigger earpiece."
- #025
Two of Richard Dreyfuss's early-to-mid-1970s films, American Graffiti (1973) and Jaws (1975), got sequels in the late 1970s: More American Graffiti (1979) and Jaws 2 (1978). Each sequel briefly mentions that his character is somewhere cold, "Curt" from American Graffiti on an expedition in Canada and "Hooper" from Jaws on one in Alaska, and in both, most of the original cast returned. Both originals were directed by groundbreaking filmmakers who left their mark on the industry, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, while each sequel had a different director (Lucas was involved in his sequel; Spielberg was not).
- #026
Richard Dreyfuss was first cast as Joe Gideon in All That Jazz (1979) but left during rehearsals.
- #027
Richard Dreyfuss was originally cast as Joe Gideon in All That Jazz (1979) but quit during rehearsals, saying he had no faith in the project. He later admitted it was a mistake to pass up working with Bob Fosse, and his Jaws (1975) co-star Roy Scheider replaced him.
- #028
Darrell Hammond once played Richard Dreyfuss in a Saturday Night Live (1975) sketch; Hammond had auditioned against Dreyfuss for C-3PO in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).
Career & Awards (6)
- #029
Richard Dreyfuss based his Oscar-winning performance in The Goodbye Girl (1977) on his close friend Harlan Ellison.
- #030
In The Buddy System (1984), Wil Wheaton's first film, Richard Dreyfuss played a truant officer who mentors Wheaton's character, and two years later he played the grown-up version of Wheaton's character in Stand by Me (1986).
- #031
Four of Richard Dreyfuss's films have been chosen by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Graduate (1967), American Graffiti (1973), Jaws (1975) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).
- #032
Richard Dreyfuss received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California, on October 10, 1996.
- #033
When he won Best Actor for The Goodbye Girl, Richard Dreyfuss was not only the youngest winner but, at 5 feet 4.5 inches, also the shortest. Adrien Brody has since taken the age record, but as of 2021 no one had broken the height record.
- #034
"Three Hotels" at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California, won Richard Dreyfuss the 1996 Drama Logue Award for Outstanding Performance.
Life & Family (7)
- #035
Richard Dreyfuss says he is descended from Alfred Dreyfus, who was wrongly imprisoned in the notorious Devil's Island penal colony in French Guiana, and he went on to star in Prisoner of Honor (1991), a TV film about the affair.
- #036
In 2004, Richard Dreyfuss announced he was giving up film acting to concentrate on theater, explaining that film work had dried up lately and that the stage had always been his first love.
- #037
Richard Dreyfuss's paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Poland and Austria-Hungary, and his maternal grandparents were New York-born children of Russian Jewish families.
- #038
Richard Dreyfuss and Jeramie Rain have a son, Ben Dreyfuss.
- #039
Richard Dreyfuss was treated in a New York City hospital for an infection in his right lung in April-May 2002.
- #040
Lorin Dreyfuss is Richard Dreyfuss's older brother.
- #041
Justin Dreyfuss and Natalie Dreyfuss are Richard Dreyfuss's niece and nephew.
Related pages
- The Russia House — Richard Dreyfuss comes up in the facts on that page
- What About Bob? — Richard Dreyfuss comes up in the facts on that page
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus — Richard Dreyfuss comes up in the facts on that page
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Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
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