Richard Dreyfuss is best known for his roles in Jaws and Close Encounters of The Third Kind. He started his acting career with small roles in various television episodes in the 1960's and early 1970's with a couple of small film roles. His break into films came with the George Lucas film American Graffiti. From being a teenager he moved to being gangster in Dillinger. His first lead role was in the 1974 film The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. Then came his role in Steven Spielberg's film Jaws that made him an international star.
The sci-fi film Close Encounters Of The Third Kind was another major success for him and Spielberg. In the same year he won a Best Actor Oscar for the comedy The Goodbye Girl written by Neil Simon. His next successful film was Down And Out In Beverly Hills and that was followed bythe comedies in Tin Men and Stakeout. Always was his third film with Steven Spielberg. He followed this with the very different Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard. In the 1990's he appeared in various comedy films notably What About Bob. His role in in Mr. Holland's Opus gave him an Oscar nomination. In the same year he gave a good performance in American President. Throught the 2000's he has continued to appeared in range of differnt genre of films.
