Richard Dreyfuss

Since 1999 he has been married to Janelle Lacey. Filmography - Director. From 1983 until 1995 Dreyfuss was married to Jeramie Rain, with whom he had three children. (Gassman was in more than a hundred films, in addition to many instantaneous cameos; this list is consequently not complete.). Nathan Lane was brought in to replace Dreyfuss in the London production. He died of a heart-attack in his Roman home. The reason for his departure was unclear, but newspapers noted that Dreyfuss was still suffering from problems relating to an operation for a herniated disc in January, and that the part of Max Bialystock in the play is a physically demanding one. In his latest years he was victim of depression.

In November 2004, he was scheduled to appear in The Producers in London, but withdrew from the production a week before the opening night. Also, in his public appearances on the media he often gave original or unconventional comments, sometimes with the clear intention of disturbing the moderated cultural positions; he also gained many enemies in the world of art for similarly frank judgements. In April, 2004, he appeared in the revival of Sly Fox on Broadway (opposite Eric Stoltz, René Auberjonois, Bronson Pinchot, Elizabeth Berkeley, et al.). Generally acclaimed as an actor, Gassman was also discussed as a man, due to his private life - his divorces (a noted scandal in 1950s and 60s), his initial atheism (later he gained a certain personalistic faith). Since then he has continued his career as one of the most reliable and versatile actors, not only in the movies, but also in television and on stage. He rendered them with the same professional skill that made him famous while reciting Dante's Commedia. He cleaned himself up and made a comeback in Hollywood in the film Down And Out In Beverly Hills, proving that he was still one of Hollywood's most accomplished actors. Gassman was a man of intense emotions and intellectual honesty; his notable sense of humour and self-irony, brought him in the 1990s to take part in a popular TV show in which he very formally and 'seriously' recited documents such as the gas invoice, as well as the telephone bill and similar texts.

This led to a growing drug dependency, which ended one night in 1982, when his car hit a tree and he was arrested for possession of cocaine. Gassman the actor, married "only" actresses: Nora Ricci (with whom he had his first daughter Paola, an actress herself and wife of Ugo Pagliai), Shelley Winters, Juliette Maynel, who gave him Alessandro (also an actor), and Diletta D'Andrea. Between 1978 and 1982, Dreyfuss acted in several films, but none did particularly well at the box office. In the later part of his career, he added poetry to his repertoire, helping to bring to Italy foreign works. For his portrayal of a struggling actor in The Goodbye Girl he won an Oscar, becoming the youngest actor to ever win the Best Actor Award. But, despite his success in films, Gassman never left theatre. He went on to star in the huge box office hits Jaws and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. In cinema he worked abroad several times and during a stint in Hollywood he met and married Shelley Winters.

Dreyfuss' played his first lead role in the Canadian film The Apprenticeship Of Duddy Kravitz. He also founded a theatre school in Florence, which formed many of the more talented actors of the current generations. Dreyfuss' first film part was a very small, uncredited part in The Graduate, in which he only had one line, "Shall I call the cops? I'll call the cops." He made then an impression in Dillinger, and landed a role in the 1973 hit American Graffiti, acting with other future stars, like Harrison Ford. His productions include most of the famous authors of 20th century, with repeated returns tothe classics of Shakespeare, Dostoevskij and the Greeks. During the late 60s and early 70s, he performed also on stage on Broadway, off-Broadway, repertory and improvisational theater. He toured his production to half a million spectators, crossing Italy with his Teatro Popolare Itinerante (a newer edition of the famous Carro di Tespi). During this time he acted in some small TV roles on shows such as Peyton Place and The Big Valley. Quite bravely, he accepted the challenge of directing Adelchi, one of the less known and less "easy" works by Alessandro Manzoni.

He attended the San Fernando Valley State College for a year and then became a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, and worked in alternate service for two years as a clerk in an Los Angeles hospital. A true perfectionist, he always hated imperfect diction, or dialectal corruptions (but he was also able to render, perfectly and when needed, most of the many Italian dialects). He debuted in the TV production In Mama's House when he was fifteen. That year Gassman also directed and starred in a movie dedicated to theatre: it was a version of Kean. Dreyfuss' acting career began at this age at the Beverly Hills Jewish Center. A little later, in the television series entitled Il Mattatore (spotlight chaser) he obtained unexpected success and Il Mattatore soon became the nickname that accompanied him for the rest of his life. He spent his early childhood in Brooklyn and in Bayside, Queens until he moved to Los Angeles with his family at age nine. In 1956, a key year in his career, Gassman played a memorable Othello with the great actor Salvo Randone, exchanging with him the roles of the Moor and Iago.

He was born as the son of an attorney in Brooklyn, New York. With Luigi Squarzina in 1952 he co-founded and co-directed the Teatro d'Arte Italiano, producing the first complete version of Hamlet in Italy, then rare works such as Seneca's Tieste or Eschilo's The Persians. Richard Dreyfuss (born October 29, 1947) is an American actor. He then joined the Teatro Nazionale with Tommaso Salvini, Massimo Girotti, Arnoldo Foà, for a successful Peer Gynt (Ibsen). The Graduate (1967). He played a vigorous Kowalski in Tennessee Williams' Un tram che si chiama desiderio, then emphatic in Shakespeare's Rosalinda or in Vittorio Alfieri's Oreste. The Young Runaways (1968). It was with Luchino Visconti's company that Gassman achieved his mature successes, together with Stoppa, Rina Morelli and Paola Borboni.

Hello Down There (1969). In 1948 his famous interpretation in Riso Amaro displayed his love for cinema and his capability of excelling both in movies and at the theatre. American Graffiti (1973). In 1946 he made his film debut in Preludio d'amore, the year after he appeared in five films. Dillinger (1973). His debut was in Milan, in 1942, with Alda Borelli in Niccodemi's Nemica (theatre), he then moved to Rome and the Teatro Eliseo joining Tino Carraro and Ernesto Calindri in a team that remained famous; with them he acted in a range of plays from bourgeois comedy to the sophisticated intellectual theatre, with no apparent difficulty in the sudden changes. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974). While very young he moved to Rome, where he attended the studies at the Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica where some of the most important figures of Italian theatre and cinema also studied, such as Paolo Stoppa, Rina Morelli, Adolfo Celi, Luigi Squarzina, Elio Pandolfi, Rossella Falk, Lea Padovani and, later, with Paolo Panelli, Nino Manfredi, Tino Buazzelli, Gianrico Tedeschi, Monica Vitti, Luca Ronconi and many others.

The Second Coming of Suzanne (1974). Born in Genoa to a wealthy family of German origins, Gassmann was considered one among the best Italian actors and is commonly recalled as an extremely professional, versatile, magnetic interpreter, whose long career includes both important productions as well as dozens of divertissements (which gave him a vast popularity). Inserts (1975). Vittorio Gassman (Il Mattatore) (September 1, 1922 - June 29, 2000) was an Italian theatre and film actor and director. Jaws (1975). Kean (1956). Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). L'Alibi (1969).

The Goodbye Girl (1977). Senza famiglia, nullatenenti cercano affetto (1972). The Big Fix (1978). Di padre in figlio (1982). The Competition (1980). Preludio d'amore (1946) aka Love Prelude. Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981). La Figlia del capitano (1947) aka The Captain's Daughter.

The Buddy System (1984). L'Ebreo errante (1947) aka The Wandering Jew, (1947). Down and Out in Beverly Hill (1986). Daniele Cortis (1947). Stand by Me (1986). Il Cavaliere misterioso (1947) aka The Mysterious Rider. Tin Men (1987). Le Avventure di Pinocchio, (1947) aka The Adventures of Pinocchio.

Stakeout (1987). Riso amaro (1948) aka Bitter Rice. Nuts (1987). Una Voce nel tuo cuore, (1949). Moon Over Parador (1988). Il Tradimento, (1949). Let It Ride (1989). Lo Sparviero del Nilo, (1949).

Always (1989). Il Lupo della Sila, (1949). Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990). Ho sognato il paradiso (1949) aka Streets of Sorrow. Postcards from the Edge (1990). I Fuorilegge, (1949) aka TheOutlaws. Once Around (1991). Il Leone di Amalfi (1950).

What About Bob? (1991). La Corona negra (1951). Lost in Yonkers (1993). Anna (1951). Another Stakeout (1993). Il Sogno di Zorro (1952). Silent Fall (1994). Cry of the Hunted (1953).

The Last Word (1995). Glass Wall (1953). The American President (1995). Sombrero (1953). Holland's Opus (1995). Rhapsody (1954). Mr. Mambo (1954).