NEW YORK (Reuters) — Philip Seymour
Hoffman, one of the leading actors of his generation and winner of an
Academy Award for his title role in the film "Capote," was found dead in
his Manhattan apartment on Sunday in what a New York police source
described as an apparent drug overdose.
Hoffman, 46, was discovered unresponsive on the bathroom floor of
his Greenwich Village apartment by police responding to a 911 call,
and Emergency Medical Service workers declared him dead at the
scene, New York City police said in a statement. An investigation
was under way.
A police spokesman said investigators found Hoffman with a syringe
in his arm and recovered two small plastic bags in the apartment
containing a substance suspected of being heroin. A police
department source earlier told Reuters that Hoffman had died of an
apparent drug overdose.
Hoffman, who is survived by three children with his partner Mimi
O'Donnell, had detailed his struggles with substance abuse in the
past.
"We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil and appreciate
the outpouring of love and support we have received from everyone,"
Hoffman's family said in a statement issued through his publicist.
"This is a tragic and sudden loss and we ask that you respect our
privacy during this time of grieving. Please keep Phil in your
thoughts and prayers," it added. A representative said the family
would not make any further statements for now.
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 neighbor who described herself as a fan, said she
frequently saw him around the neighborhood.
"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
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.
Hoffman spoke in the past of struggling with drugs, including a 2006
interview in which he told CBS he had at times abused "anything I
could get my hands on. I liked it all."
His death, if confirmed from an overdose, would recall the 2008
death of actor Heath Ledger, who was found dead in his Manhattan
apartment from a lethal combination of drugs.
Born in upstate New York near Rochester, Hoffman won the Best Actor
Oscar 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.
After more than a dozen earlier roles, Hoffman burst onto the film
scene in 1997's "Boogie Nights," in which he played a lovelorn gay
man in a movie about the porn industry that helped make Mark
Wahlberg a star.
PORTRAYED DISTURBING CHARACTERS
Hoffman, who brought a workmanlike intensity to his roles, often
played characters with innate intelligence and logical minds riven
by underlying passion. The blond, thickset actor's on-screen persona
could range from professorial to unkempt, from the aloof
intellectual to the everyman.
Hoffman appeared in blockbusters such as "Twister" and "The Hunger
Games" series. But he was more often associated with the independent
film world for his 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."
In the latter, he played a son who schemes to rob his parents'
jewelry store, resulting in their deaths. Hoffman could also play
nice, as in his portrayal of an angelic nurse in "Magnolia."
Other noteworthy films included "Moneyball," "The Savages," "Cold
Mountain" and "Scent of a Woman," one of his earliest films, which
garnered its star, Al Pacino, an Oscar.
Lionsgate, the studio behind "The Hunger Games," called Hoffman "one
of the most gifted actors of our generation."
"We're very fortunate that he graced our 'Hunger Games' family.
Losing him in his prime is a tragedy, and we send our deepest
condolences to Philip's family," the studio said in a statement.
Hoffman also frequently appeared on Broadway, earning Tony award
nominations for his role as the main character Willy Loman in "Death
of a Salesman," and for his parts in "Long Day's Journey Into Night"
and "True West."
"If you missed him as Willy Loman, you missed a Willy Loman for all
time," actor Steve Martin said on Twitter on Sunday.
"This is a horrible day for those who worked with Philip," Tom
Hanks, who co-starred with him in "Charlie Wilson's War," said in a
statement. "He was a giant talent. Our hearts are open for his
family."
And British comedian Russell Brand, who has discussed his own
struggles with drug abuse, offered his sympathies to Hoffman's
family on Twitter. "Addiction kills, I hope all who need it have
access to abstinence based recovery," he wrote.
Showtime, the cable television network which had just ordered a
10-episode comedy, "Happyish," starring Hoffman and produced by his
company, Cooper's Town Productions, mourned the loss of the talented
actor.
"Philip Seymour Hoffman was one of our generation's finest and most
brilliant actors. He was also a gifted comedic talent. It was a
great privilege and pleasure to work with him and we are all
absolutely devastated by this sudden loss," it said.
Hoffman appeared last month at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah
for the premiere of "A Most Wanted Man," an espionage thriller based
on the John le Carre novel in which he played German spy Gunther
Bachmann.
At the premiere, Hoffman told Reuters that he connected to Gunther's
personality, a man driven by the shame of previous failure into an
obsessive pursuit of capturing terrorists by any means necessary.
"I think it'd be hard for anyone not to connect with the loneliness.
He's pretty lonely, driven, obsessive guy, unforgiving of himself in
a lot of ways. A lot of traits that a lot of people carry in one
grade or another," Hoffman said.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said via Twitter: "Saddened by Philip
Seymour Hoffman's tragic and untimely passing. Today New York mourns
the loss of one of stage and screen's greats."
(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere and Chris Michaud; additional
reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis, Piya Sinha Roy and Mary Milliken in
Los Angeles and Angela Moon and Chris Francescani in New York;
editing by Cynthia Johnston, Dan Grebler, Leslie Adler and Eric
Walsh)
