Disappeared by MeToo
Dustin Hoffman is around 85 now, and perhaps will not return to the public eye. Our older stars vary after 80. Clint Eastwood and Michael Caine still work, and they've reached(Caine, almost) or passed (Eastwood) 90. There were some photos of Sean Connery in public in his late 80s, before he died AT 90. And Gene Hackman is going strong after 90 with occasional photos of him in fit, thin retirement in New Mexico. Alas ,we may have seen the last of Jack Nicholson in public. He's mid-80s like Hoffman, but he's overweight, rumored to be ill, and simply not seen much (some Lakers games ....but how recently?)
So Dustin Hoffman is in good company and can choose to be seen and photographed , or not.
He seems to have chosen "or not."
And the reason seems to be, among all of the above-mentioned New Hollywood superstars...he was "disappeared by MeToo." Various women accused him. And as a last straw, he was trying to field questions at a retrospective of one of his films, and HBO gadfly John Olivier evidently pushed him very hard on the accusations.
So that was the end for poor "Dusty." He couldn't come out to bask in the glory of his long movie career. He couldn't do Q and As about past acheivements. Did he manage to get his AFI Life Acheivement award before this all came down? I can't remember.
Its going to be rough on Hoffman's legacy. Hackman, Eastwood, Caine have had no such besmirchment. Hoffman's "just behind him peers" -- Pacino and DeNiro -- look to retire in good public legacy. That said, Connery took some hits for his public comments about it being OK to slap women, and Nicholson is dogged by some rumors about mistreatment of women, but he's still rather invincible.
Its all too bad for Dustin Hoffman. Too bad "he had to go out that way." On the other hand, William Goldman in his book "Adverntures in the Screen Trade" went after Hoffman in a big way for what Goldman SAID was tempermental and egotistic behavior (against Laurence Olivier and Roy Scheider) on the set of Marathon Man, and there are a few more stories of arrogance out there.
I recall reading a Hoffman quote in his prime that rather summed up his problems. Paraphrased, Hoffman said:
"People have misconceptions of the personas of movie stars. For instance, Warren Beatty is known for getting lots of women. Well, I get lots of women, too." Ha. A backhanded self-compliment AND Hoffman was married at the time(still is, she puts up with him, I guess.) I would expect that's another reason Hoffman can't believe what happened to him. "He got lots of women," consensually. It was just those alleged ones he didn't.
Its all too bad. We should have maybe gotten to see more of Hoffman in his old age, looking back over a fine career. Instead, we shall always have the movies: The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy, Little Big Man, Marathon Man(yes), All the President's Men, Kramer vs Kramer, Tootsie, Rain Man....
It'll have to be enough.