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Philip Seymour Hoffman won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2006 for his portrayal of Truman Capote in Capote 2005. His filmography includes Boogie Nights 1997, Magnolia 1999, and The Master 2012. He also directed plays and was co-artistic director of the LAByrinth Theater Company. He died of acute mixed drug intoxication in 2014 at age 46.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Philip Seymour Hoffman — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Philip Seymour Hoffman by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Philip Seymour Hoffman — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Philip Seymour Hoffman was born July 23, 1967, in Fairport, New York, a suburb of Rochester. His parents divorced when he was nine, and his mother Marilyn raised four children alone. He attended Fairport High School, where he first acted after a crush on a girl in drama club. He later studied at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, graduating with a BFA in Drama in 1989.
Hoffman’s breakthrough came in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights 1997. He quickly became an indie icon with roles in Happiness 1998, Magnolia 1999, and Almost Famous 2000. His turn as Truman Capote in Capote 2005 won him the Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and other major prizes. On stage, he earned Tony nominations for True West 2000 and Long Day’s Journey into Night 2003. He also directed for the LAByrinth Theater Company.
Hoffman met costume designer Mimi O’Donnell in 1999 while working on the play In Arabia We’d All Be Kings. They had three children: Cooper 2003, Tallulah 2006, and Willa 2008. The couple split in 2013. Hoffman struggled with addiction, becoming sober at age 22, but relapsed with heroin in 2013 and died of acute mixed drug intoxication on February 2, 2014.
Hoffman’s performance in Capote 2005 is ranked #35 on Premiere Magazine’s 100 Greatest Performances of All Time. He was one of 14 actors to win the Academy Award, BAFTA, Critics’ Choice, Golden Globe, and SAG Award for a single performance. He inspired fellow actors with his intense, immersive character work and remains remembered as one of the finest actors of his generation.
The complete filmography of Philip Seymour Hoffman — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Philip Seymour Hoffman — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Philip Seymour Hoffman — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
A Lot of People Describe Me as Chubby, Which Seems so Easy, so First Choice. or Stocky. Fair Skinned. Towheaded. There Are so Many Other Choices. How About Dense? I Mean, I’m a Thick Kind of Guy. but I’m Never Described in Attractive Ways. I’m Waiting for Somebody to Say I’m at Least Cute. but Nobody Has.
Being Unemployed Is Not Good for Any Actor, No Matter How Successful You Are. You Always Remember What It Feels Like to Go to the Unemployment Office, What It Feels Like to Be Fired from All Those Restaurants.
Actors Are Responsible to the People We Play. I Don’t Label or Judge. I Just Play Them as Honestly and Expressively and Creatively as I Can, in the Hope That People Who Ordinarily Turn Their Heads in Disgust Instead Think, ‘What I Thought I’d Feel About That Guy, I Don’t Totally Feel Right Now’ “. on His Responsibility as an Actor.
To Have That Concentration to Act Well Is Like Lugging Things up Staircases in Your Brain. I Think That’s a Thing People Don’t Understand. It Is That Exhausting. If You’re Doing It Well, If You’re Concentrating the Way You Need To, If Your Will and Your Concentration and Emotional and Imagination and Emotional Life Are All in Tune, Concentrated and Working Together in That Role, That Is Just Like Lugging Weights Upstairs with Your Head..And I Don’t Think That Should Get Any Easier”. on Acting.
Other People Disagree with Me, but Scent of a Woman Really Was My Breakthrough. I Was Working in the Prepared Foods Section of a Deli When I Was Cast in That Movie, and I’ve Never Had a Non Acting Job Since. That’s Amazing.
Success Isn’t What Makes You Happy. It Really Isn’t. Success Is Doing What Makes You Happy and Doing Good Work and Hopefully Having a Fruitful Life. If I’ve Felt Like I’ve Done Good Work, That Makes Me Happy. the Success Part of It Is All Gravy.
Sometimes I’m Working on a Film and Someone Will Ask Me If I’m Having Fun. and I’m Tempted to Tell Them the Truth: No, Absolutely Not. Having No Fun Here at All. You Know What’s Going to Be Fun? When It’s Done, and I’ve Done a Fuckin’ Good Job, and I Know People Are Getting Something Out of That. I’ll Have a Lot of Fun Then. a Ton of It.
I’m Probably More Personal When I’m Acting Than at Any Other Time. More Open, More Direct. Because It Allows Me to Be Something That I Can’t Always Feel Comfortable with When I’m Living My Own Life, You Know? Because It’s Make Believe.
Acting Is so Difficult for Me That, Unless the Work Is of a Certain Stature in My Mind, Unless I Reach the Expectations I Have of Myself, I’m Unhappy. Then It’s a Miserable Existence. I’m Putting a Piece of Myself Out There. If It Doesn’t Do Anything, I Feel so Ashamed. I’m Afraid I’ll Be the Kind of Actor Who Thought He Would Make a Difference and Didn’t. Right Now, Though, I Feel Like I Made a Little Bit of Difference.
Doing a Play Is Good for Me Because It’s a Nice Change from Being on a Movie Set. I Try to Do a Play Every Year Because It Just Invigorates Me.
It’s Not by Going into ‘the Business,’. the Business Can’t Be a Thought. You Get a Foothold Because You Want to Get a Foothold as an Artist. Your Desire, Your Intensity, Has to Be About Being a Great Actor or a Great Painter or a Great Musician. If That’s Strong Enough, It’ll Lead You to Good Teachers and to Places Where You’ll Learn. for Me, the Business Wasn’t a Thought. I Was Doing a Play, and a Friend in the Play Said, ‘My Manager Is Here Tonight and She Wants to Meet You.’ and I Said, ‘Oh.’ and That’s How I Got a Manager.
My Favorite Thing About Acting Is Being Alone and Going Through the Scripts and Working on It and Getting Ideas and Asking Myself Questions, Looking Outside Myself for Them and Researching and Getting to the Bottom of Something and Being Creative with It as an Actor and How to Express It in a Creative Fashion. That’s My Favorite Part. And,the Actual Acting of It.
On My Down Time I Do a Lot of Nothing. I Just Kinda Read, Run and Hang Out with Friends Because I Haven’t Had a Lot of It Lately. I Just Try to Do a Lot of Nothing. Go to Some Sports. I Like to Play Tennis. I Travel a Lot with My Work Now so If You Are Travelling All the Time You Don’t Want to Travel You Want to Stay Home. and When You Stay Home You Really Don’t Want to Do Too Much Because You’ve Been Going Out and Getting up Early and Staying Out Late All the Time. so You Just Do Very Little.
Sometimes It’s Hard to Say No. Ultimately, If You Stick to Your Guns, You Have the Career That You Want. Don’t Get Me Wrong. I Love a Good Payday and I’ll Do Films for Fun. but Ultimately My Main Goal Is to Do Good Work. If It Doesn’t Pay Well, so Be It.
The Stage Can Be More Satisfying Because You Spend a Lot of Time Rehearsing, and Film Is More Technical. in the End It Just Depends on the Work and the Director. I Do Like the World of the Theater Though.
Film Is a Very Uncomfortable Medium for an Actor. It’s Just Not Conducive to Doing What Actors Do. the First Few Days of Shooting Are Like You Just Getting Over the Fact That Your There. These People and the Camera Over the Shoulder and the Light and the Boom You’re Just Going Crazy Trying to Find Some Kind of Center of Relaxation and Then You Can Get into a Rhythm and It Can Be Very Satisfying. If You Do Good Work and It’s on Film, That’s a Very Satisfying Thing. 2006.
Actors Are Responsible to the People We Play.
My Passion to Develop as an Actor Didn’t Have Anything to Do with People Knowing Me. I Had No Idea That Would Happen. to Become Famous, to Become a Celebrity Is Something That I Thought Happened to Other People.
I Teach Acting Sometimes Not a Lot, but Once in a While and What I Really Try to Say to Them ‘Cause I Know It’s True Is That If You’re Doing a Play or You’re Shooting a Film, the Way You Feel After a Performance That Night, or After a Day of Work, If You’ve Done Well, Is the Best It Gets. You Don’t Need Anyone to Tell You. I Always Say It’s Like When You Can Go Home and Fall Asleep and Wake up Well Rested. That’s as Good as It Gets, Because Everything Else Is Fleeting. It’s What Keeps You Going Back to Work.
Little-known facts about Philip Seymour Hoffman — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
He named Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Newman, Meryl Streep and Christopher Walken as his acting idols.
While accepting his Oscar for Capote 2005, Hoffman asked the audience to congratulate his mother, who raised four children alone.
He won 23 awards for his performance in Capote 2005, including the coveted Oscar.
Beat Heath Ledger for the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2005 for his title role in Capote 2005, and then lost to Ledger for Best Supporting Actor in 2008 for The Dark Knight 2008.
He did not drink alcohol. He became sober at age 22 and said he quit because he was panicked for his life.
In May 2013, Hoffman checked into a substance abuse treatment center because he had started snorting heroin.
He was one of 14 actors to win the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Critics Choice Award, Golden Globe Award, and SAG Award for the same performance. The others include Geoffrey Rush, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, Javier Bardem, Daniel Day-Lewis, Heath Ledger, Christoph Waltz, Colin Firth, Christopher Plummer, J.K. Simmons, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sam Rockwell, and Gary Oldman.
His performance as Truman Capote in Capote 2005 is ranked #35 on Premiere Magazine’s 100 Greatest Performances of All Time 2006.
With the exception of There Will Be Blood 2007, he appeared in all of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films.
His mother, Marilyn Hoffman Connor, is a judge in Rochester, New York.
He had the flu the entire time he appeared in Almost Famous 2000.
He became a father for the first time at age 35 when his girlfriend Mimi O’Donnell gave birth to their son Cooper Alexander Hoffman in March 2003.
He initially began acting because he had a crush on a girl in his high school drama club.
He became a father for the third time at age 41 when Mimi O’Donnell gave birth to their daughter Willa Hoffman on October 17, 2008.
He was a huge fan of the crime drama series Breaking Bad 2008.
After winning his Oscar for Capote 2005, he worked with a filmmaker from his former high school in Fairport, New York, helping him with a project.
GoodFellas 1990 was one of his favorite films.
He taught an advanced Directing the Actor class for one semester at Columbia University School of the Arts Graduate Film Division during 2003.
His three Oscar nominations in the Best Supporting Actor category came from films in which he appeared with Amy Adams: Charlie Wilson’s War 2007, Doubt 2008, and The Master 2012.
His funeral was held in the Church of St Ignatius Loyola in New York.
He split from longtime companion Mimi O’Donnell in 2013.
He received his Bachelor’s degree in Drama from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts in 1989.
Since earning his first nomination in 2005, the longest he went without an Oscar nomination was four years, between Doubt 2008 and The Master 2012.
He became a father for the second time at age 39 when Mimi O’Donnell gave birth to their daughter Tallulah Hoffman in November 2006.
He met his girlfriend Mimi, a costume designer, in 1999 while working on the play In Arabia We’d All Be Kings.
He grew up in upstate New York, outside Rochester, in the village of Fairport.
He attended McQuaid Jesuit High School where Father William O’Malley directed the school’s musical and drama productions.
He was found dead on the bathroom floor, dressed in a T-shirt and shorts with a hypodermic needle still stuck in his arm and 70 baggies of heroin inside his Greenwich Village apartment.
He appeared in five films with Julianne Moore: Boogie Nights 1997, The Big Lebowski 1998, Magnolia 1999, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 2014, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 2015.
Along with Vanessa Redgrave, Kate Winslet, Mare Winningham, Terence Stamp, Roland Young, and Claude Rains, he is one of the few performers to be nominated for a Supporting Oscar for playing the title role in a movie for The Master 2012.
He was a huge fan of the New York Jets.
He appeared in The Talented Mr. Ripley 1999 and Red Dragon 2002, both remakes, and both feature him as a character named Freddie who is killed by the villain.
He was twice nominated for Broadway’s Tony Award: as Best Actor Play in 2000 for a revival of True West, and as Best Actor Featured Role – Play in 2003 for a revival of Long Day’s Journey into Night.
He had Dutch, English, German, Irish, and remote Polish ancestry.
He auditioned for the role of Cubby Barnes in Ransom 1996, which went to Donnie Wahlberg.
He was one of eight actors to receive an Oscar nomination for playing a priest. The others include Spencer Tracy, Charles Bickford, Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Gregory Peck, Karl Malden, and Jason Miller.
He appeared in three films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Scent of a Woman 1992, Capote 2005, and Moneyball 2011.
He appeared in one film selected for the National Film Registry: The Big Lebowski 1998.
As of 2008, he and Dustin Hoffman are the only two Best Actor Oscar winners to share the last name.
At New York University, he was a founding member of the Bullstoi Ensemble with actor Steven Schub and director Bennett Miller.
The Violence of Summer 1991, in which he appeared, also featured another actor named Philip Hoffman.
His parents divorced when he was 9.
Hoffman was found dead on February 2, 2014, one day after the death of fellow Best Actor Oscar winner Maximilian Schell.
In 2002, he appeared in 25th Hour 2002, Punch-Drunk Love 2002, and Red Dragon 2002.
While working as a lifeguard, he once met musician Miles Davis.
He was active in sports as a child, particularly wrestling.
He had a younger sister Emily and an older sister Jill.
Besides playing Truman Capote, he and Toby Jones both appeared in films adapted from John Le Carre novels.
His parents were Gordon S. Hoffman and Marilyn Hoffman Connor.
College roommates at NYU with Steven Schub and Jimmie Corrieri.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Celebrities similar to Philip Seymour Hoffman — same craft, ranked by reach.
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