pioneering character actor/movie star DUSTIN HOFFMAN is 70 today

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The first Jewish male star with a big (surgically unaltered) nose.

Poll Results

OptionVotes
"Tootsie" (1982) 10
"The Graduate" (1967) 6
"Midnight Cowboy" (1969) 6
"All the President's Men" (1976) 5
"Straw Dogs" (1971) 5
"Papillon" (1973) 4
"Straight Time" (1978) 3
"Marathon Man" (1976) 3
"Lenny" (1974) 2
"Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979) 1
"Rain Man" (1988) 1
"Ishtar" (1987) 1
"I Heart Huckabees" (2004) 1
"Little Big Man" (1970) 1
"American Buffalo" (1996) 0
"Sleepers" (1996) 0
"Mad City" (1997) 0
"Wag the Dog" (1997) 0
"Sphere" (1998) 0
"Confidence" (2003) 0
"The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc" (1999) 0
"Meet the Fockers" (2004) 0
"Moonlight Mile" (2002) 0
"Runaway Jury" (2003) 0
"Outbreak" (1995) 0
"Hero" (1992) 0
"Madigan's Millions" (1968) 0
"John and Mary" (1969) 0
"Who Is Harry Kellerman...?" (1971) 0
"Alfredo Alfredo" (1972) 0
"Agatha" (1979) 0
"Death of a Salesman" (1985) 0
"The Tiger Makes Out" (1967) 0
"Family Business" (1989) 0
"Dick Tracy" (1990) 0
"Billy Bathgate" (1991) 0
"Hook" (1991) 0
"Finding Neverland" (2004)0


Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 15:57 (eighteen years ago)

He was in Dick Tracy? Maybe I'm glad I don't remember that.

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:05 (eighteen years ago)

he was Mumbles! and probably will be again in ten years sans makeup.

Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:05 (eighteen years ago)

Why's this cut off at '04? I really liked him in "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer."

Abbott, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:06 (eighteen years ago)

Tootsie, no contest, especially for the scene in Sydney Pollack's office ("I played an endive SALAD that knocked the critics on their ass!").

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:07 (eighteen years ago)

Bill Murray and Mr. Hoffman shoulda made more movies together. (There's a thought, imagine the two of *them* in Rain Man.)

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:09 (eighteen years ago)

I've never seen Straight Time, which gets high praise from some.

My vote leans toward Lenny, Tootsie, Midnight Cowboy.

Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:10 (eighteen years ago)

"Michael, I really appreciate you doing this...but it is just for the money, right, and not because you like to wear these...little...outfits?"

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:11 (eighteen years ago)

Tootsie til I die.

will, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:11 (eighteen years ago)

gather ye rosebuds?

gabbneb, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:11 (eighteen years ago)

I can't believe he was in Hook AND Finding Neverland!

Abbott, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:12 (eighteen years ago)

Jeff: I don't like when somebody comes up to me the next day and says, "Hey, man, I saw your play. It touched me; I cried." I like it when a guy comes up to me a week later and says, "Hey, man, I saw your play... what happened?"

kenan, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:12 (eighteen years ago)

Tootsie: best Elaine May job ever?

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:13 (eighteen years ago)

It depends which lines she wrote.

sorry Abbott, I had to paste in the ones after '03 and I assumed he was in Perfume for 10 mins.

His performances in The Graduate and Wag the Dog are the best things in em. Little Big Man is underrated.

Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:13 (eighteen years ago)

Who knew there was such Tootsie love on ILX! (Am I wrong in feeling that the best moment of the film is when he pushes the mime over?)

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:14 (eighteen years ago)

Little Big Man was actually the first film I remember seeing him in -- on network TV when I was eight or something! Loved it.

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:14 (eighteen years ago)

(Am I wrong in feeling that the best moment of the film is when he pushes the mime over?)

HA! I am totally with you.

kenan, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:15 (eighteen years ago)

my only real complain about tootsie is that I wanted more Bill Murray -- he's so great in it.

"We're getting into a weird area here."

kenan, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:16 (eighteen years ago)

Who knew there was such Tootsie love on ILX! (Am I wrong in feeling that the best moment of the film is when he pushes the mime over?)

I've started a couple of threads! The funniest non-Pollack moment is Bill Murray walking in on Dorothy and John Van Horn.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:16 (eighteen years ago)

Michael: You know what my real problem is?
Jeff: Cramps. (pause) No, not cramps...

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:17 (eighteen years ago)

I like Midnight Cowboy.

n/a, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:18 (eighteen years ago)

Waaaah waaaaah waaaaah waaaaah
Waaaah waaaaah waaaaah waaaaah

n/a, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:19 (eighteen years ago)

That is the theme from Midnight Cowboy.

n/a, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:19 (eighteen years ago)

"I'm votin' heah! I'm votin!!"

Tom D., Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:19 (eighteen years ago)

"That John Wayne stuff is for FAGS!"

Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:20 (eighteen years ago)

(I hope they played that clip just before Duke won his Oscar that year)

Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:20 (eighteen years ago)

Tootsie: Classic or Dud?

kenan, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:21 (eighteen years ago)

as a college senior, I have to rep for the Graduate. :D

jessie monster, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:21 (eighteen years ago)

I like The Graduate.

n/a, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:23 (eighteen years ago)

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you

n/a, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:23 (eighteen years ago)

That is the theme from The Graduate.

n/a, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:23 (eighteen years ago)

I'm tempted to go with Harry Kellerman. Too underseen (Wasn't even out on video til '99 or 2000).

"Send me overdose of anything."

C. Grisso/McCain, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:24 (eighteen years ago)

Straight Time is BADASS! I think M Emmet Walsh is in it.
(checks imdb) He is! And so is Gary Busey AND Harry Dean Stanton!
Gets my vote, but I almost voted for Straw Dogs or Papillon

Trip Maker, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:24 (eighteen years ago)

"how am I not myself?"

El Tomboto, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:25 (eighteen years ago)

he's so sad in papillon

El Tomboto, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:25 (eighteen years ago)

Straight Time is pretty good. Theresa Russell's only bearable perf too.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:25 (eighteen years ago)

The funniest non-Pollack moment is Bill Murray walking in on Dorothy and John Van Horn.

"...you SLUT."

I had totally blanked on Papillon too. Fantastic film.

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:27 (eighteen years ago)

I know Kramer vs Kramer is too middlebrow and Oscary to get praise here, but I do love when his son wails "I hate you" and he snaps "I hate you too, you little shit."

Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:29 (eighteen years ago)

I always regret he never got to play the lead in "Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance - The Leonard Cohen Story", there's still time I suppose

* Hoffman, "I played the wrong Lenny" *

Tom D., Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:31 (eighteen years ago)

Bernstein? Maybe he played the wrong Bernstein, too!

Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:34 (eighteen years ago)

L Cohen biopic sounds like an awful idea.

Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:35 (eighteen years ago)

He could have cornered the market in Lennys - what was his agent thinking of??!!

Tom D., Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:35 (eighteen years ago)

One of my earliest film memories is seeing Kvs.K on TV when I was 4 or 5 and i got really freaked out when the kid fell off of whatever it was he fell off of in the playground and Hoffman ran to him and his head was all bloody and Hoffman picked him up and ran to the emergency room.

C. Grisso/McCain, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:38 (eighteen years ago)

genius. he came out of those '...HUCKABEES' out-takes pretty well too considering the SHAMEFUL behaviour of everyone else involved.

pisces, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:39 (eighteen years ago)

my mom dated him in the early 70s.

Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 16:52 (eighteen years ago)

I saw him play Willy Loman and Shylock on Broadway; he made both of them funnier than usual.

Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 17:03 (eighteen years ago)

I know Kramer vs Kramer is too middlebrow and Oscary to get praise here

Right, Mr. I Hate Brokeback.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 17:03 (eighteen years ago)

middlebrow or not, Kramer Vs. Kramer makes me all misty.

kenan, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 17:07 (eighteen years ago)

I'm kinda surprised at the number of movies on this list I've never heard of.

Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 17:10 (eighteen years ago)

I didn't hate Brokeback, I found it harmless.

Tales of Hoffman's pranks and ostentatious farting on film sets suggest he'd be fun to hang around (for a bit).

Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 17:11 (eighteen years ago)

I can't believe Straw Dogs got any votes!

Alex in SF, Monday, 13 August 2007 00:26 (eighteen years ago)

eleven months pass...

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jfANUd-8pzpv45XzGCZ9Rutt9lcgD924UGGO0

jaymc, Friday, 25 July 2008 15:32 (seventeen years ago)

Well, it didn't technically crash...

Deric W. Haircare, Friday, 25 July 2008 15:38 (seventeen years ago)

two years pass...

saw Straight Time tonight, finally -- maybe his best '70s performance. Great cast: Theresa Russell (her second film), Harry Dean Stanton, Gary Busey, M Emmet Walsh, a skinny Kathy Bates.

kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Monday, 16 August 2010 05:02 (fifteen years ago)

I probably would have voted for Straight Time--fantastic film. Harry Dean Stanton supplies the movie's best line, which I won't spoil; anyone who's seen it should know the line I mean.

clemenza, Monday, 16 August 2010 05:12 (fifteen years ago)

on his patio?

kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Monday, 16 August 2010 05:21 (fifteen years ago)

That's the one. Also: one of my favourite last lines in a film, too--as good as The Killing's last line.

clemenza, Monday, 16 August 2010 05:23 (fifteen years ago)

Woulda voted American Buffalo.

Bag Smart, Street Stupid (Eazy), Monday, 16 August 2010 05:37 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

watched Straight Time last night - Morbz otm, what a great little movie

max buzzword (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 13 February 2012 16:53 (fourteen years ago)

One of my favourite films--I've mentioned it on a few threads now. The last line is as bleak as The Killing's last line.

clemenza, Monday, 13 February 2012 17:10 (fourteen years ago)

(Maybe I should read back to avoid repetition...)

clemenza, Monday, 13 February 2012 17:11 (fourteen years ago)

kinda of a piece with Cisco Pike, Friends of Eddie Coyle, that kind of thing

max buzzword (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 13 February 2012 17:12 (fourteen years ago)

Same feel, yeah. And up there with the greatest heist films ever.

clemenza, Monday, 13 February 2012 17:14 (fourteen years ago)

Straight Time is awesome, rented it about 2 years ago I think

dmr, Monday, 13 February 2012 17:16 (fourteen years ago)

I would vote for Little Big Man as the movie that best showcases his most characteristic strengths.

Aimless, Monday, 13 February 2012 18:24 (fourteen years ago)

two months pass...

Not 100% sure, but I think tonight may have been the first time I've seen Lenny since it came out, which would have been at a drive-in when I was a teenager. I can see why it was a big deal then--Fosse's follow-up to Cabaret, Hoffman's peak years, the cinematography, great Watergate-era subject--but past a few early scenes between Hoffman and Perrine, I found it really dreary. Bruce's material in the film is so unfunny. I didn't know what to make of that; it's not Hoffman's delivery, it's the material itself. And not just after he goes off the rails, where he's supposed to be unfunny--all of it.

clemenza, Friday, 20 April 2012 02:13 (thirteen years ago)

re the very first line of this thread: al jolson?

Mordy, Friday, 20 April 2012 02:19 (thirteen years ago)

The fact that Lenny Bruce was unfunny is one of the better kept secrets in the world of progressive icons. What matters about Bruce is that he was arrested and violently suppressed, not whether he could make anyone laugh with his crappy material.

Aimless, Friday, 20 April 2012 03:06 (thirteen years ago)

In the '50s and very early '60s, he was funny, from the records I've heard.

World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 April 2012 03:29 (thirteen years ago)

and even his 11/23/63 opening line: "Vaughn Meader is fucked."

World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 April 2012 03:30 (thirteen years ago)

I guess you had to be there.

Aimless, Friday, 20 April 2012 03:38 (thirteen years ago)

do you not like "Religion Inc"? "Lima, Ohio"?

World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 April 2012 04:44 (thirteen years ago)

(I don't remember what bits are in the Fosse film)

World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 April 2012 04:44 (thirteen years ago)

“A lot of people say to me, “Why did you kill Christ?” “I dunno… it was one of those parties, got out of hand, you know.” “We killed him because he didn’t want to become a doctor, that’s why we killed him.”

^^^ funny

A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Friday, 20 April 2012 05:02 (thirteen years ago)

clemenza, it's obvious re your recent vote that you just hate pre-1960 comedy stylings.

World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 April 2012 11:30 (thirteen years ago)

Hate? No, that's not even close--films from my own lifetime just tend to mean more to me.

I watched some Bruce footage on YouTube last night after I posted, and maybe what I didn't like about the film has more to do with Hoffman than I thought. While I didn't find the original footage especially funny, Bruce's delivery was at least more toned down that Hoffman's. (I may have mistakenly assumed that Hoffman's mimicry was precise.) And the Vaughn Meader and Christ lines above are good--I'm sure the timing of the former made Bruce the Gilbert Gottfried of his day. There's a Christ-killing routine in the film that isn't as funny--it goes on and on. I'll stand by my assessment of the film: a real chore to sit through.

clemenza, Friday, 20 April 2012 12:28 (thirteen years ago)

The Bruce skits in DeLillo's Underworld and Mailer's Harlot's Ghost are scabrously funny.

Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 April 2012 13:13 (thirteen years ago)

Bruce was a lifetime club comedian; obviously Hoffman could only do an approximation, and wouldn't have the same chops.

World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 April 2012 14:02 (thirteen years ago)

three months pass...

Dusty @ 75

http://www.fandor.com/blog/daily-dustin-hoffman-75

Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 8 August 2012 15:48 (thirteen years ago)

six months pass...

catchin up on charlie rose eps, good stuff w/ him on the graduate in the middle of this

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12750

johnny crunch, Saturday, 9 February 2013 22:07 (thirteen years ago)

haha he is great in this interview (once u get past shit abt quartet fyi)

johnny crunch, Saturday, 9 February 2013 22:10 (thirteen years ago)

five months pass...

http://www.upworthy.com/dustin-hoffman-breaks-down-crying-explaining-something-that-every-woman-sadly-already-experienced-3

"If you like the Byrds, try Depeche Mode" (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 9 July 2013 16:51 (twelve years ago)

Tootsie: Classic or Dud?

first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 July 2013 16:54 (twelve years ago)

Got into a disagreement with my aunt the other day about whether or not dustin had ever carried a gun in a role. She claimed he said it was a deliberate choice of his in his career. I was like whut

the Spanish Porky's (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 15 July 2013 04:21 (twelve years ago)

He doesn't fire any shots in Straw Dogs or Marathon Man? Thought maybe he commandeered one of the bad guys' guns.

clemenza, Monday, 15 July 2013 04:29 (twelve years ago)

Straight time
little big man

the Spanish Porky's (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 15 July 2013 04:42 (twelve years ago)

He gets olivier's gun in marathon man but yeah I dont think he shoots

the Spanish Porky's (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 15 July 2013 04:46 (twelve years ago)

I almost mentioned Straight Time, but I was focused on the robberies, where I don't think guns are used. But now I remember that he goes after Busey later. (Still haven't seen LBM.)

clemenza, Monday, 15 July 2013 04:49 (twelve years ago)

straight time is the fucking best movie

flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Monday, 15 July 2013 07:33 (twelve years ago)

best hoffman performance IMO

flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Monday, 15 July 2013 07:34 (twelve years ago)

https://twitter.com/BballHoffman

love his twitter feed

k3vin k., Monday, 15 July 2013 09:20 (twelve years ago)

Quartet was so terrible.

first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 15 July 2013 13:21 (twelve years ago)

I could tell from the trailer. All 6-7x I had to endure it.

playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Monday, 15 July 2013 13:27 (twelve years ago)

nine months pass...

what was going on with dustin's accent in 'straight time'? he keeps slipping in and out of a southern accent and i couldn't tell if it was supposed to mean something or just be a weird unexplained quirk of the character.

slam dunk, Friday, 9 May 2014 10:58 (eleven years ago)

three years pass...

so John Oliver did an interview

http://deadline.com/2017/12/dustin-hoffman-spars-with-john-oliver-over-harassment-claims-i-find-it-very-upsetting-that-you-dont-see-the-humanity-1202220185/

ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 15:16 (eight years ago)

what was de rigueur in '67

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/yes-dustin-hoffman-assaulted-anne-bancroft-and-katharine_us_59fcbbaee4b05e3e1f0a00dd

ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 5 December 2017 18:55 (eight years ago)

one month passes...

some epic stillness by de niro in that clip morbs posted

kolakube (Ross), Sunday, 7 January 2018 20:21 (eight years ago)

two months pass...

crossposted from an obscure film thread

I finally watched Who Is Harry Kellerman...? (1971) and didn't mind it much it all. Barbara Harris was indeed great, and I liked the actress who played his teenage love, Rose Gregorio as his wife, David Burns as his dad, etc. The problem is Hoffman's is the least interesting character.

I think I would've thought DH sounded like Shel Silverstein even if I didn't know Shel wrote the songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLfeRy080kE

ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 March 2018 19:24 (seven years ago)

and i thought this revive was going to be due to this :

http://popbitch.com/2018/03/max-impact/

mark e, Thursday, 8 March 2018 19:30 (seven years ago)

six years pass...

87 today. He's a little concerned about his future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLKU0wpw45g

clemenza, Thursday, 8 August 2024 17:54 (one year ago)


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