Birth name Philip Hoffman NationalityUSA Birth 23 july 1967 at New York City (USA) Death 2 february 2014 (at 46 years) at Manhattan (USA) Awards Academy Award for Best Actor, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play
Philip Seymour Hoffman (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014) was an American actor, director, and producer of film and theater. Best known for his distinctive supporting and character roles – typically lowlifes, bullies, and misfits – Hoffman was a regular presence in films from the early 1990s until his death at age 46.
Drawn to theater as a teenager, Hoffman studied acting at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He began his screen career in a 1991 episode of Law & Order and started to appear in films in 1992. He gained recognition for his supporting work throughout the decade, notably in Boogie Nights (1997), Happiness (1998), The Big Lebowski (1998), Magnolia (1999), and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). He began to occasionally play leading roles, and for his portrayal of the author Truman Capote in Capote (2005), won multiple accolades including the Academy Award for Best Actor. Hoffman's profile continued to grow, and he received three more Oscar nominations for his supporting work as a brutally frank CIA officer in Charlie Wilson's War (2007), a priest accused of pedophilia in Doubt (2008), and the charismatic leader of a Scientology-type movement in The Master (2012).
While he mainly worked in independent films, including The Savages (2007) and Synecdoche, New York (2008), Hoffman also appeared in Hollywood blockbusters, such as Twister (1996) and Mission: Impossible III (2006), and one of his final roles was Plutarch Heavensbee in the Hunger Games series (2013–15). The feature Jack Goes Boating (2010) marked his debut as a filmmaker. Hoffman was also an accomplished theater actor and director. He joined the off-Broadway LAByrinth Theater Company in 1995, where he directed, produced, and appeared in numerous stage productions. His performances in three Broadway plays – True West (2000), Long Day's Journey into Night (2003), and Death of a Salesman (2012) – all led to Tony Award nominations.
Hoffman struggled with drug addiction as a young adult, and relapsed in 2013 after many years of sobriety. In February 2014, he died of combined drug intoxication – an unexpected event that was widely lamented in the film and theater industries. Remembered for his fearlessness in playing reprehensible characters, and for bringing depth and humanity to such roles, Hoffman was described in his New York Times obituary as "perhaps the most ambitious and widely admired American actor of his generation".
Biography
Hoffman rarely mentioned his personal life in interviews, stating in 2012 that he would "rather not because my family doesn't have any choice. If I talk about them in the press, I'm giving them no choice. So I choose not to." For the last 14 years of his life, he was in a relationship with costume designer Mimi O'Donnell, whom he had met in 1999 when they were both working on the play In Arabia We'd All Be Kings, which Hoffman directed. They lived in New York City and had a son, Cooper (2003), and two daughters, Tallulah (2006) and Willa (2008). Hoffman and O'Donnell separated in the fall of 2013, some months before his death.
Hoffman was also discreet about his religious and political beliefs, but it is known that he voted for the Green Party candidate Ralph Nader in the 2000 presidential election. He felt that keeping his personal life private was beneficial to his career: "The less you know about me the more interesting it will be to watch me do what I do".
In a 2006 interview with 60 Minutes, Hoffman revealed he had engaged in drug and alcohol abuse during his time at New York University, saying he had used "anything I could get my hands on. I liked it all." Following his graduation in 1989, he entered a drug rehabilitation program at age 22, and remained sober for 23 years. However, he relapsed in 2013, and admitted himself to drug rehabilitation for approximately 10 days in May of that year.
, 1h44 Directed byRichard Kwietniowski OriginCanada GenresDrama, Thriller, Crime ActorsPhilip Seymour Hoffman, John Hurt, Minnie Driver, Maury Chaykin, Ian Tracey, Vince Corazza Roles Dan Mahowny Rating69% In 1982, Toronto bank employee Dan Mahowny (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is given access to bigger and bigger accounts with his promotion to assistant branch manager. His boss trusts him, but is unaware that Mahowny is a compulsive gambler. Mahowny is soon skimming larger and larger amounts for his own use and making weekly trips to Atlantic City, where he is treated like a king by a greedy casino manager (John Hurt). Mahowny's girlfriend, fellow bank employee Belinda (Minnie Driver), can not understand what is happening. Mahowny's criminal acts come to light when Toronto police begin to investigate his longtime bookie (Maury Chaykin).
, 1h35 Directed byPaul Thomas Anderson OriginUSA GenresDrama, Thriller, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Romantic comedy, Romance ThemesSeafaring films, Transport films ActorsAdam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzmán, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Robert Smigel Roles Dean Trumbell Rating72% Barry Egan is a single man who owns a company that markets themed toilet plungers and other novelty items. He has seven overbearing sisters who ridicule and emotionally abuse him regularly and leads a lonely life punctuated by fits of rage and anguish. In the span of one morning, he witnesses an inexplicable car accident, picks up an abandoned harmonium from the street, and encounters Lena Leonard, a coworker of his sister's, Lena having orchestrated this meeting after seeing him in a family picture belonging to his sister Elizabeth.
, 1h52 Directed byJoel Schumacher OriginUSA GenresDrama, Comedy ThemesFilms about sexuality, LGBT-related films, Transgender in film, LGBT-related films, LGBT-related film ActorsPhilip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Miller, Chris Bauer, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Skipp Sudduth, Daphne Rubin-Vega Roles Rusty Rating63% Walter Koontz (Robert De Niro) is a highly decorated "local hero" officer of the New York police department who lives in a downtown apartment complex. Despite his locale and rampant run of drag queens in his building, he tends to keep to himself and still lives a life involved with lovely women, dancing and dining. One night, he hears gunshots upstairs, and while ascending to help suffers a stroke. He awakens with the right side of his body paralyzed resulting in poor speech and posture, and giving him an unrecoverable limp that requires him to use a cane to get around.
, 1h44 Directed byBrad Anderson OriginUSA GenresDrama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Romantic comedy, Romance ThemesTransport films, Rail transport films ActorsHope Davis, Alan Gelfant, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Cara Buono, José Zúñiga, Sam Seder Roles Sean Rating65% Two people, living in Boston and unlucky in love – a nurse, Erin, whose activist boyfriend, Sean, has just walked out on their relationship to help a Native American tribe fight off a land development deal, and a plumber, Alan, struggling to pay off family obligations while pursuing a career as a marine biologist – deal with personal and professional problems and stumble through relationships, continually crossing one another's paths without ever truly meeting and realizing how perfect they are for one another. Time and time again one almost catches the other's eye, but circumstances intervene. Finally, after a series of ups and downs, both of their budding relationships with others crash and burn, just in time for a chance meeting on the MBTA train heading to Wonderland station, on the outskirts of Boston.
, 2h14 Directed byTodd Solondz OriginUSA GenresDrama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Horror ThemesFilms about children, Films about families, Films about sexuality, Rape in fiction, Films about pedophilia ActorsJane Adams, Elizabeth Ashley, Dylan Baker, Lara Flynn Boyle, Ben Gazzara, Jared Harris Roles Allen Rating76% Trish Maplewood, the eldest Jordan sister, is an upper middle class housewife happily married to psychiatrist Bill Maplewood and has three children. Unbeknownst to Trish, however, Bill is a pedophile who is obsessed with 11-year-old Johnny Grasso, a classmate of their son, Billy. When Johnny comes to the Jordan house for a sleepover, Bill drugs and rapes him. Later, Bill learns that another boy, Ronald Farber, is home alone while his parents are away in Europe. Under the guise of attending a PTA meeting, Bill drives to the boy's house and rapes him as well. After Johnny is taken to the hospital and found to have been sexually abused, the police arrive at the Maplewood residence to question Bill. After alerting his wife to the police presence, Bill begins by asking the two detectives, "You said something about Ronald Farber?" The two detectives, looking puzzled, say nothing. Bill then stammers, "I mean, Johnny Grasso." Out on bail, he tearfully admits to Billy that he "fucked" the boys, that he enjoyed it, and that he would do it again. When Billy asks, "Would you ever fuck me?", his father replies, "No... I jerk off instead.