Hollywood Insider to Freelance Entertainer

Actress, singer and dancer Elizabeth Dreyfuss was born into a four-generation show business family. Her parents were both in the film industry — her father Eric was a studio makeup artist who once did makeup for classic actor Alec Guiness as Fagin in the original David Lean movie “Oliver Twist,” and her mother Eleanor was a hairstylist who once bleached Laurence Olivier’s hair in the classic film “Hamlet.” Her older sister, Dela Zimmer, was also a child opera singer/ prodigy, with a four-octave range at 10 years old. She was on BBC radio at 12 years old and went on to sing solo at the Royal Albert Hall for royalty.

Growing up in England, Elizabeth studied dance and drama at a very prestigious arts school and left home at 15 years old for the lead in a musical, as Red Riding Hood in London’s West End. Later, she went on to do leads in musicals like West Side Story, as well as TV comedy shows and classic BBC TV plays. An American cousin convinced her to move to California in 1978, and she quickly realized there was no theatre to speak of in Los Angeles; she loved the city though.

Elizabeth said, “I auditioned and got some tv work as an actress but it wasn’t fulfilling enough, so I ended up behind the scenes”. She tried Public Relations for a while, booking Tom Cruise on the Merv Griffin Show — Tom’s first talk show – plugging his movie “Risky Business” and later became an executive assistant to director Ridley Scott (Gladiator & Blade Runner) and to producer Don Bellisario (creator of Magnum PI and Quantum Leap).

Then she took her experience and started her own film location business, Ascot Locations, which became very successful. In 1982, Elizabeth met and dated Lorin Dreyfuss, a very funny comedy writer/actor/producer and brother of the actor Richard Dreyfuss; they would meet again and marry in 1993. It wasn’t until she retired and moved to Palm Springs that Richard heard Elizabeth sing with a jazz band: he said, “Wow I had know idea you can sing like that, you are a born performer and should be doing more.” So she wrote a cabaret called “Relatively Singing: An Evening of Cabaret and Sibling Revelry,” which she performed with her sister Dela, and has since written six cabaret shows. The show was a hit and they performed it many times. Later, Elizabeth performed with a jazz band.

When her husband Lorin died, she moved to Lake Oswego to be near her son and grandson, and she still lives and she loves it here. She has been singing and performing her one hour cabaret show, telling her funny and fascinating showbiz stories and singing songs from the American Songbook, classic pop songs and Broadway songs, in places like The Springs and Touchmark in Lake Oswego. But as she did in California, Elizabeth is returning to her roots and doing in-home concerts, where she performs and entertains families and friends in their own homes — a little party with wine and appetizers, then everyone sits down to entertainment. Elizabeth comes with a guitarist, tracks, her own amps and mic and small spotlights.

If you’re interestedin more information orhiring Elizabeth Dreyfuss fora private event, visit her website at thegeekprofessor.com/liz, or contact her at tuscanyliz@gmail.com or (760) 902-2143.