Richard Dreyfuss

 Richard Dreyfuss had become quite interested in the ideas behind "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) when he had heard Steven Spielberg talking about them on the set of "Jaws" (1975). When Dreyfuss heard that casting for the film was underway, he began a concerted effort to persuade the director to take him on. Spielberg thought he was too young for the role. However, Spielberg came to see Dreyfuss as exhibiting and embodying the childlike characteristics he wanted for Roy, resulting in casting Dreyfuss for the part.

According to Julia Phillips in her autobiography "You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again", she and the studio did not want to meet Dreyfuss' price of $500,000 plus gross points to play Roy Neary and offered the script to Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, and Gene Hackman. Pacino wasn't interested, and Nicholson thought that any actor would be overwhelmed by the special effects. Hackman turned down the role because he was in a troubled marriage and could not spend 16 weeks outside of Los Angeles on location-shooting. The studio suggested James Caan, but his agent wanted $1 million plus 10% of the gross. Phillips went back to Dreyfuss and cut his deal back a bit, and he became immortalized on film as Roy Neary.

When Dreyfuss saw the final picture, he was upset with several moments of his performance, believing he would have reacted quite differently if he had seen the actual effects.

In 1978, Topps Chewing Gum Co. produced a set of 66 trading cards and 11 stickers based on the film. Ironically, because neither Dreyfuss or François Truffaut had granted permission for the use of their likenesses, none of the cards featured photos of Roy Neary or Claude Lacombe, the film's two main characters. Instead, Topps' version of the story focused on Ronnie Neary and her children, and Jillian and Barry Guiler.

Happy Birthday, Richard Dreyfuss!