Early Life
Dreyfuss was born Richard Stephen Dreyfus in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Norman, an attorney and restaurateur, and Geraldine, a peace activist, and was raised in Bayside, Queens. Dreyfuss is Jewish. He has commented that he "grew up thinking that Alfred Dreyfus and are of the same family." His father disliked New York City, and moved the family first to Europe, and later to Los Angeles, when Dreyfuss was nine. Dreyfuss attended Beverly Hills High School.
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