Philip Seymour Hoffman

Philip Seymour Hoffman (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014) was an American actor.

Philip Hoffman was born on July 23, 1967, in the Rochester suburb of Fairport, New York.

His mother, Marilyn O'Connor (née Loucks), came from nearby Waterloo and worked as an elementary school teacher before becoming a lawyer and eventually a family court judge.

His father, Gordon Stowell Hoffman, was a native of Geneva, New York, and worked for the Xerox Corporation.

Hoffman had one brother, Gordy, and two sisters, Jill and Emily.

His ancestry included Irish and German.

Hoffman was baptized a Catholic and attended Mass as a child, but did not have a heavily religious upbringing.

His parents divorced when he was nine, and the children were raised primarily by their mother.

Hoffman's childhood passion was sports, particularly wrestling and baseball, but at age 12, he attended a stage production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons and was transfixed.

At the age of 17, he was selected to attend the 1984 New York State Summer School of the Arts in Saratoga Springs, where he met his future collaborators Bennett Miller and Dan Futterman.

Miller later commented on Hoffman's popularity at the time: "We were attracted to the fact that he was genuinely serious about what he was doing. Even then, he was passionate."

Hoffman applied for several drama degree programs and was accepted to New York University's (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts.

Between graduating from Fairport High School and beginning the program, he continued his training at the Circle in the Square Theatre's summer program.

Hoffman had positive memories of his time at NYU, where he supported himself by working as an usher.

With friends, he co-founded the Bullstoi Ensemble acting troupe.

He received a drama degree in 1989.

After graduating, Hoffman worked in off-Broadway theater and made additional money with customer service jobs.

Known for his distinctive supporting and character roles—eccentrics, underdogs, and misfits—he acted in many films and theatrical productions, including leading roles, from the early 1990s until his death in 2014.

He was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time in a 2022 readers' poll by Empire magazine.

Hoffman studied acting at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

He made his screen debut in 1991, in a Law & Order episode called "The Violence of Summer", playing a man accused of rape.

He made his film debut the following year, when he was credited as "Phil Hoffman" in the independent film Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole.

He gained recognition for his supporting work, notably in Scent of a Woman (1992), Boogie Nights (1997), Happiness (1998), The Big Lebowski (1998), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), and Almost Famous (2000).

He joined the off-Broadway LAByrinth Theater Company in 1995, where he directed, produced, and appeared in numerous stage productions.

Hoffman received Tony Award nominations for his performances in the Broadway revivals of Sam Shepard's True West (2000), Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night (2003), and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (2012).

He began to occasionally play leading roles, and for his portrayal of the author Truman Capote in Capote (2005), won the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Further Oscar nominations came for playing a brutally frank CIA officer in Charlie Wilson's War (2007), a priest accused of child sexual abuse 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).

He recalled in 2008, "I was changed—permanently changed—by that experience. It was like a miracle to me".

Hoffman developed a love for the theater, and proceeded to attend regularly with his mother, who was a lifelong enthusiast.

He remembered that productions of Quilters and Alms for the Middle Class, the latter starring a teenaged Robert Downey Jr. were also particularly inspirational.

At the age of 14, Hoffman suffered a neck injury that ended his sporting activity, and he began to consider acting.

Encouraged by his mother, he joined a drama club, and initially committed to it because he was attracted to a female member.

Acting gradually became a passion for Hoffman: "I loved the camaraderie of it, the people, and that's when I decided it was what I wanted to do."

The feature Jack Goes Boating (2010) marked his debut as a filmmaker.

Hoffman was also an accomplished theater actor and director.

Hoffman struggled with drug addiction as a young adult and relapsed in 2012 after many years of sobriety.

He played Plutarch Heavensbee in the Hunger Games series (2013–2015), in one of his final roles.

In February 2014, he died of combined drug intoxication.

Remembered for bringing nuance, depth, and humanity to the versatile roles he inhabited, Hoffman was described in his New York Times obituary as "perhaps the most ambitious and widely admired American actor of his generation".