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| FILE - In a Sunday, March 5, 2006, file photo, actor Philip Seymour Hoffman poses with the Oscar he won for best actor for his work in "Capote" at the 78th Academy Awards, in Los Angeles. Police say Hoffman has been found dead in his apartment. Sunday Feb. 2014. HE WAS 46.( |
NEW YORK (AP)
-- Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won the Oscar for best actor in 2006 for
his portrayal of writer Truman Capote and created a gallery of other
vivid characters, many of them slovenly and somewhat dissipated, was
found dead Sunday in his apartment with what officials said was a needle
in his arm. He was 46.
Two law enforcement
officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity
because they were not authorized to talk about the evidence, said the
actor apparently died of a drug overdose. Glassine envelopes containing
what was believed to be heroin were found with him, they said.
Hoffman
- no matinee idol, with his lumpy build and limp blond hair - made his
career mostly as a character actor, and was one of the most prolific in
the business, plying his craft with a rumpled naturalism that also made
him one of the most admired performers of his generation.
The
stage-trained actor was nominated for Academy Awards four times in all:
for "Capote," `'The Master,"
`'Doubt" and "Charlie Wilson's War." He
also received three Tony nominations for his work on Broadway, which
included an acclaimed turn as the weary and defeated Willy Loman in
"Death of a Salesman."
Hoffman spoke candidly
over the years about past struggles with drug addiction. After 23 years
sober, he admitted in interviews last year to falling off the wagon and
developing a heroin problem that led to a stint in rehab.
Tributes poured in from other Hollywood figures.
"One
of the greatest actors of a generation and a sweet, funny & humble
man," actor Ricky Gervais tweeted.
Director Spike Lee said on Twitter:
"Damn, We Lost Another Great Artist."
And
Kevin Costner said in an AP interview: "Philip was a very important
actor and really takes his place among the real great actors. It's a
shame. Who knows what he would have been able to do? But we're left with
the legacy of the work he's done and it all speaks for itself."
"No
words for this. He was too great and we're too shattered," said Mike
Nichols, who directed Hoffman in "Charlie Wilson's War" and "Death of a
Salesman."
The law enforcement officials said
Hoffman's body was discovered in a bathroom at his Greenwich Village
apartment by a friend who made the 911 call and his assistant.
Late
Sunday, a police crime-scene van was parked out front, and technicians
carrying brown paper bags went in and out. Police kept a growing crowd
of onlookers back. A single red daisy had been placed in front of the
lobby door.
Hoffman's family called the news
"tragic and sudden." Hoffman is survived by his partner of 15 years,
Mimi O'Donnell, and their three children.
"We
are devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil and appreciate the
outpouring of love and support we have received from everyone," the
family said in a statement.
In one of his
earliest screen roles, he played a spoiled prep school student in "Scent
of a Woman" in 1992.
One of his breakthroughs came as a gay member of a
porno film crew in "Boogie Nights," one of several movies directed by
Paul Thomas Anderson that he would eventually appear in.
He
often played comic, slightly off-kilter characters in movies like
"Along Came Polly," `'The Big Lebowski" and "Almost Famous."
More
recently, he was Plutarch Heavensbee in "The Hunger Games: Catching
Fire" and was reprising that role in the two-part sequel, "The Hunger
Games: Mockingjay," which is in the works. And in "Moneyball," he played
Art Howe, the grumpy manager of the Oakland Athletics who resisted new
thinking about baseball talent.
Just weeks
ago, Showtime announced Hoffman would star in "Happyish," a new comedy
series about a middle-aged man's pursuit of happiness.
He
was nominated for the 2013 Academy Award for best supporting actor for
his role in "The Master" as the charismatic leader of a religious
movement. The film, inspired in part by the life of Scientology founder
L. Ron Hubbard, reunited the actor with Anderson.
He
also received a 2009 best-supporting nomination for "Doubt," as a
priest who comes under suspicion because of his relationship with a boy,
and another best-supporting nomination as a CIA officer in "Charlie
Wilson's War."
Born in 1967 in Fairport, N.Y.,
Hoffman was interested in acting from an early age, mesmerized at 12 by
a local production of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons." He studied theater
as a teenager with the New York State Summer School of the Arts and the
Circle in the Square Theatre. He then majored in drama at New York
University.
In his Oscar acceptance speech for
"Capote," he thanked his mother for raising him and his three siblings
alone, and for taking him to his first play. Hoffman's parents divorced
when he was 9.
He could seemingly take on any role, large or small, loathsome or sympathetic, and appeared to be utterly lacking in vanity.
On
Broadway, in addition to starring as Willy Loman, he played Jamie in
"Long Day's Journey Into Night" and both leads in "True West." All three
performances were Tony-nominated.
His 2012 performance in "Death of a Salesman" was praised as "heartbreaking" by AP theater critic Mark Kennedy.
"Hoffman
is only 44, but he nevertheless sags in his brokenness like a man
closer to retirement age, lugging about his sample cases filled with his
self-denial and disillusionment," Kennedy wrote. "His fraying
connection to reality is pronounced in this production, with Hoffman
quick to anger and a hard edge emerging from his babbling."
Two
films starring Hoffman premiered last month at the Sundance Film
Festival: the espionage thriller "A Most Wanted Man" and "God's Pocket."
