title: Weimar Republic

text: In this brief Presidential Dictatorship intermission, Schleicher assumed the role of "Socialist General" and entered into relations with the Christian Trade Unions, the relatively left of the Nazi party, and even with the Social Democrats. Schleicher planned for a sort of labour government under his Generalship. But the "Reichswehr" officers were not prepared for this, the working class had a natural distrust of their future allies, and the great capitalists and landowners also did not like the plans.


title: Weimar Republic

text: Hitler learned from Papen that the general had not received from Hindenburg the authority to abolish the "Reichstag" parliament, whereas any majority of seats did. The cabinet (under a previous interpretation of Article 48) ruled without a sitting "Reichstag", which could vote only for its own dissolution. Hitler also learned that all past crippling Nazi debts were to be relieved by German big business.


title: Weimar Republic

text: On 22 January, Hitler's efforts to persuade Oskar von Hindenburg, the President's son and confidant, included threats to bring criminal charges over estate taxation irregularities at the President's Neudeck estate; although extra were soon allotted to Hindenburg's property. Outmaneuvered by Papen and Hitler on plans for the new cabinet, and having lost Hindenburg's confidence, Schleicher asked for new elections. On 28 January, Papen described Hitler to Paul von Hindenburg as only a minority part of an alternative, Papen-arranged government. The four great political movements, the SPD, Communists, Centre, and the Nazis were in opposition.


title: Weimar Republic

text: On 29 January, Hitler and Papen thwarted a last-minute threat of an officially sanctioned "Reichswehr" takeover, and on 30 January 1933 Hindenburg accepted the new Papen-Nationalist-Hitler coalition, with the Nazis holding only three of eleven Cabinet seats: Hitler as Chancellor, Wilhelm Frick as Minister of the Interior and Hermann Göring as Minister Without Portfolio. Later that day, the first cabinet meeting was attended by only two political parties, representing a minority in the "Reichstag": The Nazis and the German National People's Party (DNVP), led by Alfred Hugenberg, with 196 and 52 seats respectively. Eyeing the Catholic Centre Party's 70 (plus 20 BVP) seats, Hitler refused their leader's demands for constitutional "concessions" (amounting to protection) and planned for dissolution of the "Reichstag".


title: Weimar Republic

text: Hindenburg, despite his misgivings about the Nazis' goals and about Hitler as a personality, reluctantly agreed to Papen's theory that, with Nazi popular support on the wane, Hitler could now be controlled as Chancellor. This date, dubbed by the Nazis as the "Machtergreifung" (seizure of power), is commonly seen as the beginning of Nazi Germany.


title: Weimar Republic

text: Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor on the morning of 30 January 1933 in what some observers later described as a brief and indifferent ceremony. By early February, a mere week after Hitler's assumption of the chancellorship, the government had begun to clamp down on the opposition. Meetings of the left-wing parties were banned and even some of the moderate parties found their members threatened and assaulted. Measures with an appearance of legality suppressed the Communist Party in mid-February and included the plainly illegal arrests of "Reichstag" deputies.


title: Weimar Republic

text: On 27 February 1933 the Reichtstag burned to the ground, which was blamed on an act of arson by Dutch council communist Marinus van der Lubbe. However, in 2019, an affidavit that had been concealed by a prominent Nazi era German historian was uncovered. In the affidavit from the 1950s, a former member of the Nazis' paramilitary SA unit swore that on the night of the Reichstag fire, he was part of an SA group that drove Van der Lubbe from an infirmary to the Reichstag, where they noticed "a strange smell of burning and there were clouds of smoke billowing through the rooms". The fire already being set when der Lubbe was forcefully brought there by the SA, as well as the Nazi government's immediate use of the event to seize power, has led many contemporary historians to validate that the SA played a role in the arson, as a false flag attack. Hitler blamed the fire on the KPD (though Van der Lubbe was not a member of the party) and convinced Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree the following day. The decree invoked Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution and "indefinitely suspended" a number of constitutional protections of civil liberties, allowing the Nazi government to take swift action against political meetings, arresting and killing the Communists.


title: Weimar Republic

text: Hitler and the Nazis exploited the German state's broadcasting and aviation facilities in a massive attempt to sway the electorate, but this election yielded a scant majority of 16 seats for the NSDAP-DNVP coalition. At the "Reichstag" elections, which took place on 5 March 1933, the NSDAP obtained 17 million votes. The Communist, Social Democrat and Catholic Centre votes stood firm. This was the last multi-party election of the Weimar Republic and the last multi-party all-German election for 57 years.


title: Weimar Republic

text: Hitler addressed disparate interest groups, stressing the necessity for a definitive solution to the perpetual instability of the Weimar Republic. He now blamed Germany's problems on the Communists, even threatening their lives on 3 March. Former Chancellor Heinrich Brüning proclaimed that his Centre Party would resist any constitutional change and appealed to the President for an investigation of the "Reichstag" fire. Hitler's successful plan was to induce what remained of the now Communist-depleted Reichstag to grant him, and the Government, the authority to issue decrees with the force of law. The hitherto Presidential Dictatorship hereby was to give itself a new legal form.


title: Weimar Republic

text: On 15 March, the first cabinet meeting was attended by the two coalition parties, representing a minority in the "Reichstag": The Nazis and the DNVP led by Alfred Hugenberg (288 + 52 seats). According to the Nuremberg Trials, this cabinet meeting's first order of business was how at last to achieve the complete counter-revolution by means of the constitutionally allowed Enabling Act, requiring a 66% parliamentary majority. This Act would, and did, lead Hitler and the NSDAP toward his goal of unfettered dictatorial powers.


title: Weimar Republic

text: At the cabinet meeting on 15 March, Hitler introduced the Enabling Act, which would have authorised the cabinet to enact legislation without the approval of the "Reichstag". Meanwhile, the only remaining question for the Nazis was whether the Catholic Centre Party would support the Enabling Act in the "Reichstag", thereby providing the majority required to ratify a law that amended the constitution. Hitler expressed his confidence to win over the centre's votes. Hitler is recorded at the Nuremberg Trials as being sure of eventual Centre Party Germany capitulation and thus rejecting of the DNVP's suggestions to "balance" the majority through further arrests, this time of Social Democrats. Hitler, however, assured his coalition partners that arrests would resume after the elections and, in fact, some 26 SPD Social Democrats were physically removed. After meeting with Centre leader Monsignor Ludwig Kaas and other Centre Trade Union leaders daily and denying them a substantial participation in the government, negotiation succeeded in respect of guarantees towards Catholic civil-servants and education issues.


title: Weimar Republic

text: At the last internal Centre meeting prior to the debate on the Enabling Act, Kaas expressed no preference or suggestion on the vote, but as a way of mollifying opposition by Centre members to the granting of further powers to Hitler, Kaas somehow arranged for a letter of constitutional guarantee from Hitler himself prior to his voting with the centre "en bloc" in favour of the Enabling Act. This guarantee was not ultimately given. Kaas, the party's chairman since 1928, had strong connections to the Vatican Secretary of State, later Pope Pius XII. In return for pledging his support for the act, Kaas would use his connections with the Vatican to set in train and draft the Holy See's long desired "Reichskonkordat" with Germany (only possible with the co-operation of the Nazis).


title: Weimar Republic

text: Ludwig Kaas is considered along with Papen as being one of the two most important political figures in the creation of the Nazi regime.


title: Weimar Republic

text: On 20 March, negotiation began between Hitler and Frick on one side and the Catholic Centre Party (Zentrum) leaders—Kaas, Stegerwald, and Hackelsburger on the other. The aim was to settle on conditions under which Centre would vote in favour of the Enabling Act. Because of the Nazis' narrow majority in the "Reichstag", Centre's support was necessary to receive the required two-thirds majority vote. On 22 March, the negotiations concluded; Hitler promised to continue the existence of the German states, agreed not to use the new grant of power to change the constitution, and promised to retain Zentrum members in the civil service. Hitler also pledged to protect the Catholic confessional schools and to respect the concordats signed between the Holy See and Bavaria (1924), Prussia (1929), and Baden (1931). Hitler also agreed to mention these promises in his speech to the "Reichstag" before the vote on the Enabling Act.


title: Weimar Republic

text: The ceremonial opening of the "Reichstag" on 21 March was held at the Garrison Church in Potsdam, a shrine of Prussianism, in the presence of many Junker landowners and representatives of the imperial military caste. This impressive and often emotional spectacle—orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels—aimed to link Hitler's government with Germany's imperial past and portray Nazism as a guarantor of the nation's future. The ceremony helped convince the "old guard" Prussian military elite of Hitler's homage to their long tradition and, in turn, produced the relatively convincing view that Hitler's government had the support of Germany's traditional protector—the Army. Such support would publicly signal a return to conservatism to curb the problems affecting the Weimar Republic, and that stability might be at hand. In a cynical and politically adroit move, Hitler bowed in apparently respectful humility before President and Field Marshal Hindenburg.


title: Weimar Republic

text: The "Reichstag" convened on 23 March 1933 at the Kroll Opera House, and in the midday opening, Hitler made a historic speech, appearing outwardly calm and conciliatory. Hitler presented an appealing prospect of respect towards Christianity by paying tribute to the Christian faiths as "essential elements for safeguarding the soul of the German people". He promised to respect their rights and declared that his government's "ambition is a peaceful accord between Church and State" and that he hoped "to improve [their] friendly relations with the Holy See". This speech aimed especially at the future recognition by the named Holy See and therefore to the votes of the Centre Party addressing many concerns Kaas had voiced during the previous talks. Kaas is considered to have had a hand therefore in the drafting of the speech. Kaas is also reported as voicing the Holy See's desire for Hitler as bulwark against atheistic Russian nihilism previously as early as May 1932.


title: Weimar Republic

text: Hitler promised that the Act did not threaten the existence of either the "Reichstag" or the "Reichsrat", that the authority of the President remained untouched and that the "Länder" would not be abolished. During an adjournment, the other parties (notably the centre) met to discuss their intentions.


title: Weimar Republic

text: In the debate prior to the vote on the Enabling Act, Hitler orchestrated the full political menace of his paramilitary forces like the storm division in the streets to intimidate reluctant "Reichstag" deputies into approving the Enabling Act. The Communists' 81 seats had been empty since the "Reichstag" Fire Decree and other lesser known procedural measures, thus excluding their anticipated "No" votes from the balloting. Otto Wels, the leader of the Social Democrats, whose seats were similarly depleted from 120 to below 100, was the only speaker to defend democracy and in a futile but brave effort to deny Hitler the majority, he made a speech critical of the abandonment of democracy to dictatorship. At this, Hitler could no longer restrain his wrath.


title: Weimar Republic

text: In his retort to Wels, Hitler abandoned earlier pretence at calm statesmanship and delivered a characteristic screaming diatribe, promising to exterminate all Communists in Germany and threatening Wels' Social Democrats as well. He did not even want their support for the bill. "Germany will become free, but not through you," he shouted. Meanwhile, Hitler's promised written guarantee to Monsignor Kaas was being typed up, it was asserted to Kaas, and thereby Kaas was persuaded to silently deliver the Centre bloc's votes for the Enabling Act anyway. The Act—formally titled the "Act for the Removal of Distress from People and Reich"—was passed by a vote of 444 to 94. Only the SPD had voted against the Act. Every other member of the "Reichstag", whether from the largest or the smallest party, voted in favour of the Act. It went into effect the following day, 24 March.


title: Weimar Republic

text: The passage of the Enabling Act of 1933 is widely considered to mark the end of the Weimar Republic and the beginning of the Nazi era. It empowered the cabinet to legislate without the approval of the Reichstag or the President, and to enact laws that were contrary to the constitution. Before the March 1933 elections, Hitler had persuaded Hindenburg to promulgate the Reichstag Fire Decree using Article 48, which empowered the government to restrict "the rights of habeas corpus [...] freedom of the press, the freedom to organise and assemble, the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications" and legalised search warrants and confiscation "beyond legal limits otherwise prescribed". This was intended to forestall any action against the government by the Communists. Hitler used the provisions of the Enabling Act to pre-empt possible opposition to his dictatorship from other sources, in which he was mostly successful: in the months following the passage of the Enabling Act, all German parties aside the NSDAP were banned or force to disband themselves, all trade unions were dissolved and all media were brought under the control of the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (with the partial exception of the "Frankfurter Zeitung"). The Reichstag was then dissolved by Hindenburg and a snap one-party election was called in November 1933, giving the NSDAP full control of the chamber.


title: Weimar Republic

text: The constitution of 1919 was never formally repealed, but the Enabling Act meant that it was a dead letter. The Reichstag was effectively eliminated as an active player in German politics. It only met sporadically until the end of World War II, held no debates and enacted only a few laws; for all purposes, it was reduced to a mere stage for Hitler's speeches. The other chamber of the German parliament (the Reichsrat) was officially abolished in February 1934; this decision was in clear violation of the Enabling Act, which stipulated that any laws passed under its authority could not affect the institutions of either chamber. By this time, however, the Nazis had become law unto themselves, and these actions were never challenged in court.


title: Weimar Republic

text: On 2 August 1934, Hindenburg died from lung cancer, thus eliminating any remaining obstacle to Nazi full dominance; the day after his death, the Hitler Cabinet passed a "Law Concerning the Highest State Office of the Reich", transferring the President's powers to the new post of ""Führer" and Reich chancellor", giving him complete power on all the Reich without any possibility of check and balance. Such move was later ratified by a highly non-democratic referendum. This, along with the remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936 shed the last remains of the Weimar Republic.


title: Weimar Republic

text: The reasons for the Weimar Republic's collapse are the subject of continuing debate. It may have been doomed from the beginning since even moderates disliked it and extremists on both the left and right loathed it, a situation often referred to as a "democracy without democrats". Germany had limited democratic traditions, and Weimar democracy was widely seen as chaotic. Since Weimar politicians had been blamed for the "Dolchstoß" ("stab-in-the-back"), a widely believed theory that Germany's surrender in the First World War had been the unnecessary act of traitors, the popular legitimacy of the government was on shaky ground. As normal parliamentary lawmaking broke down and was replaced around 1930 by a series of emergency decrees, the decreasing popular legitimacy of the government further drove voters to extremist parties.


title: Weimar Republic

text: No single reason can explain the failure of the Weimar Republic. The most commonly asserted causes can be grouped into three categories: economic problems, institutional problems, and the roles of specific individuals.


title: Weimar Republic

text: The Weimar Republic had some of the most serious economic problems ever experienced by any Western democracy in history. Rampant hyperinflation, massive unemployment, and a large drop in living standards were primary factors. From 1923 to 1929, there was a short period of economic recovery, but the Great Depression of the 1930s led to a worldwide recession. Germany was particularly affected because it depended heavily on American loans. In 1926, about 2 million Germans were unemployed, which rose to around 6 million in 1932. Many blamed the Weimar Republic. That was made apparent when political parties on both right and left wanting to disband the Republic altogether made any democratic majority in Parliament impossible.


title: Weimar Republic

text: The Weimar Republic was severely affected by the Great Depression. The economic stagnation led to increased demands on Germany to repay the debts owed to the United States. As the Weimar Republic was very fragile in all its existence, the depression was devastating, and played a major role in the Nazi takeover.


title: Weimar Republic

text: Most Germans thought the Treaty of Versailles was a punishing and degrading document because it forced them to surrender resource-rich areas and pay massive amounts of compensation. The punitive reparations caused consternation and resentment, but the actual economic damage resulting from the Treaty of Versailles is difficult to determine. While the official reparations were considerable, Germany ended up paying only a fraction of them. However, the reparations damaged Germany's economy by discouraging market loans, which forced the Weimar government to finance its deficit by printing more currency, causing rampant hyperinflation. At the beginning of 1920, 50 marks was equivalent to one US dollar. By the end of 1923, one US dollar was equal to 4,200,000,000,000 marks. In addition, the rapid disintegration of Germany in 1919 by the return of a disillusioned army, the rapid change from possible victory in 1918 to defeat in 1919, and the political chaos may have led to extreme nationalism.


title: Weimar Republic

text: Princeton historian Harold James argues that there was a clear link between economic decline and people turning to extremist politics.


title: Weimar Republic

text: It is widely believed that the 1919 constitution had several weaknesses, making the eventual establishment of a dictatorship likely, but it is unknown whether a different constitution could have prevented the rise of the Nazi party. However, the 1949 West German constitution (the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany) is generally viewed as a strong response to these flaws.


title: Weimar Republic

text: Brüning's economic policy from 1930 to 1932 has been the subject of much debate. It caused many Germans to identify the Republic with cuts in social spending and extremely liberal economics. Whether there were alternatives to this policy during the Great Depression is an open question.


title: Weimar Republic

text: Paul von Hindenburg became "Reichspräsident" in 1925. As he was an old style monarchist conservative, he had little love lost for the Republic, but for the most part, he formally acted within the bounds of the constitution; however, he ultimately—on the advice of his son and others close to him—appointed Hitler chancellor, thereby effectively ending the Republic. Additionally, Hindenburg's death in 1934 ended the last obstacle for Hitler to assume full power in the Weimar Republic.


title: Weimar Republic

text: The German National People's Party (DNVP) has also been blamed as responsible for the downfall of the Weimar Republic because of its ultranationalist positions and its unwillingness of accepting the Republic because of its monarchist ideology. In his book, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", journalist and historian William L. Shirer wrote that the DNVP's status as a far-right party rather than a mainstream conservative party was one of the main reasons for the Weimar Republic's downfall. In Shirer's view, the DNVP's refusal to "take a responsible position either in the government or in the opposition" during most of Weimar's existence denied Weimar "that stability provided in many other countries by a truly conservative party." Similarly, conservative British historian Sir John Wheeler-Bennett blamed the DNVP for failing to reconcile with the Republic, stating that "Under the cloak of loyalty to the Monarchy, they either held aloof or sabotaged the efforts of successive Chancellors to give a stable government to the Republic. The truth is that after 1918 many German Nationalists were more influenced by feelings of disloyalty to the Republic than of loyalty to the Kaiser, and it was this motive which led them to make their fatal contribution to bringing Hitler to power".


title: Weimar Republic

text: Nazi propaganda tended to describe the Weimar Republic as a period of treason, degeneration, and corruption. The whole period from 1918 to 1933 was described in propaganda as "The time of the System" ("Systemzeit"), while the Republic itself was known as "The System" ("Das System"), a term that was adopted into everyday use after 1933. Another Nazi phrase used for the republic and its politicians was "the November criminals" or "the regime of the November criminals" (German: "November-Verbrecher"), referring to the month the republic was founded in (November 1918).


title: Weimar Republic

text: The Weimar Republic brought democratic voting rights to all adults (including women), the eight-hour work day, innovations in media and technology, and more freedom for LGBT people, though the latter was undone by the strongly homophobic policies of Nazi Germany and by the conservative positions of the governments both in West and East Germany.


title: Weimar Republic

text: According to "Foreign Policy", the Weimar Republic is seen as "the best-known historical example of a 'failed' democracy that ceded to fascism".


title: Weimar Republic

text: Prior to the First World War, the constituent states of the German Empire were 22 smaller monarchies, three republican city-states, and the Imperial Territory of Alsace–Lorraine. After the territorial losses of the Treaty of Versailles and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the remaining states continued as republics. The former Ernestine duchies continued briefly as republics before merging to form the state of Thuringia in 1920, except for Saxe-Coburg, which became part of Bavaria.


title: Weimar Republic

text: These states were gradually abolished under the Nazi regime via the Gleichschaltung process, whereby they were effectively replaced by Gaue. There were two notable "de jure" changes, however. At the end of 1933, Mecklenburg-Strelitz was merged with Mecklenburg-Schwerin to form a united Mecklenburg. Second, in April 1937, the city-state of Lübeck was formally incorporated into Prussia by the Greater Hamburg Act, apparently motivated by Hitler's personal dislike for the city. Most of the remaining states were formally dissolved by the Allies at the end of the Second World War and ultimately reorganised into the modern states of Germany.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. He is the recipient of numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Film Awards, three Drama Desk Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Hoffman has received numerous honors including the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1997, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999, and the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2012. Actor Robert De Niro described him as "an actor with the everyman's face who embodied the heartbreakingly human".


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: At a young age Hoffman knew he wanted to study in the arts, and entered into the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music; later he decided to go into acting, for which he trained at the Pasadena Playhouse in Los Angeles. He soon starred in the 1966 off-Broadway play "Eh?", for which he received a Drama Desk Award. His breakthrough role was as Benjamin Braddock in Mike Nichols' critically acclaimed and iconic film "The Graduate" (1967), for which he received his first Academy Award nomination. His next role was Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo in John Schlesinger's "Midnight Cowboy" (1969), in which he acted alongside Jon Voight; they both received Oscar nominations, and the film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. He gained success in the 1970s crossing genres effortlessly in the western "Little Big Man" (1970), the prison drama "Papillon" (1973), and thriller "Marathon Man" (1976). He also played real life figures: comedian Lenny Bruce in Bob Fosse's "Lenny" (1975), and journalist Carl Bernstein in "All the President's Men" (1976). Hoffman starred opposite Meryl Streep in the family drama "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979), for which they both received Academy Awards.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: After a three-year break from films, Hoffman returned in Sydney Pollack's show business comedy "Tootsie" (1982) about a struggling actor who pretends to be a woman in order to get an acting role. He returned to stage acting with a 1984 performance as Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman" and reprised the role a year later in a television film earning a Primetime Emmy Award. In 1987, he and Warren Beatty starred in Elaine May's infamous bomb, "Ishtar". He won his second Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the autistic savant Ray Babbitt in the 1988 film "Rain Man", co-starring Tom Cruise. In 1989, he was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for playing Shylock in a stage performance of "The Merchant of Venice". In the 1990s, he acted in such films as "Dick Tracy" (1990), "Hook" (1991), "Outbreak" (1995), "Sleepers" (1996), and "Wag the Dog" (1997).


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In the 21st century, Hoffman has appeared in films such as "Finding Neverland" (2004), "I Heart Huckabees" (2004), and "Stranger than Fiction" (2006), as well as "Meet the Fockers" (2004) and the sequel "Little Fockers" (2010). Hoffman has done voice work for "The Tale of Despereaux" (2008) and the "Kung Fu Panda" film series (2008–2016). In 2012, he made his directorial debut with "Quartet" starring Dame Maggie Smith and Sir Tom Courtenay which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2017, Hoffman starred in Noah Baumbach's critically acclaimed family drama "The Meyerowitz Stories".


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Dustin Lee Hoffman was born on August 8, 1937, in Los Angeles, California, the younger of two sons of Harry Hoffman (1908–1987) and Lillian (née Gold; 1909–1982). His father worked as a prop supervisor (set decorator) at Columbia Pictures before becoming a furniture salesman.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman was named after stage and silent screen actor Dustin Farnum. He has an elder brother Ronald, who is a lawyer and economist. Hoffman is Jewish, from an Ashkenazi Jewish family of immigrants from Kyiv, Ukraine (then a part of the Russian Empire), and Iași, Romania. The family's surname was spelled Гойхман ("Goikhman") in the Russian Empire.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: His upbringing was nonreligious, and he has said, "I don't have any memory of celebrating holidays growing up that were Jewish", and that he had "realized" he was Jewish at around the age of 10.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1955 and enrolled at Santa Monica College with the intention of studying medicine. But decided to be become an actor, leaving the next year to join the Pasadena Playhouse, although when he told his family about his career goal, his Aunt Pearl warned him, "You can't be an actor. You are not good-looking enough." He also studied with Lee Strasberg and has stated that he did not study with either Sanford Meisner or Stella Adler.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman initially hoped to become a classical pianist, having studied piano during much of his youth and in college. While at Santa Monica College, he also took an acting class, which he assumed would be easy, and "caught the acting bug". He recalls: "I just was not gifted in music. I did not have an ear." Now an aspiring actor, he spent the next ten years doing odd jobs, being unemployed, and struggling to get any available acting roles, a lifestyle he was later to portray in the comedy film "Tootsie". Hoffman composed a song called "Shooting the Breeze", alongside Bette Midler who wrote the words.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: His first acting role was at the Pasadena Playhouse, alongside future Academy Award–winner Gene Hackman. After two years there, Hackman headed for New York City, with Hoffman soon following. Hoffman, Hackman, and Robert Duvall lived together in the 1960s, whilst all three of them focused on finding acting jobs. Hackman remembers, "The idea that any of us would do well in films simply didn't occur to us. We just wanted to work". Hoffman's appearance—Duvall described him as Barbra Streisand in drag—and small size made him uncastable, "Vanity Fair" later wrote. During this period, Hoffman got occasional television bit parts, including commercials but, needing income, he briefly left acting to teach.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: He then studied at Actors Studio and became a dedicated method actor. In 1960 Hoffman was cast in a role in an off-Broadway production and followed with a bit part in his Broadway debut in production, "A Cook for Mr. General" (1961). In 1962, appeared in Rabbit Run Theatre's summer stock production of "Write Me A Murder" in Madison, Ohio and served as an assistant director to Ulu Grosbard on "The Days and Nights of Beebee Fenstermaker" at off-Broadway's Sheridan Square Playhouse. In 1964, Hoffman appeared in "Three Men on a Horse" at Princeton's McCarter Theatre and in 1965, in off-Broadway's "Harry, Noon and Night" with Joel Grey. Grosbard and Hoffman reunited for a 1965 recording of "Death of a Salesman" starring Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock, with Hoffman playing Bernard. He was assistant director for Grosbard's 1965 off-Broadway production of "A View from the Bridge" starring Robert Duvall and Jon Voight and in late 1965, stage managed and appeared in Grosbard's "The Subject Was Roses" on Broadway. Hoffman's "sharply outlined and vividly colored" performance in off-Broadway's "The Journey of the Fifth Horse" in April 1966 was followed by another critical success in the play "Eh?", by Henry Livings, which had its U.S. premiere at the Circle in the Square Theatre on October 16, 1966. Sidney W. Pink, a producer and 3D-movie pioneer, discovered Hoffman in one of his off-Broadway roles and cast him in "Madigan's Millions". Through the early and mid-1960s, Hoffman made appearances in television shows and movies, including "Naked City", "The Defenders" and "Hallmark Hall of Fame".


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman made his film debut in "The Tiger Makes Out" in 1967, alongside Eli Wallach. In 1967, immediately after wrapping up principal filming on "The Tiger Makes Out", Hoffman flew from New York City to Fargo, North Dakota, where he directed productions of William Gibson's "Two for the Seesaw" and William Saroyan's "The Time of Your Life" for the Fargo-Moorhead Community Theatre. The $1,000 he received for the eight-week contract was all he had to hold him over until the funds from the movie materialized.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In 1966, director Mike Nichols auditioned Hoffman for a lead role in the Broadway musical "The Apple Tree" but rejected him because he could not sing well enough and gave Alan Alda the part. But Nichols was so impressed with Hoffman's overall audition he cast him as the male lead in the movie "The Graduate" (1967). Hoffman played the character of Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate who has an affair with Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father's law partner. This was Hoffman's first major role, and he received an Academy Award nomination for it but lost to Rod Steiger for "In the Heat of the Night".


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Although "Life" magazine joked that "if Dustin Hoffman's face were his fortune, he'd be committed to a life of poverty", "The Graduate" was a gigantic box office hit for Embassy Pictures, making Hoffman a major new star at the same time. The film received near-unanimous good reviews. "Time" magazine called Hoffman "a symbol of youth" who represented "a new breed of actors". The film's screenwriter, Buck Henry, notes that Hoffman's character made conventional good looks no longer necessary on screen:


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman's success amazed friends from his early years as an actor, who told him "You were the last one I expected to make it". Biographer Jeff Lenburg wrote that "newspapers across the country were deluged with thousands of letters from fans", with one example published in "The New York Times": "I identified with Ben. ... I thought of him as a spiritual brother. He was confused about his future and about his place in the world, as I am. It's a film one digs, rather than understands intellectually".


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: "Turner Classic Movies" critic Rob Nixon notes that Hoffman represented "a new generation of actors". He credits Hoffman with breaking "the mold of the traditional movie star and brought to their roles a new candor, ethnicity, and eagerness to dive deep into complex, even unlikable characters." Nixon expands on the significance of the film to Hoffman's career: "In "The Graduate", he created a lasting resonance as Ben Braddock that made him an overnight sensation and set him on the road to becoming one of our biggest stars and most respected actors."


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman, however, mostly credits director Mike Nichols for taking a great risk in giving him, a relative unknown, the starring role: "I don't know of another instance of a director at the height of his powers who would take a chance and cast someone like me in that part. It took tremendous courage."


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Critic Sam Kashner observed strong similarities between Hoffman's character and that of Nichols when he previously acted with Elaine May in the comedy team of Nichols and May. "Just close your eyes and you'll hear a Mike Nichols—Elaine May routine in any number of scenes." Buck Henry also noticed that "Dustin picked up all these Nichols habits, which he used in the character. Those little noises he makes are straight from Mike", he says.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: After completing "The Graduate", Hoffman turned down most of the film roles offered to him, preferring to go back to New York and continue performing in live theater. He returned to Broadway to appear in the title role of the musical "Jimmy Shine". Hoffman won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman was paid $20,000 for his role in "The Graduate", but netted just $4,000 after taxes and living expenses. After spending that money, Hoffman filed for New York State unemployment benefits, receiving $55 per week while living in a two-room apartment in the West Village of Manhattan. He was then offered the lead in "Midnight Cowboy" (1969), which he accepted partly to prove many critics were wrong about his acting range and the variety of characters he could portray. Peter Biskind wrote, "it was the very contrast between his preppy character in "The Graduate", and Ratso Rizzo" that appealed to Hoffman. 'I had become troubled,' recalls Hoffman, 'by the reviews that I read of "The Graduate", that I was not a character actor, which I like to think of myself as. It hurt me. Some of the stuff in the press was brutal.'" Critics assumed that director Mike Nichols got lucky by finding a typical actor with average acting ability to play the part of Benjamin Braddock.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: John Schlesinger, who would direct "Midnight Cowboy" and was seeking lead actors, held that same impression. Hoffman's performance as a button-down college graduate and track star was so convincing to Schlesinger, "he seemed unable to comprehend the fact that he was acting", notes Biskind. To help the director, whom he had never met, overcome that false impression, Hoffman met him in Times Square dressed as a homeless person, wearing a dirty raincoat, his hair slicked back and with an unshaven face. Schlesinger was sold, admitting, "I've only seen you in the context of "The Graduate", but you'll do quite well."


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: "Midnight Cowboy" premiered in theaters across the United States in May 1969. For his acting, Hoffman received his second Oscar nomination and the film won Best Picture. In 1994 the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Biskind considers Hoffman's acting a major accomplishment:


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Also in 1969, Hoffman co-starred with Mia Farrow in the Peter Yates's romantic drama film "John and Mary". He received a 1970 British Academy Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film, although the film received mixed reviews. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy Motion Picture The film was made soon after the success of Farrow's performance in Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby" (1968), and Hoffman's performance in "The Graduate" which prompted them being hailed on the cover of the February 27, 1969, "Time" magazine as stars of their generation.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: This was followed by his role in "Little Big Man" (1970), where Jack Crabb, his character, ages from teenager to a 121-year-old man. The film was widely praised by critics, but was overlooked for an award except for a supporting nomination for Chief Dan George. Hoffman continued to appear in major films over the next few years. "Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?" (1971), "Straw Dogs" (also 1971), and "Papillon" (1973). He returned to Broadway in 1974, directing "All Over Town".


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman next starred in "Lenny" (1974), for which he was again nominated for Best Actor. "Lenny" was based on the life of stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce, who died at the age of 40, and was known for his open, free-style and critical form of comedy which integrated politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. Expectations were high that Hoffman would win an Oscar for his portrayal, especially after his similar role in "Midnight Cowboy". Film critic Katharine Lowry speculates that director Bob Fosse "never gave him a chance" to go far enough into developing the character. "We never understand what, besides the drugs he injected, made him tick like a time bomb", she says.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: However, notes author Paul Gardner, "directing "Lenny", his most ambitious project, exhausted Fosse emotionally and physically. It turned his life inside out", with shooting days often lasting 10 to 12 hours:


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman initially turned the part down, saying: "I didn't think the script was strong enough and I wasn't sure I was the one to play the role." While considering the part, he read Lenny Bruce's autobiography and looked at films with Bruce performing stand-up to live audiences. In the same interview with "Playboy" he recounted: "I began to feel an affinity with him, a realization that there was a lot of Lenny Bruce in me. My wife felt it too ... I realized that I'd have to make use of my own spontaneity because he was so spontaneous. And I admired his guts ... That intimacy is what an actor tries to get ... It occurred to me that if I had known him, I would have wanted us to be friends ... and he was a provocateur, and I love to provoke." Movie critic Judith Crist gave Hoffman credit for the ultimate success of the film:


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: "Lenny" was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Cinematography.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: "All the President's Men" (1976) was made less than two years after the Watergate scandal, and starred Hoffman and Robert Redford as the real-life journalists, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, respectively. Based on actual events, Hoffman and Redford play "Washington Post" reporters who uncover a break-in at the Watergate Hotel and end up investigating a political scandal that reaches all the way to the presidency. The film, as earlier ones, had Hoffman take on a dramatically different character than his previous one (as Lenny Bruce), although both men, Bruce and Bernstein, set their faces against abuses of institutional power, and the tendency for society to ignore such abuses. Author James Morrison compares the two roles: "As Lenny Bruce in "Lenny" (1974), Hoffman plays a martyr to the cause of establishment oppression, while in "All the President's Men", he plays a reporter exposing presidential malfeasance."


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" described the film as "a spellbinding detective story". "The strength of the movie", he added, was "the virtually day-to-day record of the way Bernstein and Woodward conducted their investigations." The characters portrayed by Hoffman and Redford shared the rank of No. 27 Hero on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains list, while "Entertainment Weekly" ranked "All the President's Men" as one of the 25 "Powerful Political Thrillers".


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman next starred in "Marathon Man" (1976), a film based on William Goldman's novel of the same name, opposite Laurence Olivier and Roy Scheider. Its director, John Schlesinger also directed Hoffman in "Midnight Cowboy" in 1969. Described as "Schlesinger's thriller", by author Gene D. Phillips, Hoffman plays the hero, Babe Levy, a part-time long-distance runner and graduate student, who suddenly finds himself being pursued by a fugitive Nazi. To put himself in the mindset of someone under severe emotional distress, Hoffman did not sleep for days at a time and let his body become disheveled and unhealthy.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Goldman describes his inspiration for the novel: "What if someone close to you was something totally different from what you thought? In the story, Hoffman thinks his brother (Roy Scheider) is a businessman where the reality is that the man is a spy, who has been involved with the Nazi, Szell." However, Hoffman remembers a serious disagreement he had with Goldman, who also wrote the screenplay, about how the story ends:


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman's next roles were also successful. He opted out of directing "Straight Time" (1978), but starred as a thief. His next film, Michael Apted's "Agatha" (1979), was with Vanessa Redgrave as Agatha Christie, focussing on the missing eleven days of the author's life. The part of Archie Christie was played by Timothy Dalton, then partner of Vanessa Redgrave, and later to star in James Bond movies. Dalton's depiction of cold indifference to his wife produced a perfect foil to Hoffman's portrayal of warm compassion, humour and sensitivity. The film had both romantic and comic moments whilst the overall plot cleverly mirrored one of Christie's detective novels. "Agatha" was generally very well received by critics, especially in the UK, and maintains an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman next starred in "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979) co-starring Meryl Streep and directed by Robert Benton. The film tells the story of a married couple's divorce and its impact on everyone involved, including the couple's young son. Hoffman won his first Academy Award, and the film also received the Best Picture honor, plus the awards for Best Supporting Actress (Streep), Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: The film required Hoffman to change his attitude, from being a "desensitized advertising art director" into becoming a "responsive and concerned daddy" after his wife (Streep) walks out on him and their six-year-old son, Billy. Hoffman, during the making of the movie, was also going through his own divorce after a ten-year first marriage. Hoffman has said, "Giving myself permission not only to be present but to be a father was a kind of epiphany for me at that time, that I could get to through my work. ... I got closer to being a father by playing a father. That's very painful to say." The role also reminded him of his own love of children in general:


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Benton's directing has been praised by Hoffman, who credits him for inspiring the emotional level supporting many scenes: "Perfect directors make you emotional. On "Kramer vs. Kramer", Robert Benton made me emotional. He was pulling so hard for me. When I didn't think I could do a scene again I'd say, "I can't give it to you, I haven't got it." Then he'd just get this look on his face and roll the camera and I'd say, "Okay, this is yours." That's what he made you want to do for him—to give him one."


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In "Tootsie" (1982), Hoffman portrays Michael Dorsey, a struggling actor who finds himself dressing up as a woman to land a role on a soap opera. His co-star was Jessica Lange. "Tootsie" earned ten Academy Award nominations, including Hoffman's fifth nomination.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Under direction by Sydney Pollack, Hoffman's role demanded "a steady bombardment of opposites—edgy then funny, romantic then realistic, soft then quivering." To film critic David Denby, Hoffman's character "embodies vulnerability and drive in perfect proportion. He has the knack of making everything he does seem perilous, and so audiences feel protective of him and root for him." Hoffman's acting was made more difficult than necessary, however, as he was not given the rehearsal time Pollack promised:


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Fellow actor Gary Oldman reported that, during a telephone conversation with Hoffman, the latter recalled having made comments toward a "very powerful" industry figure who ensured that he was unable to find work in Hollywood for some time following "Tootsie". In 1983, Hoffman became a Major Donor for The Mirror Theater Ltd, alongside Paul Newman and Al Pacino, matching a grant from Laurance Rockefeller. The men were inspired to invest by their connection with Lee Strasberg, as Lee's then daughter-in-law Sabra Jones was the Founder and Producing Artistic Director of The Mirror.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In 1984, Hoffman starred as Willy Loman in the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman". He reprised his role in a TV movie of the same name, for which he won the 1985 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor along with a Golden Globe.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman first read the play at the age of 16, but today considers the story much like his own: "It was a blueprint of my family. I was the loser, the flunky, and my brother, a high-school varsity football player, was Biff." Author Marie Brenner notes that Hoffman "has been obsessed with the play" throughout his career: "For years he has wanted to be Willy Loman; when he discovered that Arthur Miller was his neighbor in Connecticut, they began to talk about it in earnest." For Hoffman, the story also left a deep emotional impact from the time he first read it:


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman rehearsed for three weeks with the play's original star, Lee J. Cobb, and remembers seeing his stage performance: "I'll never forget that period in my life. It was so vivid, so intense, watching Lee J. Cobb and his sixteen-inch guns as Willy. God, how I think about what I saw on that stage!" Brenner adds that Hoffman "has been training like a boxer for the role that so exhausted Cobb he had to be replaced after four months." The original play was directed by Elia Kazan, who Hoffman considers "the perfect director, the best there ever was. ... God, I would have done "anything" to have worked with Kazan."


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman's worst film failure was Elaine May's "Ishtar" (1987), co-starring Warren Beatty, who also produced it. Hoffman and Beatty play two down-and-out singer-songwriters who travel to Morocco for a nightclub gig and get caught up in foreign intrigue. Much of the movie was filmed in Africa. The film faced severe production problems, mostly related to its $55 million cost, and received overwhelmingly negative reviews. However, Hoffman and Beatty liked the film's final cut and tried to defend it. Hoffman and Beatty were unaffected by the flop, and "Ishtar" became a cult film. Quentin Tarantino, for one, has called it one of his favorite movies, partly due to the humorous lyrics of the songs written by Paul Williams. Hoffman describes why he loves the film:


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Next came director Barry Levinson's "Rain Man" (1988), where Hoffman starred as an autistic savant, opposite Tom Cruise. Levinson, Hoffman and Cruise worked for two years on the film, and Hoffman's performance gained him his second Academy Award. Behind Hoffman's motivation for doing the film, he has said, "Deep inside, "Rain Man" is about how autistic we all are." In preparation for the part, Hoffman spent two years befriending autistic people, which included taking them bowling and to fast food restaurants. "It fed my obsession", he has stated.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman worked at the New York Psychiatric Institute, affiliated with Columbia University, when he was 21. "It was a great experience for me", he said. "All my life I had wanted to get inside a prison or a mental hospital. ... I wanted to get inside where behavior, human behavior, was so exposed. All the things the rest of us were feeling and stopping up were coming out of these people." He used that experience to help him develop the character of Raymond Babbitt, a high-functioning autistic savant, yet a person who critic David Denby described as "a strangely shuttered genius". Hoffman created certain character traits for Raymond. Denby noted: "Hoffman, looking suddenly older and smaller, has developed a small shuffling walk for Raymond, with shoulder bent. His eyes don't make contact with anyone else's, and he flattens his voice to a dry nasal bark."


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: "Rain Man" won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Hoffman, and Best Director for Barry Levinson. Having worked closely with Hoffman for two years on filming, Levinson offered some opinions about his skill as an actor:


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: After "Rain Man", Hoffman appeared with Sean Connery and Matthew Broderick in "Family Business" (1989), directed by Sidney Lumet. The story centers on the estrangement between Vito (Hoffman), a middle-aged man trying to succeed in a legitimate business, and his "hopelessly corrupt but charming father", Jesse (Connery). Critics were mostly not impressed with the story, although the individual performances were praised, especially Connery's.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Because of their different acting styles and nationalities, some industry writers thought Connery and Hoffman might not work well together as close family members. "To the surprise of many", note Connery biographers Lee Pfeiffer and Lisa Philip, "the two superstars developed an immediate rapport and chemistry that translates onto the screen." And Lumet remembered: "Sean is extremely disciplined and Dustin is very improvisational, all over the place with his lines. I didn't know where it would end up, but Sean met Dustin improvisation for improvisation, and a great deal of richness and humor came out of it."


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In 1991, Hoffman voiced substitute teacher Mr. Bergstrom in "The Simpsons" episode "Lisa's Substitute", under the pseudonym Sam Etic. As a reference to this episode, during the the Itchy & Scratchy movie, Lisa claims that Dustin Hoffman had a cameo in that movie but didn't use his real name.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Throughout the 1990s, Hoffman appeared in many large, studio films, such as "Dick Tracy" (1990) (where his "Ishtar" co-star Beatty plays the titular character), "Hero" (1992) and "Billy Bathgate" (1991) co-starring with Nicole Kidman (who was nominated for a Golden Globe). Hoffman also played the title role of Captain Hook in Steven Spielberg's "Hook" (also 1991), earning a Golden Globe nomination, and the narrator in Dr. Seuss Video Classics: "Horton Hears a Who!" (also 1992); in "Hook", Hoffman's costume was so heavy that he had to wear an air-conditioned suit under it.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman played the lead role in "Outbreak" (1995), alongside Rene Russo, Kevin Spacey, Morgan Freeman, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Donald Sutherland. In the film, Hoffman is a medical doctor who uncovers a newly discovered Ebola-like virus which came to the U.S. from Africa in an infected monkey. Hoffman races to stop the virus's spread and find a vaccine before it becomes a worldwide pandemic with no cure. It was one of the films that was produced by his production banner, Punch Productions.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: The movie is described by critic Roger Ebert as "one of the great scare stories of our time, the notion that deep in the uncharted rain forests, deadly diseases are lurking, and if they ever escape their jungle homes and enter the human bloodstream, there will be a new plague the likes of which we have never seen." Critic David Denby credits Hoffman with giving the movie much of its thriller-like quality:


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Following that, he appeared in the 1996 revenge drama/legal thriller "Sleepers" (1996) with Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt, Jason Patric, and Kevin Bacon.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In the mid-1990s, Hoffman starred in—and was deeply involved in the production of—David Mamet's "American Buffalo" (also 1996), and an early effort of film editor Kate Sanford. In 1997, Hoffman starred opposite John Travolta in the Costa Gavras film "Mad City".


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman gained his seventh Academy Award nomination for his performance in "Wag The Dog" (1997), in a role that allowed Hoffman the chance to work with both Robert De Niro and Denis Leary. The movie is a black comedy film produced and directed by Barry Levinson, who also directed Hoffman in "Rain Man" in 1988.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: The story takes place a few days before a presidential election, where a Washington, D.C. spin doctor (De Niro) distracts the electorate from a sex scandal by hiring a Hollywood film producer (Hoffman) to construct a fake war with Albania. Hoffman, as a caricature of real life producer Robert Evans, according to some, "gives the kind of wonderfully funny performance that is liable to win prizes, especially since its mixture of affection and murderous parody is so precise. Stanley (Hoffman) conducts business meetings in tennis clothes or in robe and slippers", notes critic Janet Maslin.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: He next appeared in another Barry Levinson film, the science fiction psychological thriller, "Sphere" (1998), opposite Sharon Stone.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In 1999, Hoffman received the AFI Life Achievement Award and recalls the emotional impact that receiving the award had on him:


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman next appeared in "Moonlight Mile" (2002), followed by "Confidence" (2003) opposite Edward Burns, Andy García and Rachel Weisz. Hoffman finally had a chance to work with Gene Hackman in Gary Fleder's "Runaway Jury" (also 2003), an adaptation of John Grisham's bestselling novel.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman played theater owner Charles Frohman in the J. M. Barrie historical fantasia "Finding Neverland" (2004), costarring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. In director David O. Russell's "I Heart Huckabees" (also 2004), Hoffman appeared opposite Lily Tomlin as an existential detective team member. In 2001, his Punch Productions company went to a first look deal with The Walt Disney Studios.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Seven years after his nomination for "Wag the Dog", Hoffman got another opportunity to perform again with Robert De Niro, co-starring with Streisand and Ben Stiller in the 2004 comedy "Meet the Fockers", a sequel to "Meet the Parents" (2000). Hoffman won the 2005 MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance. In 2005, he voiced a horse in "Racing Stripes", and appeared in cameo roles in Andy García's "The Lost City" and on the final episode of HBO sitcom "Curb Your Enthusiasm"s fifth season. Hoffman appeared in "Stranger than Fiction" (2006), played the perfumer Giuseppe Baldini in Tom Tykwer's film "" (also 2006).


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In 2007, he was featured in an advertising campaign for Australian telecommunications company Telstra's Next G network, appeared in the 50 Cent video "Follow My Lead" as a psychiatrist, and played the title character in the British family film "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" for which he was nominated for a BIFA Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a British Independent Film at the British Independent Film Awards 2007. In 2008, although he was reluctant to perform in an animated feature film (Although he had previously performed voices in a version of "The Point!" and in an episode of "The Simpsons"), Hoffman had a prominent role as Shifu in the film "Kung Fu Panda", which was praised in part for his comedic chemistry with Jack Black (whom he tutored in acting for an important scene) and his character's poignantly complex relationship with the story's villain. He later won the Annie Award for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature for "Kung Fu Panda" and has continued into the role in the franchise's subsequent filmed productions outside of the franchise's . He next voiced Roscuro in "The Tale of Despereaux".


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: As the title character in "Last Chance Harvey", Hoffman acted with co-star Emma Thompson in the story of two lonely people who tentatively forge a relationship over the course of three days. Director Joel Hopkins notes that Hoffman was a perfectionist and self-critical: "He often wanted to try things stripped down, because less is sometimes more. He worries about every little detail."


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: He appears in "Little Fockers", the critically panned yet financially successful 2010 sequel to "Meet the Fockers". However, his character plays a significantly smaller role than in the previous installment.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In 2011, Hoffman reprised his role as Master Shifu in the commercially and critically successful animated film "Kung Fu Panda 2". On the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 81% based on 169 reviews, and an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The storyline arc may seem a tad familiar to fans of the original, but "Kung Fu Panda 2" offers enough action, comedy, and visual sparkle to compensate." On another aggregator site, Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100 based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The film was a financial success making more money than the previous film, "Kung Fu Panda". The film made $666 million at the worldwide Box Office. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In 2012, Hoffman's audiobook recording of Jerzy Kosinski's "Being There" was released at Audible.com. Hoffman starred in the HBO horse racing drama "Luck", as a man involved in bookmaking and casino operations. "Luck" was canceled in March 2012 after three horses died on set.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In 2012, Hoffman made his directorial debut with "Quartet", starring Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins, Billy Connolly, and Michael Gambon.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: The BBC comedy-drama premiered at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival where it earned respectable reviews from critics. The film is certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, earning an 80%, with the critical consensus reading, "It's sweet, gentle, and predictable to a fault, but Dustin Hoffman's affectionate direction and the talented cast's amiable charm make "Quartet" too difficult to resist." Smith was nominated for Golden Globe for her performance.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In 2015, Hoffman starred in "Roald Dahl's Esio Trot", a BBC television film adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic novel, adapted by Richard Curtis and co-starring Judi Dench. Hoffman received an Emmy Award for Best Performance by an Actor.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In 2017, Hoffman starred in Noah Baumbach's Netflix film "The Meyerowitz Stories" alongside Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Elizabeth Marvel and Emma Thompson. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 21, 2017, where it received a four-minute standing ovation.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: The film received a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus reading, ""The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)" observes the family dynamic through writer-director Noah Baumbach's bittersweet lens and the impressive efforts of a remarkable cast".


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In 2017, Hoffman was honored with the Gotham Awards Tribute alongside Sofia Coppola, Nicole Kidman, Edward Lachman. Hoffman was introduced by Elizabeth Marvel.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In 2020, it was announced that Hoffman would make his return to the Broadway stage in Scott Rudin's revival of "Our Town" as the Stage Manager. Hoffman's last appearance on stage was 30 years prior in "Death of a Salesman" in 1989. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Broadway theaters remained shut until 2021.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman appeared alongside Candice Bergen, Dianna Agron and Simon Helberg in "As They Made Us" directed by Mayim Bialik, and will star alongside Sissy Spacek and his son Jake Hoffman in "Sam & Kate", directed by Darren Le Gallo, which began filming in February 2022. In September 2021, he was attached to feature comedy film "Mr. Shaw Goes To Hollywood" as co-founder of MGM studio, Louis B Mayer. Filming would tentatively commence fall 2021.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In 1999, Hoffman was honored by the American Film Institute's who celebrated him with the 27th Life Achievement Award. Those who praised him and celebrated his work included, Edward Norton, Jon Voight, Goldie Hawn, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Kathy Bates. Jack Nicholson presented Hoffman with the award. Upon receiving the award he quoted the poet Emily Dickinson, "Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open the door".


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In 2009, Hoffman received an Honorary Cesar Medal at the César Awards. In 2012, Dustin Hoffman received Kennedy Center Honors, with the following commendation: "Dustin Hoffman's unyielding commitment to the wide variety of roles he plays has made him one of the most versatile and iconoclastic actors of this or any other generation". Those who honored him at the ceremony included Robert De Niro, Liev Schreiber, Naomi Watts, and Billy Connolly.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In 2017, the Gotham Awards announced that they would recognize Hoffman for his lifetime achievement in film. The director of the Independent Filmmaker Project or (IFP) and Made in NY Media Center stated, "We are thrilled to present Dustin Hoffman with the Actor Tribute. Starting with his breakthrough role in the timeless classic "The Graduate" to his highly praised turn in his upcoming film, "The Meyerowitz Stories", Dustin's wide range of roles – often portraying antiheroes or the marginalized – and the creative choices he has embodied in these complex characters, has firmly placed him amongst the most compelling actors to have graced the screen."


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Actress Elizabeth Marvel introduced Hoffman where she talked about the influence he's had over her career and stated, "His work is never anything less than extraordinary".


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Hoffman said that, when they were young and single, he and fellow actor and close friend Robert Duvall were "obsessed with sex". Hoffman related, "As acting students, there were always a few models. One comes up to you and says, "Hi," like you've never looked at her, while for six months you've been imagining her in bed with you. And she says, "I'd like to do a scene with you," and, whoa, she picks a love scene, and you're rehearsing and it's "Yes!" That happened to me and to Bobby. Much as we were adherents to our craft, we looked for classes with women."


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: After meeting in 1963, Hoffman married Anne Byrne in May 1969. He adopted Karina (b. 1966), Byrne's child from a previous marriage, and with Byrne had daughter Jenna (born October 15, 1970). In 1970, Hoffman and Byrne were living in Greenwich Village in a building next door to a townhouse occupied at the time by members of the Weathermen, when a bomb was accidentally detonated in the townhouse's basement, killing three. In the 2002 documentary "The Weather Underground", Hoffman can be seen standing in the street during the aftermath of the explosion. The couple divorced in 1980.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: After Hoffman's separation, he began seeing Lisa Gottsegen, their families having had a relationship together growing up. She was finishing her Juris Doctor degree, and the couple married in October 1980. They have four children: Jacob Edward (born March 20, 1981), Rebecca Lillian (b. March 17, 1983), Maxwell Geoffrey (born August 30, 1984), and Alexandra Lydia "Ali" (born October 27, 1987). Hoffman has two grandchildren.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In an interview, he said that all of his children from his second marriage had bar or bat mitzvahs and that he is a more observant Jew now than when he was younger. He has also lamented that he is not fluent in Hebrew.


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: A liberal, Hoffman has long supported the Democratic Party and Ralph Nader. In 1997 he was one of a number of Hollywood stars and executives to sign an open letter to then-German chancellor Helmut Kohl protesting the treatment of Scientologists in Germany, which was published as a newspaper advertisement in the "International Herald Tribune".


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In 2017, seven women accused Hoffman of sexual misconduct or assault. A woman who was 17 at the time alleged that, while working as an intern on a TV production of "Death of a Salesman", Hoffman made inappropriate jokes and comments around her and asked her to give him foot massages. Hoffman released an apology to the 17-year-old intern who alleged harassment but denied wrongdoing, saying, "I have the utmost respect for women and feel terrible that anything I might have done could have put her in an uncomfortable situation", continuing, "I am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am." Online magazine "Slate" reported in 2017 that Meryl Streep had said that Hoffman groped her breast on their first meeting. However, a representative for Meryl Streep responded to "Slate" saying it was not an accurate rendering of their 1979 meeting. Streep's representative stated "there was an offense and it is something for which Dustin apologized. And Meryl accepted that." Streep has also referred to an incident when Hoffman slapped her—rather than pantomiming a slap—while filming a scene in "Kramer vs. Kramer".


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: In December 2017, comedian John Oliver unexpectedly interrogated Hoffman about the allegations during the 20th anniversary screening of "Wag the Dog" at the 92nd Street Y. "It's 'not reflective of who I am' – it's that kind of response to this stuff that pisses me off," Oliver said. "Do you understand how that feels like a dismissal?" Hoffman said he felt blindsided by the line of questioning, remarking "You've made the case better than anyone else can. I'm guilty. Because someone has alleged something, I'm guilty. You push a button. It's all over the world: I'm a predator. I'm this and that, and it's not true."


title: Dustin Hoffman

text: Bill Murray, who costarred with Hoffman in "Tootsie" (1982) and "The Lost City" (2005), defended him, saying, "I heard what happened to him, and Dustin Hoffman is a really decent person. He's crazy, a Borscht Belt flirt, has been his whole life. (But) he's a really sweet man." Actors


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo that conducts the majority of the project through a joint holding company, Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH. The NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency, representing the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain, manages the project and is the prime customer.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: The aircraft's development effectively began in 1983 with the Future European Fighter Aircraft programme, a multinational collaboration among the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Previously, Germany, Italy and the UK had jointly developed and deployed the Panavia Tornado combat aircraft and desired to collaborate on a new project, with additional participating EU nations. However disagreements over design authority and operational requirements led France to leave the consortium to develop the Dassault Rafale independently. A technology demonstration aircraft, the British Aerospace EAP, first flew on 6August 1986; a Eurofighter prototype made its maiden flight on 27 March 1994. The aircraft's name, Typhoon, was adopted in September 1998 and the first production contracts were also signed that year.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: The sudden end of the Cold War reduced European demand for fighter aircraft and led to debate over the aircraft's cost and work share and protracted the Typhoon's development: the Typhoon entered operational service in 2003 and is now in service with the air forces of Austria, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Kuwait and Qatar have also ordered the aircraft, bringing the procurement total to 623 aircraft .


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: The Eurofighter Typhoon is a highly agile aircraft, designed to be an effective dogfighter in combat. Later production aircraft have been increasingly better equipped to undertake air-to-surface strike missions and to be compatible with an increasing number of different armaments and equipment, including Storm Shadow, Brimstone and Marte ER missiles. The Typhoon had its combat debut during the 2011 military intervention in Libya with the UK's Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Italian Air Force, performing aerial reconnaissance and ground-strike missions. The type has also taken primary responsibility for air-defence duties for the majority of customer nations.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: In the UK, as early as 1971, work commenced on the development of a manoeuvrable, tactical aircraft to replace the SEPECAT Jaguar (that was then about to enter service with the RAF). This work soon expanded to include an air superiority capability. A specification titled "Air Staff Target 403" (AST 403), in 1972, led to the Hawker P.96, an unbuilt design with a relatively conventional planform, including a separate tail structure, in the late 1970s.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: Simultaneously, in West Germany, the requirement for a new fighter had resulted in competition between Dornier, VFW-Fokker and Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) for a future "Luftwaffe" contract known as "Taktisches Kampfflugzeug 90" ("Tactical Combat Aircraft 90"; TKF-90). Dornier collaborated with Northrop in the US on an acclaimed, but unsuccessful design, known as the . MBB was successful, with a design including a cranked delta wing, close-coupled-canard controls, and artificial stability.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: In 1979, MBB and British Aerospace (BAe) presented a formal proposal to their respective governments for a collaboration, to be known as the European Collaborative Fighter, or "European Combat Fighter" (ECF). In October 1979, French firm Dassault joined the ECF project. It was at this stage of development the Eurofighter name was first attached to the aircraft. However, the development of three separate prototypes continued: MBB continued to refine its TKF-90 concept, and Dassault produced a design known as the ACX.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: In the meantime, while the P.96 would have met the original UK specification, it had been cancelled because it was considered to offer little potential for future upgrades and redevelopment. In addition, there was a feeling within the UK aircraft industry that the P.96 would have been too similar to the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet, which was then known to be at an advanced stage of development. The P.96 would not have been available until long after the Hornet, which would therefore likely have met and closed off most potential export markets for the P.96. BAe then produced two new proposals: the P.106B, a single-engined lightweight fighter, superficially resembling the JAS 39 Gripen, and the twin-engine P.110. The RAF rejected the P.106 concept on the grounds it had "half the effectiveness of the two-engined aircraft at two-thirds of the cost".


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: The ECF project collapsed in 1981 for several reasons, including differing requirements, Dassault's insistence on "design leadership" and the British preference for a new version of the RB199 to power the aircraft versus the French preference for the new Snecma M88.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: Consequently, the Panavia partners (MBB, BAe and Aeritalia) launched the "Agile Combat Aircraft" (ACA) programme in April 1982. BAe designers agreed with the overall configuration of the proposed MBB TKF-90, although they rejected some of its more ambitious features such as engine vectoring nozzles and vented trailing edge controls – a form of boundary layer control. The ACA, like the BAe P.110, had a cranked delta wing, canards and a twin tail. One major external difference was the replacement of the side-mounted engine intakes with a chin intake. The ACA was to be powered by a modified version of the RB199. The German and Italian governments withdrew funding, and the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) agreed to fund 50% of the cost with the remaining 50% to be provided by industry. MBB and Aeritalia signed up and it was agreed that the aircraft would be produced at two sites: BAe Warton and a MBB factory in Germany. In May 1983, BAe announced a contract with the MoD for the development and production of an ACA demonstrator, the Experimental Aircraft Programme.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: In 1983, Italy, Germany, France, the UK and Spain launched the "Future European Fighter Aircraft" (FEFA) programme. The aircraft was to have short take off and landing (STOL) and beyond visual range (BVR) capabilities. In 1984, France reiterated its requirement for a carrier-capable version and demanded a leading role. Italy, West Germany and the UK opted out and established a new EFA programme. In Turin on 2August 1985, West Germany, the UK and Italy agreed to go ahead with the Eurofighter; and confirmed France, along with Spain, had chosen not to proceed as a member of the project. Despite pressure from France, Spain rejoined the Eurofighter project in early September 1985. France officially withdrew from the project to pursue its own ACX project, which was to become the Dassault Rafale.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: By 1986, the programme's cost had reached £180 million. When the EAP programme had started, the cost was supposed to be equally shared by government and industry, but the West German and Italian governments wavered on the agreement and the three main industrial partners had to provide £100 million to keep the programme from ending. In April 1986, the BAe EAP was rolled out at BAe Warton, by this time also partially funded by MBB, BAe and Aeritalia. The EAP first flew on 6August 1986. The Eurofighter bears a strong resemblance to the EAP. Design work continued over the next five years using data from the EAP. Initial requirements were: UK: 250 aircraft, Germany: 250, Italy: 165 and Spain: 100. The share of the production work was divided among the countries in proportion to their projected procurement – BAe (33%), DASA (33%), Aeritalia (21%), and Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA) (13%).


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: The Munich-based Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH was established in 1986 to manage development of the project and EuroJet Turbo GmbH, the alliance of Rolls-Royce, MTU Aero Engines, FiatAvio (now Avio) and ITP for development of the EJ200. The aircraft was known as Eurofighter EFA from the late 1980s until it was renamed EF 2000 in 1992.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: By 1990, the selection of the aircraft's radar had become a major stumbling-block. The UK, Italy and Spain supported the Ferranti Defence Systems-led ECR-90, while Germany preferred the APG-65-based MSD2000 (a collaboration between Hughes, AEG and GEC-Marconi). An agreement was reached after UK Defence Secretary Tom King assured his West German counterpart Gerhard Stoltenberg that the British government would approve the project and allow the GEC subsidiary Marconi Electronic Systems to acquire Ferranti Defence Systems from its parent, the Ferranti Group, which was in financial and legal difficulties. GEC thus withdrew its support for the MSD2000.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: The financial burdens placed on Germany by reunification caused Helmut Kohl to make an election promise to cancel the Eurofighter. In early to mid-1991 German Defence Minister Volker Rühe sought to withdraw Germany from the project in favour of using Eurofighter technology in a cheaper, lighter plane. Because of the amount of money already spent on development, the number of jobs dependent on the project, and the binding commitments on each partner government, Kohl was unable to withdraw; "Rühe's predecessors had locked themselves into the project by a punitive penalty system of their own devising."


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: In 1995 concerns over workshare appeared. Since the formation of Eurofighter the workshare split had been agreed at 33/33/21/13 (United Kingdom/Germany/Italy/Spain) based on the number of units being ordered by each contributing nation, all the nations then reduced their orders. The UK cut its orders from 250 to 232, Germany from 250 to 140, Italy from 165 to 121 and Spain from 100 to 87. According to these order levels the workshare split should have been 39/24/22/15 UK/Germany/Italy/Spain, however Germany was unwilling to give up such a large amount of work. In January 1996, after much negotiation between German and UK partners, a compromise was reached whereby Germany would purchase another 40 aircraft. The workshare split was therefore UK 37.42%, Germany 29.03%, Italy 19.52% and Spain 14.03%.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: At the 1996 Farnborough Airshow the UK announced funding for the construction phase of the project. On 22 December 1997 the defence ministers of the four partner nations signed the contract for production of the Eurofighter.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: The maiden flight of the Eurofighter prototype took place in Bavaria on 27 March 1994, flown by DASA chief test pilot Peter Weger. In December 2004, Eurofighter Typhoon IPA4 began three months of Cold Environmental Trials (CET) at the Vidsel Air Base in Sweden, the purpose of which was to verify the operational behaviour of the aircraft and its systems in temperatures between −25 and 31 °C. The maiden flight of Instrumented Production Aircraft7 (IPA7), the first fully equipped Tranche2 aircraft, took place from EADS' Manching airfield on 16 January 2008.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: The first production contract was signed on 30 January 1998 between Eurofighter GmbH, Eurojet and NETMA. The procurement totals were as follows: the UK 232, Germany 180, Italy 121, and Spain 87. Production was again allotted according to procurement: BAe (37.42%), DASA (29.03%), Aeritalia (19.52%), and CASA (14.03%).


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: On 2 September 1998, a naming ceremony was held at Farnborough, United Kingdom. This saw the Typhoon name formally adopted, initially for export aircraft only. The name continues the storm theme started by the Panavia Tornado. This was reportedly resisted by Germany; the Hawker Typhoon was a fighter-bomber aircraft used by the RAF during the Second World War to attack German targets. The name "Spitfire II" (after the famous British Second World War fighter, the Supermarine Spitfire) had also been considered and rejected for the same reason early in the development programme. In September 1998, contracts were signed for production of 148 Tranche1 aircraft and procurement of long lead-time items for Tranche2 aircraft. In March 2008, the final Tranche1 aircraft was delivered to the German Air Force. On 21 October 2008, the RAF's first two of 91 Tranche2 aircraft, were delivered to RAF Coningsby.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: In July 2009, after almost 2 years of negotiations, the planned Tranche 3 purchase was split into 2 parts and the Tranche 3A contract was signed by the partner nations. The "Tranche 3B" order did not go ahead.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: The Eurofighter Typhoon is unique in modern combat aircraft in that there are four separate assembly lines. Each partner company assembles its own national aircraft, but builds the same parts for all aircraft (including exports); Premium AEROTEC (main centre fuselage), EADS CASA (right wing, leading edge slats), BAE Systems (BAE) (front fuselage (including foreplanes), canopy, dorsal spine, tail fin, inboard flaperons, rear fuselage section) and Leonardo (left wing, outboard flaperons, rear fuselage sections).


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: Production is divided into three tranches (see table below). Tranches are a production/funding distinction, and do not imply an incremental increase in capability with each tranche. Tranche3 are based on late Tranche2 aircraft with improvements added. Tranche3 was split into A and B parts. Tranches were further divided up into production standard/capability blocks and funding/procurement batches, though these did not coincide, and are not the same thing; e.g., the Eurofighter designated "FGR4" by the RAF is a Tranche 1, block 5. Batch1 covered block 1, but batch2 covered blocks 2, 2B and 5. On 25 May 2011 the 100th production aircraft, ZK315, rolled off the production line at Warton.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: In 1985 the estimated cost of 250 UK aircraft was £7 billion. By 1997 the estimated cost was £17 billion; by 2003, £20 billion, and the in-service date (2003, defined as the date of delivery of the first aircraft to the RAF) was 54 months late. After 2003, the MoD refused to release updated cost-estimates on the grounds of commercial sensitivity. However, in 2011, the National Audit Office estimated the UK's "assessment, development, production and upgrade costs eventually hit £22.9 billion" and total programme costs would reach £37billion.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: By 2007, Germany estimated the system cost (aircraft and training, plus spare parts) at €120million and said it was in perpetual increase. On 17 June 2009, Germany ordered 31 aircraft of Tranche 3A for €2.8billion, leading to a system cost of €90million per aircraft. The UK's Committee of Public Accounts reported that mismanagement of the project had helped increase the cost of each aircraft by seventy-five percent. The Spanish MoD put the cost of their Typhoon project up to December 2010 at €11.718billion, up from an original €9.255billion and implying a system cost for their 73 aircraft of €160million.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: On 31 March 2009, a Eurofighter Typhoon fired an AIM-120 AMRAAM whilst having its radar in passive mode for the first time; the necessary target data for the missile was acquired by the radar of a second Eurofighter Typhoon and transmitted using the Multifunctional Information Distribution System (MIDS). The entire Typhoon fleet passed the 500,000 flying hours milestone in 2018. As of August 2019, a total of 623 orders had been received.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: In July 2016, the ten-year Typhoon Total Availability Enterprise (TyTAN) support deal between the RAF and industry partners BAE and Leonardo was announced that aims to reduce the Typhoon's per-hour operating cost by 30 to 40 percent. This should equate to a saving of at least £550million ($712million), which "will be recycled into the programme" and, according to BAE, will result in the Typhoon having a per-hour operating cost "equivalent to a F-16". By 2022 it was estimated that savings would be "over £500million."


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: In 2000, the UK selected the Meteor from MBDA as the long range air-to-air missile armament for its Typhoons with an in-service date (ISD) of December 2011. In December 2002, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden joined the British in a $1.9bn contract for Meteor on Typhoon, the Dassault Rafale and the Saab Gripen. The protracted contract negotiations pushed the ISD to August 2012, and it was further put back by Eurofighter's failure to make trials aircraft available to the Meteor partners. In 2014 the "second element of the Phase1 Enhancements package known as 'P1Eb'" was announced, allowing "Typhoon to realise both its air-to-air and air-to-ground capability to full effect".


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: In 2011 "Flight International" reported that budgetary pressures being encountered by the four original partner nations were limiting upgrades. For example, the four original partner nations were reluctant at that stage to fund enhancements that extend the aircraft's air-to-ground capability, such as integration of the MBDA Storm Shadow cruise missile.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: Tranche 3 aircraft ESM/ECM enhancements have focused on improving radiating jamming power with antenna modifications, while EuroDASS is reported to offer a range of new capabilities, including the addition of a digital receiver, extending band coverage to low frequencies (VHF/UHF) and introducing an interferometric receiver with extremely precise geolocation functionalities. On the jamming side, EuroDASS is looking to low-band (VHF/UHF) jamming, more capable antennae, new ECM techniques, while protection against missile is to be enhanced through a new passive MWS in addition to the active devices already on board the aircraft. The latest support for self-protection will however originate from the new AESA radar which is to replace the Captor system, providing in a spiralled programme with passive, active and cyberwarfare RF capabilities. Selex ES has developed a self-contained expendable Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM) jammer for fast jet aircraft known as BriteCloud which is being studied for integration on the Typhoon.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: Eurojet is attempting to find funding to test thrust vectoring control (TVC) nozzles on a flight demonstrator. In April 2014, BAE announced new wind tunnel tests to assess the aerodynamic characteristics of conformal fuel tanks (CFTs). The CFTs, which can be fitted to any Tranche 3 aircraft, could carry 1,500 litres each to increase the Typhoon's combat radius by a factor of 25% to 1,500 n miles (2,778 km).


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: BAE has completed development of its Striker II Helmet-Mounted Display that builds on the capabilities of the original Striker Helmet-Mounted Display, which is already in service on the Typhoon. Striker II features a new display with more colour and can transition between day and night seamlessly eliminating the need for separate night vision goggles. In addition, the helmet can monitor the pilot's exact head position so it always knows exactly what information to display. The system is compatible with ANR, a 3-D audio threats system and 3-D communications; these are available as customer options. In 2015, BAE was awarded a £1.7million contract to study the feasibility of a common weapon launcher that could be capable of carrying multiple weapons and weapon types on a single pylon.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: Also in 2015, Airbus flight tested a package of aerodynamic upgrades for the Eurofighter known as the Aerodynamic Modification Kit (AMK) consisting of reshaped (delta) fuselage strakes, extended trailing-edge flaperons and leading-edge root extensions. This increases wing lift by 25% resulting in an increased turn rate, tighter turning radius, and improved nose-pointing ability at low speed with angle of attack values around 45% greater and roll rates up to 100% higher. Eurofighter's Laurie Hilditch said these improvements should increase subsonic turn rate by 15% and give the Eurofighter the sort of "knife-fight in a phone box" turning capability enjoyed by rivals such as Boeing's F/A-18E/F or the Lockheed Martin F-16, without sacrificing the transonic and supersonic high-energy agility inherent to its delta wing-canard configuration. Eurofighter Project Pilot Germany Raffaele Beltrame said: "The handling qualities appeared to be markedly improved, providing more manoeuvrability, agility and precision while performing tasks representative of in-service operations. And it is extremely interesting to consider the potential benefits in the air-to-surface configuration thanks to the increased variety and flexibility of stores that can be carried."


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: In April 2016, Finmeccanica (now Leonardo) demonstrated the air-to-ground capabilities of its Mode5 Reverse-Identification friend or foe (IFF) system which showed that it is possible to give pilots the ability to distinguish between friendly and enemy platforms in a simple fashion using the aircraft's existing transponder. Finmeccanica said NATO is considering the system as a short- to mid-term solution for air-to-surface identification of friendly forces and thus avoid collateral damages due to friendly fire during close air support operations.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: With the confirmed retirement date of March 2019 for RAF Tornado GR4s, in 2014 the UK commenced an upgrade programme that would eventually become the £425 million Project Centurion to ensure the Typhoon was able to assume the precision strike duties of the ageing Tornado. The upgrade was delivered under different phases:


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: Phase 1 standard aircraft were used operationally for the first time as part of Operation Shader over Iraq and Syria in 2018. On 18 December 2018 the RAF approved release to service for the full Project Centurion package.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: On 24 April 2018, Airbus announced its offer to replace Germany's Panavia Tornado fleet, proposing the integration of new weaponry, performance enhancements and additional capabilities to the Eurofighter Typhoon. This is similar to that being performed as part of the UK's Project Centurion. Integration of air-to-ground weapons already has begun on German Typhoons as part of Project Odin. Among the weapons being offered are the Kongsberg Joint Strike Missile for the anti-ship mission and the Taurus cruise missile.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: The consortium is keen to make use of the engine's growth potential to boost thrust by around 15% as well as improve fuel efficiency and range. This will be combined with a new design and enlarged 1,800-litre fuel tank. The aircraft currently is fitted with 1,000-litre fuel tanks. Other modifications will include the Aerodynamic Modification Kit, test flown in 2014, to improve maneuverability and handling, particularly with heavy weapon loads. Eurofighter says it is comfortable with delivering integration of the U.S. B61 nuclear weapon onto the aircraft, a process that requires U.S. certification. Paltzo said he was confident the U.S. government would not use the certification requirements of the weapon as "leverage" to force Germany towards a U.S. platform. A next-generation electronic warfare suite has been planned by the four-country consortium.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: In November 2019, Airbus proposed a SEAD capability for the aircraft, a role which is currently performed by the Tornado ECR in German service. The Typhoon ECR would be configured with two Escort Jammer pods under the wings and two Emitter Location Systems at the wing tips. Armament configuration would include four MBDA Meteor, two IRIS-T and six SPEAR-EW in addition to three drop tanks.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: On 5 November 2020, the German government approved an order for 38 Tranche 4 with ground attack capabilities for the replacement of Tranche 1 units in German service.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: Luftwaffe ordered 15 ECR electronic warfare aircraft for the "Luftgestützte Wirkung im Elektromagnetischen Spektrum" (luWES) requirement in March 2022.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: Germany is to replace the Eurofighter with the New Generation Fighter (NGF), co-developed with France and Spain. The BAE Systems Tempest is a ‘6th Generation’ fighter envisioned as a replacement for the RAF and Italian Air Force (AM), part of the UK's wider Future Combat Air System.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: The Typhoon is a highly agile aircraft both at supersonic and at low speeds, achieved through having an intentionally relaxed stability design. It has a quadruplex digital fly-by-wire control system providing artificial stability, as manual operation alone could not compensate for the inherent instability. The fly-by-wire system is described as "carefree", and prevents the pilot from exceeding the permitted manoeuvre envelope. Roll control is primarily achieved by use of the ailerons. Pitch control is by operation of the canards and ailerons, because the canards disturb airflow to inner elevons (flaps). The yaw control is done by a large, single rudder. Engines are fed by a chin double intake ramp situated below a splitter plate.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: The Typhoon features lightweight construction (82% composites consisting of 70% carbon fibre composite materials and 12% glass fibre reinforced composites) with an estimated lifespan of 6,000 flying hours.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: Although not designated a stealth fighter, measures were taken to reduce the Typhoon's radar cross section (RCS), especially from the frontal aspect; An example of these measures is that the Typhoon has jet inlets that conceal the front of the engines (a strong radar target) from radar. Many important potential radar targets, such as the wing, canard and fin leading edges, are highly swept so they will reflect radar energy well away from the front. Some external weapons are mounted semi-recessed into the aircraft, partially shielding these missiles from incoming radar waves. In addition radar-absorbent materials (RAM), developed primarily by EADS/DASA, coat many of the most significant reflectors, such as the wing leading edges, the intake edges and interior, the rudder surrounds, and strakes.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: The manufacturers carried out tests on the early Eurofighter prototypes to optimise the low observability characteristics of the aircraft from the early 1990s. Testing at Warton on the DA4 prototype measured the RCS of the aircraft and investigated the effects of a variety of RAM coatings and composites. Another measure to reduce the likelihood of discovery is the use of passive sensors (PIRATE IRST), which minimises the radiation of treacherous electronic emissions. While canards generally have poor stealth characteristics from side because of corner to hull, the flight control system is designed to maintain the elevon trim and canards at an angle at which they have the smallest RCS.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon

text: The Typhoon features a glass cockpit without any conventional instruments. It incorporates three full colour multi-function head-down displays (MHDDs) (the formats on which are manipulated by means of softkeys, XY cursor, and voice (Direct Voice Input or DVI) command), a wide angle head-up display (HUD) with forward-looking infrared (FLIR), a voice and hands-on throttle and stick (Voice+HOTAS), a Helmet Mounted Symbology System (HMSS), a MIDS, a manual data-entry facility (MDEF) located on the left glareshield and a fully integrated aircraft warning system with a dedicated warnings panel (DWP). Reversionary flying instruments, lit by LEDs, are located under a hinged right glareshield. Access to the cockpit is normally via either a telescopic integral ladder or an external version. The integral ladder is stowed in the port side of the fuselage, below the cockpit.