Dreyfuss the Oxford don

QUESTION Did Richard Dreyfuss attend Oxford University? ACTOR Richard Dreyfuss did not attend Oxford as an undergraduate but as a junior research fellow, i.e. he was given university status and a grant to follow research outside the curriculum.

Dreyfuss was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1947. His family later moved to Los Angeles where he studied at Beverly Hills High School, then at a local college.

He went on to star in some of the world’s biggest blockbusters: Jaws, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and American Graffiti, and won an Oscar in 1978 for the Neil Simon comedy The Goodbye Girl.

Then he went off the rails with a cocaine addiction. In 1982 he was arrested for possession after crashing his car into a tree.

Despite his acting success, Dreyfuss has suffered from money problems and depression.

In 2004, he was hired to play Max Bialystock in the West End version of The Producers, but was later fired as he could not meet the physical demands of the show. It was then that he was offered the role at St Antony’s College, Oxford. He attended lectures in history and sociology and developed an interest in civics.

In 2006, he set up the Dreyfuss Civics Initiative to promote the teaching of the subject in American schools. He has since given lectures to more than 200,000 students across the U.S.

Ed Beith, Lancaster. QUESTION Rock group Rainbow had up to 30 members over the years. Has any group used more? FURTHER to earlier answers, in its 48-year history, rock ’n’ roll instrumental band Johnny And The Hurricanes constantly had new members, mainly due to the leader and founder Johnny Paris being difficult to work with.

Many came from the musical fraternity of Toledo in Ohio, where there is a running joke among older musicians: ‘Yeah, I was a Hurricane at one time.’

The band went through more than 100 members.

Graham Potter, Bournemouth.