Renting Richard

Richard Dreyfuss has grown up before our eyes and much of that growth can be seen on video.

He began his acting career more than 25 years ago as a pudgy, obnoxious juvenile on such series as “Gidget” and “Karen.” His film career began as a bit player in 1967’s “The Graduate”; he graduated himself to a co-starring role opposite Tony Randall, Janet Leigh and Merv Griffin in the 1969 comedy “Hello Down There.

By 1973, Dreyfuss was on his way to movie stardom, thanks to American Graffiti (MCA). George Lucas of “Star Wars” fame directed this nostalgic comedy-drama, circa 1962, about a night in the life of a group of recent high school graduates. Dreyfuss stars as the class intellectual who is going away to college the next day. “American Graffiti” also showcased many actors who became stars: Cindy Williams, Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, Paul LeMat, Charles Martin Smith and Suzanne Somers.

Dreyfuss is at his obnoxious, grating best in 1974’s comedy The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Paramount Home Video). Based on Mordecai Richler’s book, Dreyfuss plays an ambitious, young man from Montreal’s Jewish ghetto in the 1940s who is bent on making good no matter what the cost.

The following year, Dreyfuss teamed with a young director named Steven Spielberg for one of the biggest box-office hits of all time, Jaws (MCA), based on Peter Benchley’s bestseller. In this heart-pounding thriller, Dreyfuss plays an obnoxious shark expert who arrives in a small New England coastal town to check out a series of shark attacks. Robert Shaw and Roy Scheider also star. John Williams supplied the “da- da- da- da” classic score.

The year 1977 belonged to Dreyfuss. November saw the release of Steven Spielberg’s extravagant, magical sci-fi epic Close Encounters of the Third Kind (RCA/Columbia Pictures). Dreyfuss plays an average Joe family man who has a close encounter with an alien spaceship and finds himself obsessed with going to Montana. French director Francois Truffaut also stars as a scientist trying to communicate with the aliens. The RCA video includes added footage from Spielberg’s 1980 cut, with Dreyfuss entering the alien spaceship at the finale.

One of the big Christmas releases of 1977 was Neil Simon’s romantic comedy The Goodbye Girl (MGM/UA). Dreyfuss won the best actor Oscar--beating such heavyweights as Woody Allen (“Annie Hall”), Richard Burton (“Equus”) John Travolta (“Saturday Night Fever”)--for his delightful, endearing performance as an obnoxious struggling actor who comes to New York and is forced to share an apartment with a bitter divorcee (Marsha Mason) and her daughter (Quinn Cummings).

After his well-publicized battle with drugs, a thinner, healthier Dreyfuss returned to hit films in Paul Mazursky’s 1986 rollicking satire Down and Out in Beverly Hills (Touchstone). Dreyfuss plays the patriarch of a neurotic Beverly Hills family whose lives change when a homeless man (Nick Nolte) found almost drowning in their pool moves in with them. Bette Midler and scene-stealing Mike the Dog co-star.

Dreyfuss goes the leading man route with surprisingly aplomb in 1987’s comedy-thriller Stakeout (Touchstone). Dreyfuss plays a cop who falls for the beautiful young woman (Madeleine Stowe) whom he is staking out.

The third time wasn’t the charm for Dreyfuss and Spielberg. Their 1989 collaboration Always (MCA), is a saccharine, overlong fantasy based on the 1943 film classic “A Guy Named Joe.” Holly Hunter, John Goodman and Audrey Hepburn, as God, co-star.

Far more impressive is the quirky 1991 romantic comedy Once Around (MCA), directed by Lasse Hallstrom (“My Life As a Dog”). Dreyfuss plays an older rich salesman who wins the heart of a strong-willed Italian woman (Holly Hunter).