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Dustin Hoffman Biography: Two-Time Oscar Winner, From The Graduate to Look at Me

Daniel Reed
Dustin Hoffman headshot

Dustin Hoffman Biography: Two-Time Oscar Winner, From The Graduate to Look at Me

Dustin Hoffman is an American actor whose career has spanned more than six decades, from The Graduate (1967) to Rain Man (1988) and Tuner (2025). A two-time Academy Award winner for Best Actor, he is 89 as of November 2026, and his memoir Look at Me is published on 10 November 2026.

Dustin Hoffman headshot

Dustin Hoffman, 2025. Photo: Sara Komatsu, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Quick facts

  • Full name: Dustin Lee Hoffman
  • Born: 8 August 1937, Los Angeles, California, United States
  • Nationality: American
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Known for: The Graduate, Rain Man, Kramer vs. Kramer, Tootsie
  • Spouse: Lisa Gottsegen (married October 1980)
  • Children: Six: Karina, Jenna, Jacob, Rebecca, Maxwell, Alexandra

Early life

Dustin Lee Hoffman was born on 8 August 1937 in Los Angeles, the younger of two sons of Lillian Hoffman, a jazz pianist, and Harry Hoffman, a Columbia Pictures prop supervisor. Named after stage actor Dustin Farnum, he grew up in an Ashkenazi Jewish family with roots in Kyiv and Iași, Romania, as recorded by Wikipedia and Britannica.

He graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1955, enrolled at Santa Monica College, and left after about a year. He joined the Pasadena Playhouse in 1957 and later trained with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York.

Career: The Graduate and the 1970s

Hoffman made his film debut in The Tiger Makes Out (1967), but his breakthrough came the same year as Benjamin Braddock in Mike Nichols’ The Graduate. He was 30, playing a 21-year-old, and earned his first Oscar nomination. He followed it with Midnight Cowboy (1969), as “Ratso” Rizzo opposite Jon Voight, which brought his second nomination and won Best Picture.

The 1970s brought contrasting roles: Jack Crabb in Little Big Man (1970), David Sumner in Straw Dogs (1971), Louis Dega in Papillon (1973), and Lenny Bruce in Lenny (1974), his third nomination. In 1976 he played Carl Bernstein in All the President’s Men and “Babe” Levy in Marathon Man.

Two Oscars and later career

Hoffman won his first Best Actor Oscar for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), as Ted Kramer opposite Meryl Streep. Tootsie (1982), in which he played actor Michael Dorsey posing as Dorothy Michaels, grossed $241 million worldwide. His second Oscar came for Rain Man (1988), as Raymond Babbitt opposite Tom Cruise; the film won Best Picture. He played Captain Hook in Hook (1991), and Stanley Motss opposite Robert De Niro in Wag the Dog (1997), his seventh nomination.

From 2008 he voiced Master Shifu in the Kung Fu Panda franchise, including Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024). In 2012, aged 75, he made his feature directorial debut with Quartet. Later credits include The Meyerowitz Stories (2017) and Megalopolis (2024). His most recent work, as reported by People in November 2026, is Tuner — he plays piano tuner Harry Horowitz; it premiered at Telluride in 2025 — and Diamond (2026), ; it premiered at Cannes on 19 May 2026.

2026: Look at Me and “Surviving ‘The Graduate’”

Hoffman’s memoir, Look at Me, co-written with Ariel Levy, is published on 10 November 2026 by Simon & Schuster. An excerpt, “Surviving ‘The Graduate,’” appeared in The New Yorker on 31 October 2026. In it Hoffman called making the film “a terrible experience”, writing: “It was a terrible experience making the movie that changed my life.” He felt miscast as Benjamin Braddock — a Jewish actor playing “the ultimate Wasp”.

He described how Nichols made Katharine Ross slap him 27 times for a scene in which Benjamin confesses to Elaine that he had an affair with her mother, Mrs. Robinson. The scene was cut and never appeared in the finished film. The next day, filming an underwater sequence in a pool, he surfaced with blood trickling from his ear and found he had punctured an eardrum, which he blamed on the slapping and water pressure. Hoffman also wrote that “a certain sadism seemed to creep in” — his own word, attributed to him.

Achievements

Hoffman has won two Academy Awards from seven nominations, all for Best Actor: Kramer vs. Kramer (1979 film; 1980 ceremony) and Rain Man (1988 film; 1989 ceremony). The full list is set out in the list of his awards and nominations. He has also won six Golden Globes, three BAFTAs and the Cecil B. DeMille Award (1997), and was a Kennedy Center honoree in 2012.

Personal life

Hoffman married ballerina and actress Anne Byrne in May 1969, He adopted Byrne’s daughter Karina, and together they had a daughter, Jenna. The couple divorced in 1980. In October 1980 he married Lisa Gottsegen, now Lisa Hoffman, and they remain married — 46 years as of November 2026. Their four children are Jacob “Jake” Edward (20 March 1981), Rebecca Lillian (17 March 1983), Maxwell Geoffrey (30 August 1984) and Alexandra “Ali” Lydia (27 October 1987). In total, Hoffman has six children.

In November 2017, writer Anna Graham Hunter wrote in The Hollywood Reporter that Hoffman had sexually harassed her in 1985, when she was a 17-year-old production assistant on the television film Death of a Salesman, alleging groping, vulgar remarks and requests for foot massages. Hoffman said: “I have the utmost respect for women and feel terrible that anything I might have done could have put her in an uncomfortable situation. I am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am.” Reuters reported at the time that it could not independently confirm the allegations. In December 2017, at a Tribeca panel, John Oliver questioned Hoffman; he said he did not recall meeting Hunter and denied groping. A second claim, by writer Wendy Riss Gatsiounis, alleging a proposition in a 1991 pitch meeting, was also raised. These are allegations, not established facts.

Net worth snapshot

Dustin Hoffman’s net worth is estimated at $100 million as of 2026, based on Celebrity Net Worth, last updated on 29 August 2024. No Forbes, Bloomberg or Hurun estimate exists. Hoffman has never disclosed his finances, so it is an estimate, not a verified fact.

Frequently asked questions

How old is Dustin Hoffman?

Dustin Hoffman was born on 8 August 1937 in Los Angeles, California. He is 89 as of November 2026.

What is Dustin Hoffman’s memoir called?

His memoir is called Look at Me, co-written with Ariel Levy. It is published on 10 November 2026 by Simon and Schuster.

How many Oscars has Dustin Hoffman won?

Dustin Hoffman has won two Academy Awards from seven nominations, all for Best Actor. He won for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Rain Man (1988).

Who is Dustin Hoffman’s wife?

Dustin Hoffman has been married to Lisa Gottsegen, now Lisa Hoffman, since October 1980. They have four children together, and he has six children in total.

What is Dustin Hoffman’s net worth?

Celebrity Net Worth estimates Dustin Hoffman’s net worth at $100 million as of 2026. No Forbes, Bloomberg or Hurun estimate exists, and a lower $50 million estimate has also been published.

Sources