MR. DREYFUSS' RESURGENCE\Wiser 'Opus' star back as a contender.

Byline: Janet Weeks Daily News Staff Writer

He was once a smug, wise-guy whippersnapper who smirked to success in such '70s superhits as "American Graffiti," "Jaws," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "The Goodbye Girl."

But these days, Richard Dreyfuss is less a pompous smart alec than a self-deprecating survivor, an actor who has sailed the seas of drug addiction and lousy career choices and landed safely on his feet.

Indeed, Dreyfuss is treading solid ground with "Mr. Holland's Opus," a sentimental film about a high school music teacher that opens nationwide today. His powerful performance earned him a Golden Globe nomination, which has stirred talk of an Oscar nod.

"It's very complimentary," said Dreyfuss of the awards buzz. His name has been mentioned in Oscar-prediction stories in the entertainment trade magazines and in Marilyn Beck's column.

"And it's very bad luck to talk about it."

In the days before his battles with bad press and sometimes-smarting reviews, Dreyfuss did not believe in hexes and lucky charms, he said. But at 48, the white-haired actor says he thinks more about his mortality, and feelings of vulnerability have led to certain phobias.

"In the last 10 or 15 years, I've developed superstitions about things. I'm always knocking on wood and spitting over my shoulder."

Of course, it takes more than luck to be nominated for awards. In "Mr. Holland's Opus," Dreyfuss turned in a performance that many critics are hailing as his best in years. Dreyfuss himself is reportedly so happy with the film that he pushed Disney for a one-week Oscar-qualifying run in Los Angeles, although the studio denies the movie's Oscar worthiness ever was questioned.

The film follows the career of Glenn Holland, a musician who sets aside his dream of composing a symphony to take a steady gig as a teacher. At first, Holland is a clock watcher in class who lives for the after-school hours he can spend with his half-finished symphony.

But over the course of some 30 years, he emerges as a gifted educator with the power to greatly influence the lives of his students. By the time his job is lost to '90s-style budget cuts, Holland has become a community hero with a long history of helping teens.

The theme of a dream deferred makes the film similar to the holiday classic "It's a Wonderful Life," although, unlike George Bailey, Holland faces greater moral challenges in life. At one point, Holland is tempted by a young student who has a crush on him. At another, he deals badly with his role as the father of a deaf son.

Dreyfuss said he was intrigued by the role because it gave him a chance to play an utterly ordinary man over the course of several decades.

"What was interesting to me was to play a whole life - a guy with passions, illusions, fears, talents - and play them from the beginning to the end," Dreyfuss said. "That's something I had never done before."

He also was interested in playing a teacher, a job Dreyfuss said he someday would like to have.

"I always figured that one day I would just retire from acting and teach history. And I would still like to do that. I haven't made any moves toward doing it. But I think one day in the next 10 years I probably will."

Growing up in New York and Beverly Hills, where his family moved when he was 9, Dreyfuss had several good teachers (and a few bad ones). He credits them with shaping his life. "Mr. Holland's Opus" is an ode to those people and others like them, he said.

"One teacher refused to accept the limitations I put on myself. And she did it in a very rotten, mean-spirited, tough-old-bird way. She just kept pushing me into corners. Or out of corners. I didn't like her very much. But I learned to love things she introduced me to."

Dreyfuss said he believes "Mr. Holland's Opus" works because everyone has had at least one teacher in life who made an impact.

"The film is about something incredibly realistic and familiar," he said. "Never mind how sentimental the film is - and it is - or how old-fashioned. We've all had this experience. We've all known this man, in one way or another. And the familiarity of it is emotional."

In person, Dreyfuss appears closer in age to Holland as he appears at the film's end than at its beginning. But, with the help of a brown wig, he plays a convincing 30-year-old.

Indeed, at the start of the film, he appears much like he did 23 years ago, when he emerged as a star in George Lucas' wildly popular "American Graffiti."

He followed that film with star turns in "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz," "Jaws," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "The Goodbye Girl," for which he won a Best Actor Oscar.

The '70s were a high time for Dreyfuss, both in terms of his career and his personal life. He suffered from a well-publicized drug addiction that was discovered when he overturned his Mercedes-Benz on a canyon road in 1982 and was arrested for cocaine possession. He later entered into a rehab program. He made his first Hollywood comeback in 1986's "Down and Out in Beverly Hills."

The publicity surrounding his arrest and drug problems soured Dreyfuss on life in the spotlight.

"Fame sucks," he said. "Fame is great for getting a table in a restaurant. But other than that, I don't like it. It's an invasion."

Dreyfuss said he quit taking drugs, in part, because of his responsibility as a parent. Of his sobriety, he has said: "If I didn't have three kids, I think it would be tough. The knowledge that I am a parent makes it a lot easier - because the demands of that are so no-kidding-around that it's easy."

Dreyfuss also spends plenty of time on stage, preferring to mix up film work with theater jobs. Last spring, he appeared in Jon Robin Baitz's "Three Hotels" at the Mark Taper Forum, playing opposite Christine Lahti. He also starred in "Death and the Maiden" on Broadway.

The stage, he said, "is an actor's experience." But he admits that the theater scene in Los Angeles suffers from a lack of support, both from the acting community and from the public.

"There's a virus of poison in the air that takes theatergoers in New York and makes us these logy, soporific people who just feel too good to go downtown and go to the theater," he joked. "That's basically what it is. Because theater is pretty good here. But there's something in the air, like lotus-eaters."

Right now, Dreyfuss is considering taking "Three Hotels" to London and preparing for his next movie, "Trigger Happy," a gangster movie also starring Jeff Goldblum, Ellen Barkin and Gabriel Byrne. Dreyfuss also will produce the film.

And he's working hard to publicize "Mr. Holland's Opus," a movie that he obviously delighted in making.

"Everybody had this amazing time on this movie," he said. "The crew, the cast. We all got together in a way I've never really known before. We hung out together. We went to dinner together. We partied together all the time, for three months. There was something about making the film that was very rewarding, dare I say."

CAPTION(S):

PHOTO

Photo (1--Color) Dreyfuss conducts a masterful performance in 'Mr. Holland's Opus' (2) In the sentimental "Mr. Holland's Opus," Richard Dreyfuss plays a musician who sets aside personal ambition to take a job as a high school music teacher. Dreyfuss' performance earned him a Golden Globe nomination. (3) Dreyfuss spends plenty of time on stage, preferring to mix up film work with theater jobs, including "Three Hotels," co-starring Christine Lahti, at the Mark Taper Forum last spring. (4) Dreyfuss won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance as a smug New York stage actor in "The Goodbye Girl."