Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Dreyfuss was born in Brooklyn (born October 29, 1947), New York, the son of Norman, an attorney and restaurateur, and Geraldine, a peace activist. Dreyfuss is Jewish and his surname is of Yiddish origin, believed to originate in the German city of Trier, which had a large Jewish population in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The Latin name for the city was “Treveris”, of which Dreyfuss is a variant. He commented that he “grew up thinking that Alfred Dreyfus and [he] are of the same family.”
Dreyfuss was born in Brooklye, New York, the son of Norman, an attorney and restaurateur, and Geraldine, a peace activist. Dreyfuss is Jewish and his surname is of Yiddish origin, believed to originate in the German city of Trier, which had a large Jewish population in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The Latin name for the city was “Treveris”, of which Dreyfuss is a variant. He commented that he “grew up thinking that Alfred Dreyfus and [he] are of the same family.”
Dreyfuss married writer-producer Jeramie Rain in the early 1980’s. With her he had three children: Emily (1983), Benjamin (1986), and Harry (1990). His eldest son, Benjamin, was born with a malignant form of cancer in his left eye. Dreyfuss and Rain have continued to raise money for ophthalmology centers throughout the United States ever since.
Dreyfuss’s mother died on October 19, 2000 due to complications from a stroke.
Dreyfuss suffers from bipolar disorder. In 2006, he appeared in Stephen Fry’s documentary, Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, in which Fry (who also has the disorder) interviewed him about his life.
On August 9, 2008, it was reported that Dreyfuss is suing his father and uncle over a 24-year-old loan he claims was never repaid. He says he gave his relatives USD$870,000 in 1984 when they owned an interest in a Los Angeles office building. In court papers filed on August 8, 2008, he claims the loan is still outstanding and that his uncle, Gilbert, has refused to turn over financial records. He is reported to be seeking repayment of the loan, plus interest and punitive damages.
Dreyfuss and Russian-born Svetlana Erokhin married in 2006 and have lived in San Diego County since then, although they travel frequently to Los Angeles and London, where Dreyfuss once lived. They initially lived in Carlsbad, California. In February 2008, they bought a $1.5 million house in the rural community of Olivenhain in eastern Encinitas, California, and plan to renovate the 1970s structure with state-of-the-art green technologies.
Dreyfuss has been outspoken on the issue of media informing policy, legislation, and public opinion in recent years, both speaking and writing to express his sentiments in favor of privacy, freedom of speech, democracy, and individual accountability.
Dreyfuss has organized and promoted campaigns to inform and instruct audiences in what he considers potential erosion of individual rights, a personal initiative he began in 2006, responding to what he believes were violations of individual rights under the presidential administration of George W. Bush. On February 16, 2006, Dreyfuss spoke at The National Press Club in Washington, D.C. in hopes of prompting a national discussion on impeachment charges against U.S. President George W. Bush. On November 17, 2006, Dreyfuss appeared on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher as a panel member to discuss teaching civics in schools. Dreyfuss currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. In 2007, Dreyfuss appeared in the youth voting documentary film 18 in ‘08.
Richard Dreyfuss has semi-retired from acting, and is involved in a nation-wide enterprise to encourage the teaching of American history in American primary schools. Currently, he is a Senior Associate Member of St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford.
In 1995 Dreyfuss co-authored with science fiction writer Harry Turtledove the novel The Two Georges, an alternate history/mystery piece set in the year 1996 of an alternate timeline where the American Revolution was peacefully avoided. The painting that symbolizes the union between North America and Britain is stolen by terrorists, and officers of the Royal North American Mounted Police must find it before it is destroyed.
