What would Mrs Robinson say? A fresh-faced Dustin Hoffman moans about having 'bad luck' in his career in rare footage shot just a year before The Graduate 

  • Oscar-winner, now 78, made the screen test in 1966 when he was 29
  • He grumbles about 'walk-on' roles and 'always playing the same part'
  • Jokes of hoping for a 'best actor' award for minor film role
  • In 1968 he received his first Academy Award nomination 

Footage of a 29-year-old Dustin Hoffman before he hit the big time has emerged which sees him complaining that he's had nothing but 'bad luck' in his career.

The rare screen test, which was filmed 50 years ago - just a year before he appeared in The Graduate and became a megastar - has recently surfaced online.

In the personality test for 20th Century Fox dating from 1966 an apparently battle-weary Hoffman admits to having arrived in Hollywood aged 21 'with great hope and a lot of love for the business'.

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Dustin Hoffman in a 1966 'personality test' for 20th Century Fox. Just a year later he would be the star of one of the huge box office hit, The Graduate, in which he is seduced by older woman 'Mrs Robinson'

Dustin Hoffman in a 1966 'personality test' for 20th Century Fox. Just a year later he would be the star of one of the huge box office hit, The Graduate, in which he is seduced by older woman 'Mrs Robinson'

Dustin Hoffman and Katherine Ross in the final scene of the 1967 film. It was a huge box office hit for Embassy Pictures and earned Hoffman his first Academy Award nomination

Dustin Hoffman and Katherine Ross in the final scene of the 1967 film. It was a huge box office hit for Embassy Pictures and earned Hoffman his first Academy Award nomination

At that point the actor lists all the shows he's been in: 'I've worked on Defenders and Naked City, and the Nurses… I always play the same part,' he says laughing. 

'I never did do a soap opera, and I can understand that.'

The self-deprecating star, who would go on to win a Best Actor Oscar twice, also referenced his work in theatre.

'I did do a play called A Cook For Mr General where I was, er, a walk-on, but nevertheless a creative one,' he says.

The video offers a ray of hope for aspiring actors everywhere as just 12 months later Hoffman clinched his breakout role as confused former student Benjamin Braddock, who is seduced by an older woman, in Mike Nichols' The Graduate.

The six-time Golden Globe winner also joked about his biggest film appearance at the time in a film called The Journey Of The Horse.

'I received great critical acclaim and a best actor award I felt was forthcoming, it had to be,' he said, flashing his now iconic smile.

Dustin Hoffman at the screening of Quartet, Empire Cinema, Leicester Square, London. The actor has one two Best Actor Oscars and six Golden Globes

Dustin Hoffman at the screening of Quartet, Empire Cinema, Leicester Square, London. The actor has one two Best Actor Oscars and six Golden Globes

Hoffman, who would go on to win two Oscars, did a test scene with another actor, Steven Nelson, in which he dramatically predicts that life is 'going to get tougher!'

Hoffman, who would go on to win two Oscars, did a test scene with another actor, Steven Nelson, in which he dramatically predicts that life is 'going to get tougher!'

'Since then I've had nothing but bad luck.'

His embattled view of his early career was further exemplified in a screen test filmed at the same time, along with fellow actor Steven Nelson.

In the footage Hoffman shouts: 'From now on it's gonna get tough. And then it's going to get tougher. And pretty soon you'll be on your knees!'

After completing The Graduate – which was a huge box office hit for Embassy Pictures and earned Hoffman his first Academy Award nomination – Hoffman turned down most of the film roles offered to him, instead returning to New York to work in theatre.

He would go on to accept sporadic film roles, always mixing his Hollywood career with stints on Broadway, and won Academy Awards for Kramer vs. Kramer (1980) and Rain Man (1980).

He can have had no idea that his own career was about to take off stratospherically. He went on to win Academy Awards for Kramer vs. Kramer (1980) and Rain Man (1980)

He can have had no idea that his own career was about to take off stratospherically. He went on to win Academy Awards for Kramer vs. Kramer (1980) and Rain Man (1980)

Hoffman, now 78, appeared on TV show Finding Your Roots earlier this week where he found out that his great-grandmother had escaped a Soviet concentration camp before making a life for herself in America

Hoffman, now 78, appeared on TV show Finding Your Roots earlier this week where he found out that his great-grandmother had escaped a Soviet concentration camp before making a life for herself in America

Earlier this week Hoffman, who is now 78, was reduced to tears on television after learning that his great-grandmother had escaped a Soviet concentration camp before arriving in America.

The Jewish actor found out about his great-grandmother, Libba, on the season finale of Finding Your Roots - an American TV show similar to the UK's Who Do You Think You Are, which charts the ancestors of famous people.

With tears streaming down he face said: 'Why would he [my parents] try to hide that [our Jewish history]?

'[My great-grandmother] was a hero. People ask me today: "What are you?! I say, "I'm a Jew…' I'm a Jew." They survived for me to be here.'

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