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RICHARD DREYFUSS

ACADEMY AWARD-WINNING ACTOR AND ADVOCATE FOR TEACHING HISTORY IN SCHOOLS, TO BE GIVEN THE 2010 EMPIRE STATE ARCHIVES AWARD

NYS Writers Institute, September 28, 2010
7:30 p.m. Award presentation | The Egg, Empire State Plaza, downtown Albany

CALENDAR LISTING:
Richard Dreyfuss, Academy Award-winning actor and passionate advocate for teaching American history in primary and secondary schools, will be given the 2010 Empire State Archives and History Award on Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. in The Egg, Empire State Plaza, downtown Albany.  As part of the program, Dreyfuss will be interviewed by noted Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer. Tickets are $10 and may be obtained from The Egg Box Office at (518) 473-1845 or online at www.theegg.org. The event is sponsored by the New York State Archives Partnership Trust, Greenberg Traurig, the “Times Union,” the History channel, and the New York State Writers Institute.

PROFILE
The Archives Partnership Trust  will award the 2010 Empire State Archives and History Award to Academy Award-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss on Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. in The Egg, Empire State Plaza, downtown Albany. The presentation will include an evening of conversation between Dreyfuss and leading Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer talking about Mr. Dreyfuss’ life, work and passion for history.

Dreyfuss is a leading advocate for the teaching of history in America’s primary and secondary schools. Recently, the Brooklyn-born actor founded a nonprofit organization, The Dreyfuss Initiative, whose mission is to promote Constitutional literacy, historical appreciation and open political dialogue among young people. Regarding the group’s mission, Dreyfuss states, “We are a nation bound by ideas only. We have no common ancestry, no common religion, no common military victory or defeat, no common crime that binds us. If you don’t teach those ideas to every new generation of Americans with wit and rigor, we are not bound.”

A member of the Board of Trustees of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Dreyfuss served as Senior Associate Member of St. Antony’s College, Oxford, where he researched and developed new curricula for teaching the history and practice of democracy in public schools.
Dreyfuss received the Academy Award for Best Actor in Neil Simon’s “The Goodbye Girl” (1977), the youngest actor to be so honored until 2002. Dreyfuss was nominated a second time for “Mr. Holland’s Opus” in 1995. The actor’s other noteworthy films include “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz” (1974), his first lead role, “American Graffiti” (1973), “Jaws” (1975), “Down and Out in Beverly Hills” (1986), “Tin Men” (1987), “Krippendorf’s Tribe” (1998), and Oliver Stone’s “W.” (2008). Dreyfuss’s remarkable performance in “W.” as Vice President Dick Cheney earned him a great deal of critical attention and praise. Dreyfuss received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1996.

Dreyfuss’s many television credits include four episodes of the Showtime series, “Weeds” in its 2010 season, two episodes voicing himself in the 2009 season of “Family Guy,” and the title role in the CBS series, “The Education of Max Bickford” (2001-2002), about a history professor at a women’s college. The latter role earned him a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Actor.
Dreyfuss is also the coauthor of a novel with leading fantasy writer, Harry Turtledove—“The Two Georges” (1995), which presents an alternative history of the American Revolution.

For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at https://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.