Philip Seymour Hoffman Biography

Stage and screen actor Philip Seymour Hoffman won critical raves and an Oscar as best actor for his starring role in the 2005 movie Capote.

Hoffman earned a reputation early in his career as a hard-working actor’s actor, in supporting roles in films like The Getaway (1994) and Twister (1996).

His stock shot up after appearing in the Paul Thomas Anderson dramas Boogie Nights (1997, starring Mark Wahlberg) and Magnolia (1999, with Tom Cruise), and he became a regular player in high-profile movies, including The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999, starring Matt Damon) and Almost Famous (2000, as the music critic Lester Bangs).

He also proved his comic abilities in the Coen brothers‘ The Big Lebowski (1998, with Julianne Moore) and Along Came Polly (2004, with Ben Stiller).

Hoffman has a successful stage career too, with three Tony nominations (though no wins) to his credit: for True West (2000), Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2003), and for his acclaimed turn as Willy Loman in a 2012 revival of Death of a Salesman.

He agreed to play writer Truman Capote for a childhood friend, writer/director Bennett Miller, and helped support the production of Capote. The role won him many prizes, including both a Golden Globe and the Oscar.

His other films include Red Dragon (2002, starring Ralph Fiennes), Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007, with Ethan Hawke), Charlie Wilson’s War (2007, starring Tom Hanks), Doubt (2008, with Meryl Streep and Viola Davis), and The Master (2012).

Hoffman was nominated for Oscars for his supporting roles in Charlie Wilson’s War, Doubt, and The Master, but Capote was his only Oscar win.

Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in his New York City apartment on February 2, 2014; The New York Post reported that he “was found dead of an apparent drug overdose — in the bathroom with a hypodermic needle still in his arm.” The coroner later ruled his death accidental, saying the cause was “acute drug intoxication” and that heroin, cocaine, benzodiazepines and amphetamines had been found in his system.