Philip Seymour Hoffman, Oscar-winning actor, found dead in NY apartment
Philip Seymour Hoffman, the stage and screen actor who progressed from scene-stealing supporting roles to an Oscar-winning portrayal of writer Truman Capote in “Capote,” has died. He was 46.
Mr. Hoffman was found dead in his apartment in Lower Manhattan shortly before noon Sunday, and his death is being investigated as a possible drug overdose, said Detective James Duffy, a spokesman for the New York Police Department. The New York City medical examiner’s office is expected to perform an autopsy as early as Monday, and that examination will include a toxicology report.
Police said they received a 911 call about 11:36 a.m. Sunday. When they arrived at the apartment, they found Mr. Hoffman unconscious and unresponsive on the floor of a bathroom. According to an unnamed police official who was not authorized to comment publicly, Mr. Hoffman was found with a needle in his arm and several bags of what appeared to be heroin. The official said Mr. Hoffman was supposed to meet a colleague Sunday morning and did not show. An associate went to his home and found him there. Police were still at the scene Sunday afternoon.
In interviews, Mr. Hoffman acknowledged a history of drug abuse.
“I got sober when I was 22 years old” and went into a drug rehabilitation program at the time, Mr. Hoffman told CBS’s “60 Minutes” in 2006. Asked whether he abused drugs or alcohol, Mr. Hoffman said: “It was all that stuff. Yeah. It was anything I could get my hands on. Yeah. I liked it all.”
Mr. Hoffman went on to say in the interview: “I have so much empathy for these young actors that are 19 and all of a sudden they’re beautiful and famous and rich,” Hoffman said. “I’m like, ‘Oh my God. I’d be dead.’ You know what I mean? I’d be 19, beautiful, famous and rich. That would be it. I think back at that time. I think if I had the money, that kind of money and stuff. So, yeah [I would have died].”
In other interviews, he indicated that he had remained clean for more than two decades before relapsing in 2012, when he again entered a drug rehabilitation program, according to published reports.
Mr. Hoffman, who specialized in off-kilter roles, won the best-actor Oscar for his 2005 portrayal of Capote in the biographical film that chronicled the writer’s research — and ethical transgressions — for the nonfiction crime novel “In Cold Blood.”
It was one of four performances that earned Mr. Hoffman an Oscar nomination. He was nominated for best supporting actor three times: for playing a CIA agent in “Charlie Wilson’s War,” an abusive priest in “Doubt” and Lancaster Dodd, a character loosely based on Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, in “The Master.”
His work in “The Master,” released in 2012, was for director Paul Thomas Anderson. In total, the actor appeared in five Anderson films — all but one of the director’s six feature-length films.
“He was an extraordinary actor with tremendous range and the gift of fully and deeply realizing his amazing characters in films from ‘Magnolia’ and ‘Capote’ to ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’ and ‘Doubt,’ ” said Ken Howard, president of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. “He was such a great talent and his loss is just deeply sad. On behalf of his fellow actors and all members of SAG-AFTRA, our condolences go out to his family and friends.”
Mr. Hoffman got his start in Hollywood playing supporting roles in several movies in the 1990s, including “Twister,” “Patch Adams” and “Magnolia.” His breakthrough roles came as a gay member of a porn film crew in Anderson’s “Boogie Nights” and as an obscene phone caller in director Todd Solondz’s “Happiness.”
Most recently, Mr. Hoffman played Plutarch Heavensbee in the “Hunger Games” movies and appeared at the Sundance Film Festival last month to talk about his role in the film “God’s Pocket,” slated for release later this year.
In many of his performances, Hoffman’s characters bordered on either the manic or depressive, but he brought a depth and intellectual honesty to each of them beyond the lines of the script.
His filmography
Film
Year Title Role Director
Notes
1991 Triple Bogey
on a Par Five Hole Klutch Amos Poe
1992 My New Gun Chris Stacy
Cochran
1992 Szuler
(Cheat) Martin Adek Drabiński
1992 Leap of Faith
Matt Richard
Pearce
1992 Scent of a
Woman George Willis, Jr. Martin Brest Credited as Philip S. Hoffman
1993 Joey Breaker Wiley McCall Steven Starr
1993 My
Boyfriend's Back Chuck Bronski Bob Balaban
1993 Money for
Nothing Cochran Ramón Menéndez
1994 The Getaway Frank Hansen Roger Donaldson
1994 When a Man
Loves a Woman Gary Luis Mandoki
1994 Nobody's Fool
Officer Raymer Robert Benton
1995 The Fifteen
Minute Hamlet Bernardo / Horatio
/ Laertes Short
1996 Hard Eight Young Craps Player Paul Thomas Anderson
1996 Twister Dustin "Dusty" Davis Jan de Bont
1997 Boogie Nights
Scotty J. Paul Thomas Anderson
1998 Culture Bill Short
1998 Montana Duncan Jennifer Leitzes
1998 Next Stop
Wonderland Sean Brad Anderson
1998 The Big
Lebowski Brandt Joel Coen
1998 Happiness Allen Todd
Solondz
1998 Patch Adams Mitch Roman Tom Shadyac
1999 Flawless Rusty Zimmerman Joel Schumacher
1999 Magnolia Phil Parma Paul Thomas Anderson
1999 The Talented
Mr. Ripley Freddie Miles Anthony Minghella
2000 State and
Main Joseph Turner White David Mamet
2000 Almost Famous
Lester Bangs Cameron Crowe
2001 The Party's
Over Himself Rebecca Chalkin & Donovan
Leitch Documentary
2002 Love Liza Wilson Joel Todd Louiso
2002 Punch-Drunk
Love Dean Trumbell Paul Thomas Anderson
2002 Red Dragon Freddy Lounds Brett Ratner
2002 25th Hour Jacob Elinsky Spike Lee
2003 Owning
Mahowny Dan Mahowny Richard Kwietniowski
2003 Cold Mountain
Reverend Veasey Anthony Minghella
2004 Along Came
Polly Sandford
"Sandy" Lyle John Hamburg
2005 Strangers
with Candy Henry Paul Dinello
2005 Capote Truman Capote Bennett
Miller
2006 Mission:
Impossible III Owen Davian J. J. Abrams
2007 The Savages Jon Savage Tamara Jenkins
2007 Before the
Devil Knows You're Dead Andy Hanson
Sidney Lumet
2007 Charlie
Wilson's War Gust Avrakotos Mike Nichols
2008 Synecdoche,
New York Caden Cotard Charlie Kaufman
2008 Doubt Father Brendan Flynn John Patrick Shanley
2009 Mary and Max Max Jerry Horowitz Adam Elliot Voice
2009 The Boat That
Rocked The Count Richard Curtis
2009 The Invention
of Lying Jim the Bartender Ricky Gervais & Matthew Robinson Cameo
2010 Jack Goes
Boating Jack Philip Seymour Hoffman Also director and executive
producer
2011 The Ides of
March Paul Zara George Clooney
2011 Moneyball Art Howe Bennett Miller
2012 The Master Lancaster Dodd Paul Thomas Anderson
2012 A Late
Quartet Robert Gelbart Yaron Zilberman
2013 The Hunger
Games: Catching Fire Plutarch
Heavensbee Francis Lawrence
2014 God's Pocket Mickey Scarpato John Slattery Also
producer
2014 A Most Wanted
Man Günther Bachmann Anton Corbijn
2014 The Hunger
Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 Plutarch
Heavensbee Francis Lawrence Posthumous release
2015 The Hunger
Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 Francis
Lawrence Posthumous release
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1991 Law &
Order Steven Hanauer Episode: "The Violence of
Summer"
Credited as Philip Hoffman
1994 The Yearling Buck TV
movie
1997 Liberty! Joseph Plumb Martin Voice
4 episodes
2005 Empire Falls Charlie Mayne 2 episodes
2009 Arthur Will Toffman Voice
Episode: "No Acting Please"
2014 Happyish Thom Payne Unaired pilot
