Richard Dreyfuss plays Roy Neary in Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Roy is an Indiana electrical lineman whose life changes after a close encounter with unidentified flying objects. Dreyfuss portrays Roy as an ordinary family man whose growing obsession with the encounter strains his marriage and disrupts his work.
The film was released in 1977 and became one of Spielberg’s major science-fiction successes. Its story focuses less on alien invasion than on communication, curiosity, and humanity’s attempt to understand visitors from another world.
Dreyfuss was already known for American Graffiti and Jaws when he took the role. Close Encounters also stars Melinda Dillon, François Truffaut, Teri Garr, and Bob Balaban. Its famous five-note musical signal was written by John Williams.