NEW YORK (TheBlaze/AP) — Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won a best actor Oscar in 2006 for his portrayal of writer Truman Capote in "Capote" and created a gallery of other vivid characters, many of them slovenly and slightly dissipated comic figures, was found dead in his Manhattan home Sunday.
FILE - In this Sunday, Jan. 19, 2014 file photo, cast member Philip Seymour Hoffman poses at the premiere of the film "A Most Wanted Man" during the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Danny Moloshok/Invision/AP, File)
The cause of death was an apparent drug overdose, The New York Times reported, citing a law enforcement official who requested anonymity because he was not certain the actor’s family had been informed of the death.
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The official said Mr. Hoffman, 46, was found in his West Village apartment around 11:30 a.m. by a friend who had become concerned at not being able to reach Mr. Hoffman.
Investigators found a syringe in his arm and an envelope containing what is believed to be heroin, the official said.
“It’s pretty apparent that it was an overdose,” the official said. “The syringe was in his arm.”
Hoffman, who was no matinee idol figure with his tubby, lumpy build and limp blond hair, made his career mostly as a character actor. He was nominated for Oscars four times in all.
In one of his earliest films, he played a spoiled prep school student in "Scent of a Woman" in 1992. One of his breakthrough roles 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 roles 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.
In "The Master," he was nominated for the 2013 Academy Award for best supporting actor for his role as the charismatic leader of a religious movement. The film, partly inspired by the life of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, reunited the actor with Anderson.
He also received a 2009 supporting nomination for "Doubt," as a priest who comes under suspicion because of his relationship with a boy, and a best supporting actor nomination for "Charlie Wilson's War," as a CIA officer.
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's Tisch School of the Arts.
Trained in the theater, with a versatility and discipline more common among British performers than Americans, he was a character actor who could take on any role, large or small, loathsome or sympathetic.
On the stage, he performed in revivals of "True West," ''Long Day's Journey Into Night" and "The Seagull," a summer production that also featured Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline. In 2012, he was more than equal to one of the great roles in American theater — Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman," a performance praised as "heartbreaking" by Associated Press 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."
The Times reported that Hoffman had undergone treatment for drug addiction in the past and noted in interviews his “falling off the wagon” last year after staying clean for 23 years.
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By around 2 p.m, more than a hundred people had gathered outside the address where the actor was found, in a brick apartment building on Bethune Street. The crowd was growing by the minute.
As people passed, they stopped, snapped photos, held hands and watched. They seemed to be waiting.
“He’s a local. He’s a fixture in this neighborhood,” said Christian McCulloch, 39, who said that he lives nearby. “You see him with his kids in the coffee shops, he is so sweet. It’s desperately sad.”
At a short distance from the crowd, two men who identified themselves as friends embraced, sobbing.
Another one of Hoffman's great performances was his portrayal of rock critic Lester Bangs in "Almost Famous," who in this scene gives some life advice to a young aspiring music critic who just had his heart broken and dreams shattered:
This is a breaking news story. Updates will be added.
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