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Tootsie (1982)
The Role: Michael Dorsey / Dorothy Michaels
Why It’s The Best: An unused line that Hoffman improvised in the Kramer vs. Kramer court room scene (“I’m his mother”) got Hoffman hooked on exploring ideas about gender, sexuality and identity.
His efforts earned him another Oscar nomination. Playing an out-of-work actor, Hoffman dons drag when his character learns there’s an opening for a female role in a soap opera.
Iconic Moment: Michael comes to blows with his agent over the parts he’s being put up for. Director Sidney Pollack turns in a blinding turn as the agent.
Dustin Says: “I don't know why it was harder to drop [ the character of Dorothy ] emotionally.
“Some of it may have had to do with my mother, who I had spent a great deal of time with since she had a stroke in the last year and a half of her life, which was at the same time that I was working on the script with Murray Schisgal and then Larry Gelbart. My brother Ron felt that Dorothy Michaels is, in fact, at least in spirit, our mother.”
Death Of A Salesman (1985)
The Role: Willy Loman
Why It’s The Best: Hoffman stars opposite John Malkovich and Stephen Lang in the adaptation of Arther Miller’s play.
His theatre experience comes in handy, as he delivers a dramatic and involving turn as Willy Loman, despite being covered in age prosthetics that took three hours to apply. He still calls it his favourite acting experience.
Iconic Moment: Willy dreams about his long lost brother Ben, who left to mine diamonds in Africa.
Rain Man (1988)
The Role: Raymond Babbitt
Why It’s The Best: Hoffman won a second Best Actor Oscar for his involving turn as Raymond, an autistic man who nevertheless possesses an incredible ability to process math problems in his head with great speed.
Tom Cruise plays his selfish brother Charlie, a car dealer and hustler who gets saddled with Charlie when their father dies. It was a role that Hoffman originally wanted Bill Murray to play.
Iconic Moment: Realising that Ray has a way with numbers, Charlie plays cards with him on the boot of the car, before whisking him off to Vegas .
Dustin Says: “You take the laughs out of Rain Man and it's not the same movie. When we're in the phone booth and I fart, that was a fart. That wasn't written in the script.
“We were waiting to do the shot and Barry Levinson had the earphones on. The door closed and I snuck one out. We're tight in there, you know. And Cruise looked at me and said: ‘Did you fart?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ But I stayed in character. ‘Fart.’
“Barry heard it and he came running over in hysterics and said, ‘That's in the scene. Put it in, wherever you want.’ That's a good director: someone who takes advantage of accidents.”
Billy Bathgate (1991)
The Role: Dutch Schultz
Why It’s The Best: Hoffman becomes a gangster, as he plays Dutch Schultz, a gangland leader who takes young Billy Behn under his wing.
Iconic Moment: Hoffman shares a scene with Bruce Willis’ Bo. The latter is tied to a chair while Dutch emerges from the shadows with a gun in his hand.
Willis rattles off an impressive series of profanities while Hoffman remains composed as the crime boss. Legendary.
Hook (1991)
The Role: Captain James Hook
Why It’s The Best: Not the best film on the list by far, but still one of Hoffman’s finest comedic turns. Playing Captain Hook, the famous nemesis of Peter Pan, Hoffman plays around with the character’s inherent tragedy, delivering a performance that is both dark and hilarious.
All three of Hoffman's children made cameos in the film.
Iconic Moment: “Don't try to stop me this time, Smee. Don't try to stop me this time, Smee. Don't you dare try to stop me this time, Smee, try to stop me. Smee, you'd better get up off your ass. Get over here, Smee!” Hook’s attempts at suicide go a little awry…
Wag The Dog (1997)
The Role: Stanley Motss
Why It’s The Best: Hoffman plays a Hollywood producer who’s enlisted by a government agent (Robert De Niro) to create a fake war that will distract the media away from the impending election.
Wry and hilarious, Hoffman really shows off his comic timing in a role that might have gone sour in the wrong hands.
Iconic Moment: Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman on-screen together as they debate the pros and cons of Motss doing what he’s being hired to do.
Dustin Says: “When we first sat around a table to read the script - the first time the cast got together to go through it - Barry [ Levinson, director ] said, ‘Now, this is a dialogue-driven film. Get the feel of the words. Follow them.’
“And Mamet, well, he's got this rhythm - an almost musical way of writing dialogue that is so unique. So, that's what we did.”
Runaway Jury (2003)
The Role: Wendell Rohr
Why It’s The Best: It made little money at the box office, but this is a decent adaptation of John Grisham’s novel.
Hoffman stars as lawyer Wendell Rohr, whose morals are airtight, even if it looks like he might loose a case.
Iconic Moment: The bathroom scene in which Rohr confronts Frinch came about when somebody on the crew discovered that although Hoffman and Gene Hackman had been friends for 50 years, they’d never shared a movie scene together. Epic.
Dustin Says: “It's a lawyer who gets a hit. I didn't think of [ my character ] as honest or dishonest. I thought of him as naive because something tells me he's playing like the guy who doesn't believe that technology has even happened and all you need is your own sense.”
Finding Neverland (2004)
The Role: Charles Frohman
Why It’s The Best: More Peter Pan shenanigans, though this time things are decidedly more entertaining (perhaps because Robin Williams isn’t involved).
Hoffman makes a small but pivotal appearance as producer Charles Frohman, who transformed J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan into a stage show at the Duke Of York theatre in London.
Iconic Moment: In a canny moment of audience awareness, Barrie installs children in the audience for the first showing of Peter Pan , cleverly winning over the punters in one fell swoop.
Dustin Says: “That is a pure supporting part. Harvey Weinstein called me up and said: ‘You're not going to want to do this, but I'm going to ask you anyway. We're doing a movie with Johnny Depp and there's a small part for you...’
“But I'm a huge fan of Johnny Depp. He's one of those actors who makes a living out of trying not to be a star.”
Meet The Fockers (2004)
The Role: Bernie Focker
Why It’s The Best: Hoffman proves he likes a good Jew joke as much as the next man, as he sends up the Jewish father-figure in this first sequel to Meet The Parents .
Sharing screen time with De Niro again, his Bernie rubs the ex-military man up the wrong way to hilarious effect.
Iconic Moment: The war paint comes out as the two dads challenge each other to a game of American football.
Dustin Says: “I work in such a way that I'm not trying to get to De Niro's character, I'm trying to get to Bob himself.
“I know Bob doesn't like his space being invaded but I said to Jay [ Roach, the director ] that the first thing I was going to do in the scene where we meet and shake hands, was feel his muscles because I know he works out. And then give him a nice kiss on the neck.
“But I didn't want him to know it was happening. That became the common premise for our scenes together.”
Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
The Role: Professor Jules Hilbert
Why It’s The Best: Twisting together fiction and reality, Zach Helm’s clever, post-modern dramedy pitted Hoffman against Will Ferrell in a surprising straight man role for the SNL star.
Hoffman plays a university professor who Ferrell’s character turns to when he starts hearing a voice narrating his every thought and move. As a barefooted advisor, Hoffman shovels gravitas and quirk in spades.
Iconic Moment: “You have to die,” the professor informs Ferrell’s struggling goon. The air grows thick with portentous doom.
Dustin Says: “I'm really proud of it, and I've only said that about three times during my career. I think it's a surreal comedy. The older I get, the more I think that the surrealists weren't that surreal after all. But they're real.
“When you think about it, we're on this thing called a planet, it's going around in a circle in the middle of nothing, and it keeps going around. It's nutty.
“It is, and God is this presence, however you want to believe, and the bad news is you can be taken out at any time. Now that's if you think of God as a writer. [ laughs ] I'd like to know him just on a kind of artistic level at the end. That's my kind of black humour.”
