Richard Dreyfuss Net Worth, Oscar, Wife and Career Today

Richard Dreyfuss net worth is a big search every time Jaws or Close Encounters comes back on TV. He has not shared a figure, and no reliable report confirms one.

His career gives real clues, though. In just five years in the 1970s his films earned more than $900 million at the box office, and he won an Oscar at 30.

Here is what is confirmed about his money, marriages and life today, and what is only rumor.

Richard Dreyfuss net worth: facts versus guesses

No filing or interview gives his total wealth [1]. Celebrity sites quote numbers with no source, so we leave them out.

What we know is how he earned. Between 1973 and 1978, the films he appeared in grossed upwards of $900 million [1]. Star salaries from that era were rarely published, so his share is unknown.

He also produced films through his own company, which signed a deal with Touchstone Pictures in 1990.

The Richard Dreyfuss Oscar and the Spielberg years

He starred in Steven Spielberg’s Jaws in 1975 and Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977. In 1978 he won Best Actor for The Goodbye Girl, then the youngest man to win that award, at 30 years and 125 days.

That record stood for 25 years until Adrien Brody broke it in 2003. He is still listed as the shortest Best Actor winner, at about 5 ft 4 in.

Addiction, arrest and a comeback

Around 1978 he began using cocaine heavily. In 1982 he was arrested after he blacked out and crashed his car into a tree, and he entered court ordered rehab.

He came back with Down and Out in Beverly Hills in 1986 and Stakeout in 1987. In a 2020 CBS interview he spoke openly about facing his own demons [2].

He has also talked about living with bipolar disorder, which he discussed with Stephen Fry in a 2006 documentary.

Richard Dreyfuss wife and family

He married writer and producer Jeramie Rain in the early 1980s, and they had three children, all now adults. They divorced in 1995 [1].

He married Janelle Lacey in 1999, and they divorced in 2005. Since 2006 he has been married to Russian born Svetlana Erokhin, and as of 2020 they lived in the San Diego area.

In 2025 one of his sons said the siblings were estranged from their father. For other Hollywood family stories, read Chris Noth and Paula Patton.

Civics work and controversies

In 2006 he founded The Dreyfuss Civics Initiative, a nonprofit that pushes for civics education in schools. He has spoken about it at the National Press Club and on campuses.

In 2017 writer Jessica Teich accused him of sexual harassment from the 1980s. He denied assault, said he had been overly flirtatious and regretted his behavior [3].

He has also had well known on-set feuds, including with Robert Shaw on Jaws and Bill Murray on What About Bob?.

Richard Dreyfuss movies and TV roles that built his career

Dreyfuss started small. His first film part was a single uncredited line in The Graduate in 1967, and he took TV guest roles on shows such as Gunsmoke, Bewitched and The Big Valley. During the Vietnam War he was a conscientious objector and spent two years in alternate service as a hospital clerk.

Between 1973 and 1978, the films he appeared in grossed more than $900 million. That success let him produce too: he made his producing debut with The Big Fix in 1978, and his company Dreyfuss/James Productions later signed a deal with Touchstone Pictures.

Checked facts

Sources

1. Richard Dreyfuss (Wikipedia)
2. Richard Dreyfuss on facing down sharks, aliens, and his own demons (CBS News, 2020)
3. Richard Dreyfuss responds to harassment allegations (Entertainment Weekly, 2017)
4. Richard Dreyfuss (Hollywood Walk of Fame)