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Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor, known for his distinctive gravely voice. He is best known for his roles as Raymond Babbitt in the 1988 comedy-drama film Rain Man, the titular character (along with Robin Williams as Peter Pan) of the 1991 adventure film Hook, Charles Frohman in the 2004 biographical fantasy film Finding Neverland, Bernie Focker in the Meet the Parents film trilogy, and for voicing Roscuro in the 2008 adaptation of The Tale of Despereaux and Master Shifu in DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda franchise.

For Disney, he portrayed Mumbles in the 1990 Touchstone Pictures comedy film Dick Tracy, Ben Floss in Moonlight Mile, and Dutch Schultz in Billy Bathgate. In Aladdin and the King of Thieves, his role as Raymond Babbitt from Rain Man was spoofed by Genie.

Hoffman was born in Los Angeles, California, the younger of two sons of Harry Hoffman and Lillian (née Gold). His father worked as a prop supervisor (set decorator) at Columbia Pictures before becoming a furniture salesman. 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.

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. Hoffman graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1955 and enrolled at Santa Monica College with the intention of studying medicine. But he decided to 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."

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