Born Dustin Lee Hoffman in Los Angeles on August 8, 1937, he won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Rain Man (1988). He was nominated in the same category for The Graduate (1967), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Lenny (1974), Tootsie (1982) and Wag the Dog (1997).
Notorious for being difficult to work with, Hoffman is well-known for voicing Shifu in the Kung Fu Panda franchise: Kung Fu Panda (2008), the direct-to-video Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five (2008), Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special (2010), Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011) and the video Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters (2011).
The 2008 cartoon movie The Tale of Despereaux starred Matthew Broderick in the title role. Dustin Hoffman voiced fellow outcast Roscuro, a good-hearted rat who can't bear to look in the mirror and hopes to live far from the grim underground of his kind.
He voiced Tucker in the partly animated 2005 movie Racing Stripes. And he was the original narrator of 1971's The Point, the first made-for-TV animated movie to air in prime time.
In the 1991 Simpsons episode "Lisa's Substitute," he guested as Mr. Bergstrom -- under the pseudonym "Sam Etic"!
Also in 1991, an uncredited Hoffman was in the Opus TV special A Wish For Wings That Work. He portrayed Milquetoast the Cross-Dressing Cockroach.
He and Paul McCartney were in the voice cast of 2001's Tuesday. Directed by Geoff Dunbar, it was nominated for a BAFTA Film Award for Best Short Animation.
Hoffman returned to his bad-boy form in a 2003 episode of Liberty's Kids: Est. 1776. In "Benedict Arnold," he voiced the title role.
He was caricatured in the 1990 Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Hollywood Plucky."
"Euthanasia is legal in Hollywood. They just kill the film if it doesn't succeed immediately." -- Dustin Hoffman
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"Oh boy." -- Allan Sherman
(This post was edited by eminovitz on Aug 9, 2012, 6:32 PM)
Speaking of rats... Hanna-Barbera's "Dirty Dawg" segment in "The Kwicky Koala Show" had a sidekick character named Ratso...like Dustin Hoffman's seedy character name Ratso Rizzo and sidekick to Jon Voight in the film "Midnight Cowboy".
Of course "The Kwicky Koala Show" was for kids. "Midnight Cowboy" was "X"-rated in its premiere.
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"Don't chew gum on camera. Don't whistle. You may kiss Bob Barker but please don't kill him." -announcer Johnny Olson briefing the audience of potential contestants for "The Price is Right"
