Background
Hoffman was born in Houston, Texas, the son of Beulah (née Novoselsky) and David Hoffman, an antique dealer.
Hoffman was born in Houston, Texas, the son of Beulah (née Novoselsky) and David Hoffman, an antique dealer.
He graduated from Tulane University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in economics. And he spent two years at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, receiving a scholarship for the second, graduating year.
He has had a film and television career spanning five decades mostly in supporting roles. He has starred in films with many award-winning directors, including Alan Pakula and Robert Redford. He has also authored two books about acting, including Acting and How to Be Good at lieutenant
His thirteen years of work in New York included many plays, some roles in episodic television, a recurring character on One Life to Live on American Broadcasting Company, hundreds of commercials and a film role in Lady Liberty with Sophia Loren, directed by Mario Monicelli.
He made his first trip to Los Angeles in 1974. He had recurring roles as the fingerprint technician on Ellery Queen and Principal Dingleman on Square Pegs.
A long-time private acting teacher and coach, he has also been a frequent guest lecturer and teacher at prestigious professional and academic institutions, including (among many others) the American Film Institute, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Emerson College, the University of Southern California, Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, and the Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts in Beirut, Lebanon. In 2008, he returned to Beirut as a United States. State Department Cultural Envoy to Lebanon to teach acting and directing at the University of Balamand"s Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts, Lebanese University, Notre Dame University and Saint Joseph University"s Institut Doctorate"Etude Sceniques Audiovisuelles et Cinematographiques.
He is also the author of the acting textbooks, Cold Reading And How to Be Good At lieutenant, and Acting and How To Be Good At lieutenant, as well as the Second Edition, with a foreword by Sydney Pollack.
He is a former member of the Board of Directors of Screen Actors Guild and the Fine Arts Advisory Council of Loyola Marymount University.