Philip Seymour Hoffman, the Oscar-winning star of Capote, Doubt and most recently The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was found dead today in his apartment in New York City. The cause of death is unknown, but officials suspect that the 46-year-old actor’s death was the result of a drug overdose. Hoffman had admitted to an earlier addiction to heroin. The New York Post claims that the actor was found with a needle in his arm, but as of writing this information has not been confirmed by multiple sources.
There’s no other way to put this: cinema has lost one of its finest actors. Try to think of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s best performance. Now realize that you can’t: he literally gave a great performance in every film, whether he was merely stealing scenes in Jan de Bont’s Twister or utterly captivating us with complex, layered performances in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master and Richard Kwietniowski’s Owning Mahowny.
Hoffman’s screen career lasted just over 20 years, and in the course of that time his performances have simply been some of the finest. He began with smaller roles in films like Martin Brest’s Scent of a Woman and Bob Balaban’s romantic zombie comedy My Boyfriend’s Back, before achieving greater recognition for his memorable supporting turns in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, The Coen Bros.’ The Big Lebowski and Todd Solondz’s Happiness.
From there, Philip Seymour Hoffman emerged as one of the most consistently impressive actors of his generation, earning four Oscar nominations for The Master, Mike Nichols’ Charlie Wilson’s War, John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt and winning – just once – for Bennett Miller’s Capote, with a marvelous performance as influential author Truman Capote that captured all the famous mannerisms but went far, far beyond imitation.
Whatever the circumstances of Hoffman’s death, he is gone too soon. He chomped away at every single part and elevated even the smallest roles into something magnificent. (Yes, even in My Boyfriend’s Back.) Each line of dialogue that emerged from his lips felt real, and felt important. He was, in no uncertain terms, one of the great actors, and dear God, how he will be missed.
Philip Seymour Hoffman (1967-2014): 10 Unforgettable Performances:
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
Philip Seymour Hoffman (1967-2014): 10 Unforgettable Performances
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Boogie Nights (1997)
"I'm a fuggin' idiot. I'm a fuggin' idiot. Fuggin' idiot, fuggin' idiot, fuggin' idiot..."
Audiences first took notice of Hoffman in Paul Thomas Anderson's sprawling ode to the Golden Age (and sad twilight) of motion picture pornography. As Scotty J., Hoffman's bared soul and willingness to play the third, fourth and even fifth wheel to his crush, Mark Wahlberg's Dirk Diggler, made him one of the classic film's most sympathetic characters.
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The Big Lebowski (1998)
"This is our concern, Dude."
Philip Seymour Hoffman had a small role but gave a big performance in The Coen Bros.' The Big Lebowski, playing the eager-to-please valet Brandt. Hoffman's dead-serious commitment to the name "Dude" remains one of the comedy's least talked about, but greatest pleasures.
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Magnolia (1999)
"Oh, there's no asshole like you."
Phil Parma may not be the flashiest role in Paul Thomas Anderson's sprawling Magnolia (ordering pornography and peanut butter over the phone is arguably his "big scene"), but as a hospice worker frantically trying to reunite a dying patient with his estranged son, he turns in his most noble performance.
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Almost Famous (2000)
"My advice to you. I know you think those guys are your friends. You wanna be a true friend to them? Be honest, and unmerciful."
Philip Seymour Hoffman captured the famed, iconoclastic music critic Lester Bangs with all the sharpness, ego and yes, even humility he could muster. As Bangs, Hoffman became a mentor for the young intelligentsia on screen and in the audience (and particularly for once-aspiring critics like ourselves).
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Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
"SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP! Shut up… will you SHUT UP SHUT UP! SHUT SHUT SHUT SHUT SHUT UP... SHUT UP! NOW!"
There are few greater cinematic joys than watching Philip Seymour Hoffman yell, and the way he spun profanity was certainly an equal marvel. In Paul Thomas Anderson's underrated, brilliant Punch-Drunk Love, Hoffman plays Dean Trumbell: a mattress dealer, sex line entrepreneur and extortionist whose caustic tone terrorizes Adam Sandler half a country away.
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Owning Mahowny (2003)
"I have a... financial problem. A shortfall."
Nearly speechless, totally obsessed, always focused entirely on the task at hand, Dan Mahowney was a walking exemplar of the compulsive mind of the gambling addict. Hoffman, in Richard Kwietniowski's subtle 2003 tragedy, takes away all the flash and melodrama and sexiness of addiction – the kind usually seen in Hollywood movies – lending, instead, a sad uncontrollable and very uncomfortable tendency toward thrilling self-destruction. Mahowney never looks like he is having fun. But we understand that he must continue to gamble. It's just what he does.
~ Witney Seibold
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Capote (2005)
"Ever since I was a child, folks have thought they had me pegged, because of the way I am, the way I talk. And they're always wrong."
Philip Seymour Hoffman earned first Academy Award nomination (and only win) for Capote, Bennett Miller's celebrated biopic about Truman Capote and the writing of his masterpiece, In Cold Blood. Hoffman nails Capote's mannerisms, but truly excels in his exploration of Capote's moral dilemma: befriending two killers, and humanizing them to the entire world, and yet doing nothing to prevent their execution.
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Mission: Impossible III (2006)
"You hung me out of a plane. You can tell a lot about a person’s character by how they treat people they don't have to treat well."
Philip Seymour Hoffman rarely "went Hollywood," but his turn as the subdued, malevolent Owen Davian in J.J. Abrams' Mission: Impossible III is an obvious highlight. Hoffman is clearly the best actor in the whole movie, but instead of feeling miscast, he uses that contradiction to make Davian a smarmy, condescending and delightful monster.
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Charlie Wilson's War (2007)
"For twenty-four years people have been trying to kill me! People who know how. Now do you think that's because my dad was a Greek soda pop maker? Or do you think that's because I'm an American spy? Go fuck yourself, you fucking child!"
Philip Seymour Hoffman relished in the frustrated intelligence of intelligence operative Gust Avrakotos, earning his second well-deserved Oscar nomination in the process for Mike Nichols' Charlie Wilson's War. His character is largely responsible for arming the Afghan rebels and ending the Cold War, inadvertently creating the War on Terror in the process. He cannot predict the future, but he's smart enough to know it's coming.
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The Master (2012)
"If you figure a way to live without serving a master, any master, then let the rest of us know, will you? For you'd be the first person in the history of the world."
Hoffman's final Oscar nomination, and biggest role for longtime collaborator Paul Thomas Anderson, found him founding a religious movement called "The Cause" without ever revealing that he's just as lost as his followers. Anderson's film is obtuse, but thanks to Hoffman's layered performance (combined with that of a nearly perfect Joaquin Phoenix) helps solidify the film's post-traumatic, emotional significance.
