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Philip Seymour Hoffman is a Actor, Director, Producer and Thanks American born on 23 july 1967 at New York City (USA)

Philip Seymour Hoffman

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Birth name Philip Hoffman
Nationality USA
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.