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Philip Seymour Hoffman dead at 46
Academy Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won an Oscar for the film Capote, has been found dead in his New York City apartment of an apparent drug overdose, a New York Police Department source says.
Hoffman, 46, was found unresponsive on the bathroom floor of his Greenwich Village apartment by police responding to an emergency 911 call made by a friend of the actor, and Emergency Medical Service workers declared him dead on the scene, the New York City Police Department said in a statement.
Investigators found a syringe in Hoffman's arm and envelopes containing what was believed to be heroin. An investigation was ongoing.
■Film industry mourns Philip Seymour Hoffman online
■Watch a 2010 interview with the famed actor
Onlookers gathered on Sunday afternoon near Hoffman's apartment in a four-story red brick building in a fashionable neighborhood of the West Village, where many other actors keep homes. The entire block was cordoned off by police.
Rachel Melman, a neighbour who described herself as a fan, said she frequently saw him around the neighbourhood.
"I never spoke to him, but I always wanted to," she said, adding that she would see him sitting on the scaffolding of the building, often dressed in socks and no shoes, "just reading and hanging out out there.
"Of course I'm sad. It was such a shocker," she said.
CNN, citing a law enforcement official, reported that Hoffman was last seen alive at 8 p.m. Saturday. He had been expected to pick up his children on Sunday but failed to show up, prompting playwright David Katz and another person to go to his apartment, where they found him dead, CNN said.
Disturbing and complex characters
Born in 1967 in upstate New York, Hoffman won an Academy Award for the 2005 biographical film Capote, in which he played writer Truman Capote. He also received three Academy Award nominations as best supporting actor, for The Master in 2013, Doubt in 2009 and Charlie Wilson's War in 2008.
Hoffman burst onto the film scene after more than a dozen earlier roles, like 1997's Boogie Nights, in which he played a lovelorn gay man in the movie about the porn industry.
While he appeared in blockbusters such as Twister and The Hunger Games series, Hoffman was more associated with the independent film world for his intense portrayals of often disturbing and complex characters in such films as Happiness, in which he played an obscene phone caller, and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.
'We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil and appreciate the outpouring of love and support we have received from everyone.'- Family of Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman
In the latter film he played a son who schemes to rob his parents' jewellery store, resulting in their deaths. But Hoffman could also play nice, as in Magnolia, in which he played the role of an angelic nurse.
Hoffman spoke in the past of struggling with drugs, including a 2006 interview in which he told CBS he had abused "anything I could get my hands on. I liked it all."
Philip Seymour Hoffman apartment
Police stand guard outside the home of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was found dead in his Greenwich village apartment on Sunday in New York. (John Minchillo/Associated Press)
Hoffman's family released a statement requesting privacy during their time of grief.
"We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil and appreciate the outpouring of love and support we have received from everyone," his family said. "Please keep Phil in your thoughts and prayers."
He leaves behind his partner of 15 years, Mimi O'Donnell, and their three children.
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 theatre 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 and his three siblings alone, and for taking him to his first play. Hoffman's parents divorced when he was 9.
With a versatility and discipline more common among British performers than Americans, he could seemingly take on any role, large or small, loathsome or sympathetic.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/philip-seymour-hoffman-dead-at-46-1.2520522
Academy Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won an Oscar for the film Capote, has been found dead in his New York City apartment of an apparent drug overdose, a New York Police Department source says.
Hoffman, 46, was found unresponsive on the bathroom floor of his Greenwich Village apartment by police responding to an emergency 911 call made by a friend of the actor, and Emergency Medical Service workers declared him dead on the scene, the New York City Police Department said in a statement.
Investigators found a syringe in Hoffman's arm and envelopes containing what was believed to be heroin. An investigation was ongoing.
■Film industry mourns Philip Seymour Hoffman online
■Watch a 2010 interview with the famed actor
Onlookers gathered on Sunday afternoon near Hoffman's apartment in a four-story red brick building in a fashionable neighborhood of the West Village, where many other actors keep homes. The entire block was cordoned off by police.
Rachel Melman, a neighbour who described herself as a fan, said she frequently saw him around the neighbourhood.
"I never spoke to him, but I always wanted to," she said, adding that she would see him sitting on the scaffolding of the building, often dressed in socks and no shoes, "just reading and hanging out out there.
"Of course I'm sad. It was such a shocker," she said.
CNN, citing a law enforcement official, reported that Hoffman was last seen alive at 8 p.m. Saturday. He had been expected to pick up his children on Sunday but failed to show up, prompting playwright David Katz and another person to go to his apartment, where they found him dead, CNN said.
Disturbing and complex characters
Born in 1967 in upstate New York, Hoffman won an Academy Award for the 2005 biographical film Capote, in which he played writer Truman Capote. He also received three Academy Award nominations as best supporting actor, for The Master in 2013, Doubt in 2009 and Charlie Wilson's War in 2008.
Hoffman burst onto the film scene after more than a dozen earlier roles, like 1997's Boogie Nights, in which he played a lovelorn gay man in the movie about the porn industry.
While he appeared in blockbusters such as Twister and The Hunger Games series, Hoffman was more associated with the independent film world for his intense portrayals of often disturbing and complex characters in such films as Happiness, in which he played an obscene phone caller, and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.
'We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil and appreciate the outpouring of love and support we have received from everyone.'- Family of Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman
In the latter film he played a son who schemes to rob his parents' jewellery store, resulting in their deaths. But Hoffman could also play nice, as in Magnolia, in which he played the role of an angelic nurse.
Hoffman spoke in the past of struggling with drugs, including a 2006 interview in which he told CBS he had abused "anything I could get my hands on. I liked it all."
Philip Seymour Hoffman apartment
Police stand guard outside the home of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was found dead in his Greenwich village apartment on Sunday in New York. (John Minchillo/Associated Press)
Hoffman's family released a statement requesting privacy during their time of grief.
"We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil and appreciate the outpouring of love and support we have received from everyone," his family said. "Please keep Phil in your thoughts and prayers."
He leaves behind his partner of 15 years, Mimi O'Donnell, and their three children.
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 theatre 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 and his three siblings alone, and for taking him to his first play. Hoffman's parents divorced when he was 9.
With a versatility and discipline more common among British performers than Americans, he could seemingly take on any role, large or small, loathsome or sympathetic.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/philip-seymour-hoffman-dead-at-46-1.2520522
