[OBIT]Philip Seymour Hoffman

[jalfa]

Oscar-winning American actor Philip Seymour Hoffman has been found dead in New York, police say.

The 46-year-old was found in his Manhattan apartment after a friend called the emergency services.

The police said the cause of death was an apparent drug overdose.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-26009575

this one stings more than I care to admit.

EDIT: Detailed report

 

[Padrino]

this one stings more than I care to admit.

i have to admit, i feel the same way. from The Master to Synecdoche, New York to Capote to Punch Drunk Love to Charlie Wilson's War to The Big Lebowski to lighter fare like Twister, the guy could do anything. from small, thankless roles to big, important roles, he was one of the greatest living american character actors, and would pour himself completely into a role, mining it for maximum empathy, and turning many one-dimensional characters into wonderful and often troubling performances. if you go to his IMDB page and scroll through his filmography, you can't help but joyously exclaim, "oh, yeah!! he was in that, too!!" RIP PSH.

 

[swisshh]

Yeah, great actor that always stood out in every role that I can remember. He's not an actor I would chase movies to see, but then I look at my film collection and realize he's in a lot of the movies I value.

 

[Glenn]

He OD'd on heroin. It's a shame but, having worked in a methadone clinic for heroin abusers, I know darn well why people use heroin. The trouble is it is not regulated and the quality cannot be known unless you are very careful. This may have been a suicide. It's a shame. It's not like I knew him but as others have mentioned, his body of work is spectacular.

 

[Bricklayer]

yikes, was going to say he was early 50s. mid 40s. yeesh. Bodies begin to give out at that age though if you abuse them enough I guess.

 

[VF21]

From Breitbart.com:

The New York Post has reported that Hoffman died of an apparent drug overdose, "in the bathroom with a hypodermic needle still in his arm," according to police.

I really liked him. It truly saddens me to see another incredible talent lost because of drugs or alcohol. Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Elvis Presley, John Beluchi, Chris Farley, Lenny Bruce, John Bonham. Amy Winehouse, and so many more...

 

[jalfa]

spent some time on youtube, reminding myself of great moments:

just a spectacular actor. probably my favourite, aside from Daniel Day-Lewis.

 

[Padrino]

truly wonderful retrospective by Matthew Zoller-Seitz in the immediacy of Philip Seymour Hoffman's unexpected death:

http://www.rogerebert.com/mzs/stay-funny-valentine-phillip-seymour-hoffman-1967-2014

Think of how many Hoffman performances are memorable because you don't want to think about them for long because they make you uncomfortable, not in that phony undergraduate drama student sense, but because they tease out some buried truth about humanity, maybe about you in particular, often within the context of a character you never expected to connect with, much less identify with. Real honesty in acting is a rare thing. It comes from a mix of technique, emotional intelligence, and a rejection of vanity: a mix of qualities that causes the viewer to think only about the character, never about the character in relation to the actor playing him. Hoffman always valued that sort of rare, true honesty. That's why you kept looking at him even when you wanted to look away.

the above strikes me as the reason we're seeing such an overwhelmingly anguished outcry from fans and the film community at large. we're not patting ourselves on the back in self-satisfaction that we've done our good deed for the day by faux-mourning the loss of a beloved cultural figure. we are genuinely hurting at this loss, and no amount of cynicism will convince me otherwise...

after watching Charlie Kaufman's 'Synecdoche, New York' for the first and only time, i was left in tears, aghast, bewildered, confused, lonely, aching, and rapturous all at once. i was not the same person after watching that film, and that is not overstatement. great art is often transformative, and P.S.H.'s portrayal of Caden Cotard "tease[d] out some buried truth about humanity, maybe about [me] in particular, often within the context of a character [i ] never expected to identify with."

'Synecdoche' arrived in theaters in 2008. i missed out on it during its limited theatrical run, but finally got around to purchasing it on DVD in the summer of 2010, an important period in my life between my undergraduate and graduate educations. i have not put it back into the DVD player since then, and not because it isn't a truly magnificent achievement of both acting and direction. it is simply that such a film and such a performance cannot be casually watched. it is not background noise or escapism. in fact, it is a movie and a central performance that cannot be escaped. it hounds and haunts the viewer long after the end credits have rolled. it leaves you squirming in that life-affirming way that reminds us of our own humanity. as Matt Zoller-Seitz so beautifully articulates in his article:

Throughout much of his early career, Hoffman played characters distinguished by an agonized and agonizing neediness. Sometime in the late '90s I joked to a friend that I hesitated to see any film with Phillip Seymour Hoffman in it, because he took so much out of me. I didn't really mean that I didn't want to see him in anything, of course; I was exaggerating my ambivalence, or revulsion, as a gesture of respect for his power as an actor. I meant that if you saw a film with Hoffman in the cast, you were probably committing to watch at least one character, Hoffman's, humiliate himself, or open his heart to to the wrong person, or to the right person at the wrong moment, or do or say something that would make me think of a person I'd really rather not remember, or fear becoming.

Hoffman knew how to locate us at our centers. he was a rare breed of actor in an age when such talents are fading from an industry that's less and less interested in making movies for adults...

R.I.P. P.S.H.

 

[HndsmCelt]

He will be sorely missed. Versatile and talented.

 

[GoGoGadget]

this one stings more than I care to admit.

Ditto. He's been one of my very favorite actors to watch since Boogie Nights.

One of my cousins worked for a while at the theater company he'd been a part of since the mid-1990s and at which he was artistic director for a few years. His passing is a huge blow to the theater community, as well.