Dustin Hoffman made his film debut in 1967, in the comedy "The Tiger Makes Out." His breakthrough, however, came with his second movie, made that same year. His lead role in the hit comedy-drama "The Graduate," as 21-year-old Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate who goes through an unconventional sentimental education, earned him his first Oscar nomination — and turned him into a star.

Hoffman turned down most of the roles he was offered after that initial success, preferring to perform for the theater. To demonstrate that he also could play a sleazy character contrasting with his clean-cut graduate part, he then took on the role of a crippled conman in John Schlesinger's cult classic, "Midnight Cowboy," starring alongside Jon Voight. Both actors were nominated for an Oscar.

Turning to another genre, Hoffman starred in a satirical western in 1970. Directed by Arthur Penn, "Little Big Man" is about a white male child who grew up in a Cheyenne Native American community. Hoffman depicted in the movie different phases of the long life of his character, Jack Crabb, from a teenager to a 121-year-old man.

One of Sam Peckinpah's greatest films, the psychological thriller "Straw Dogs," stars Hoffman and Susan George, a couple that moves to an isolated English town to avoid the stress of the Vietnam era in the US. Instead of the peaceful life they were hoping for, they face the locals' vicious harassment. Violence and a long rape scene made the film controversial at the time of its release.

Stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce was renowned for his free-style improvisations that combined his satirical views on politics or religion with whatever vulgarity was on his mind — a unseen style that led him to be arrested. Dustin Hoffman stunningly embodied the restless icon of counter-culture comedy in the biopic "Lenny," and earned his third Oscar nomination.

Less than two years after the Watergate scandal, this film revisits how it was uncovered. "All the President's Men" is the adaptation of the same-title memoirs written by the two journalists who investigated the story for the Washington Post, Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) and Bob Woodward (Robert Redford). It remains one of the most important films on investigative journalism ever made.

In this story about a couple's divorce and its impact on the family's young son, Hoffman's character evolves from a workaholic advertising art director into a protective dad. Without providing easy answers, the film reflected the period's changing views on the role of a father and a mother (depicted by Meryl Streep). Hoffman won his first Oscar with the role.

This one renewed Hollywood comedy in the 1980s: In Sydney Pollack's "Tootsie," Dustin Hoffman took on the role of Michael Dorsey, a talented but difficult actor with whom no one wants to work with. To land a part, he dresses as a woman and eventually becomes a TV sensation. The film poked fun at the way show business worked, while commenting on sexism.

After starring in a Broadway version of Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Hoffman also depicted the aging self-deluded salesman in the TV movie adaptation directed by German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff. Hoffman won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his performance.

Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) gets to know his brother, Raymond (Hoffman), when their estranged father dies and they travel together. Hoffman's unforgettable depiction of a an autistic savant with prodigious abilities as a mental calculator earned him his second Academy Award.

The younger generation might not remember Hoffman as a charming graduate, but rather as Captain Hook in Steven Spielberg's fantasy adventure film, which also starred Robin Williams as Peter Pan and Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell. Though the film received mixed reviews, Hoffman obtained a Golden Globe nomination.

Released a month before the Lewinsky sex scandal involving Bill Clinton emerged, the black comedy "Wag the Dog" showed how a spin doctor (Robert De Niro) and a Hollywood film producer (Hoffman) constructed a fake war to distract the electorate's attention from a fictional president's advances on an underage girl. The political satire led to a seventh Oscar nomination for Hoffman.

The actor is pictured here at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2017. He starred in one of the competing films, Noah Baumbach's comedy-drama "The Meyerowitz Stories," alongside Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller and Emma Thompson.

As he turns 85 on August 8, Hoffman remains professionally active. His incredibly rich filmography includes over 60 roles. His latest to date is that of a dying patriarch in the family drama "As they Made Us" written, directed, and produced by Mayim Bialik.