The Only Main Actors Still Alive From Close Encounters Of The Third Kind

If you rank every Steven Spielberg movie, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" might not be at the absolute top of the list, but that's just because the filmmaker has such a ludicrous number of amazing movies on his résumé that something has to give. Beloved by critics and audiences, the movie explores humanity's pursuit of the unknown from various viewpoints, from intellectual researchers to passionate laymen with personal UFO experience, and even the poor souls who have to witness their loved ones' single-minded obsession over this quest.  

"Close Encounters of the Third Kind" is a science fiction classic, but given the fact that it premiered in 1977, it's easy to suspect that many of the people you see in it have already passed away. While this is unfortunately the case, there are a couple of major actors from the movie who are still alive. Let's take a closer look at them. 

Roy Neary may join the extraterrestrials to travel the stars at the end of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," but Richard Dreyfuss is still firmly on planet Earth. A veteran of well over 120 movie and TV projects and counting, Dreyfuss' best movies include absolute classics like "American Graffiti," "Jaws," "The Goodbye Girl" (for which he won an Academy Award), "Stand by Me," and "Mr. Holland's Opus" — for which he was nominated for another Academy Award for best actor. 

Apart from his acting career, the untold truth of Richard Dreyfuss includes lots of personal and professional ups and downs. Unfortunately, the actor has caused some controversy in recent years. Dreyfuss' controversial "Jaws" screening was supposed to be a celebration of the classic shark movie, but the actor's Q&A session soon became contentious thanks to assorted derogatory comments he made about women and LGBTQ+ people. 

Bob Balaban played UFO expert Claude Lacombe's (François Truffaut) assistant David Laughlin in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and went on to appear in a truly astounding number of different projects. He's established himself as one of Hollywood's more prominent character actors, turning up in more than 130 titles as of 2025. 

Balaban was one of the producers and stars of Robert Altman's 2001 black comedy "Gosford Park," which earned him and co-producers Altman and Robert Levy an Academy Award nomination for best picture. You can spot him in films like George Clooney's "The Monuments Men," Bennett Miller's "Capote," and M. Night Shyamalan's "The Lady in the Water." He's also one of Wes Anderson's regulars, appearing in the filmmaker's "The Grand Budapest Hotel," "The French Dispatch," and "Asteroid City." A prominent voice actor, he narrates Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom" and voices the King in "Isle of Dogs." On the TV front, he's played Russell Dalrymple on "Seinfeld," among many other roles. He's also directed multiple times.

Balaban has remained comparatively obscure, and in a 2018 interview with the podcast "I Think You're Interesting" via Vox), he said that he was perfectly content with the situation. However, he's been in so many movies and TV shows that he keeps getting semi-recognized in public, and sometimes gets confused with the similar-looking Ron Rifkin ("Alias," "L.A. Confidential"). Balaban has crafted a standard reply for situations where someone asks him where they know him from. "You really don't know who I am," he described as his go-to answer. "I'm an actor. I'm not famous. You've seen me in a hundred million things, and you have a vestigial memory of what I look like. So you will not know who I am, and you're not expected to. So that's okay."