User:Dingleman/Basil Hoffman

Basil Hoffman (born January 18, 1938) is an American character actor best known for his work with distinguished directors, including (among many others) Peter Bogdonavich, Mario Monicelli, Richard Benjamin, Carl Reiner, Peter Medak (four times), and Alan J. Pakula (twice): Academy Award winners Steven Spielberg, Delbert Mann, Blake Edwards, Stanley Donen, Sydney Pollack, Ron Howard and Robert Redford (twice). His many films include the classics, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, MY FAVORITE YEAR, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN and the Oscar-winning ORDINARY PEOPLE. A long-time private acting teacher and coach in New York and Los Angeles, he has also been a frequent guest lecturer and teacher at prestigeous academic and professional institutions including the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the University of Southern California, the American Film Institute and the Academie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts in Beirut, Lebanon. In 2008, he returned to Beirut as U.S State Department Cultural Envoy to Lebanon to teach acting and directing at the Universiy of Balamand's Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts (for the second time), Lebanese University, Notre Dame University and St. Joseph University's Institut D'Etude Sceniques Audiovisuelles et Cinematographiques. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of Screen Actors Guild and the Fine Arts Advisory Council of Loyola Marymount University. He is an Advisory Director of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is also the author of the acting textbooks, COLD READING AND HOW TO BE GOOD AT IT and ACTING AND HOW TO BE GOOD AT IT (and THE SECOND EDITION) with a foreword by Sydney Pollack.

[Sources are as follows:

Acting credits -- Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB.com) Teaching credits -- AADA (any administrative staff), U.S.C.(Professor Paul Lucey), A.F.I (any      administrative staff), ALBA (Mr. Khalil Smayra). Cultural Envoy -- U.S. State Department, Cultural Affairs, Washington, D.C. Screen Actors Guild (any administrative staff). Loyola Marymount University (any administrative staff). Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences -- (membership). Textbooks -- Ingenuity Press, Dramaline Publications, Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com. ]