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HoffmanBorn July 23, 1967 in Fairport, New York, a suburb of Rochester, Philip Seymour Hoffman was the son of a lawyer, now a judge, and her first husband, a Xerox employee. Educated at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, he graduated with a B.F.A. degree in Drama in 1989. By 1991 he was acting in an episode of TV’s Law and Order and shortly thereafter made his film debut in the little seen Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole.

Hoffman soon began being noticed in such prestige films as My New Gun, Leap of Faith, Scent of a Woman, The Getaway, When a Man Loves a Woman, Nobody’s Fool, Hard Eight and Twister. His breakout role came in 1997’s Boogie Nights. He was in four major films in 1998 (Next Stop Wonderland, The Big Liebowski, Happiness and Patch Adams) and another three in 1999 (Flawless, Magnolia and The Talented Mr. Ripley). It was for these last three films that he started receiving major awards recognition, earning a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Flawless and citations from various critics groups for all three films.

The actor continued to received critical acclaim for such films as 2000’s State and Main and Almost Famous and 2002’s Punch-Drunk Love, Red Dragon and 25th Hour. He was impressive in the lead in 2003’s Owning Mahowny and in support in Cold Mountain. He finally earned his first and only Oscar nomination in the lead category for 2005’s Capote, for which he won.

After winning his Oscar he played the villain in 2006’s box-office hit, Mission Impossible III and the co-leads in two critically acclaimed 2007 films, The Savages opposite Oscar nominee Laura Linney and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, the last film directed by Sidney Lumet, opposite Ethan Hawke. He received his second Oscar nomination, his first in support, for that year’s Charlie Wilson’s War, Mike Nichols’ last film. He then starred in 2008’s Synecdoche, New York and by year’s end could be seen in Doubt for which he received his third Oscar nomination, his second in support.

Subsequent films included 2011’s The Ides of March and Moneyball and 2012’s A Late Quartet and The Master for which he received his fourth Oscar nomination, his third in support. In 2013 he appeared in the first film in The Hunger Games trilogy and filmed the second installment, released in 2014, and the third to be released in 2015.

Philip Seymour Hoffman died of a drug overdose on February 2, 2014. He was just 46 years old. He was estranged from Mimi O’Donnell, his longtime companion and mother of his three children at the time of his death. One of his last films, the ironically titled A Most Wanted Man, which was released posthumously, contains one of his best performances. He had also played the lead in the unaired pilot for the TV series Happiesh which has recently began its run on Showtime with British actor Steve Coogan in the role Hoffman created.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

FLAWLESS (1945), directed by Joel Schumacker

Robert De Niro starred as a retired hero cop who suffers a stroke while attempting to save the life of a prostitute who lived in his building on New York’s Lower East Side. When his regular therapist suggests singing therapy to help his voice he turns to the drag queen in his building that he has always despised. Hoffman plays the drag queen with aspirations of becoming a real woman. It’s a poignant performance and one of Hoffman’s best.

Hoffman missed out on an Oscar nomination despite having been nominated for Best Actor by the Screen Actors Guild. He might have had better luck if had campaigned for Best Supporting Actor, an award he won from the San Diego Film Critics. He also won a Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, though the film isn’t really a comedy.

CAPOTE (1951), directed by Bennett Miller

Hoffman was apprehensive about playing famed author and personality Truman Capote and the research he did into the writing of his famed best-seller, In Cold Blood, but agreed to play the part after doing his own extensive research. The film was made currently with a competing film, Douglas McGrath’s Infamous covering the same material with British actor Toby Jones playing Capote. Most critics found Jones’ spot-on impersonation of Capote to be the superior one, but Miller’s film finished first and beat McGrath’s into theatres by almost a year.

Despite stiff competition from Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain and David Strathairn in Good Night and Good Luck, Hoffman was favored to win the Oscar and did so. He and Dustin Hoffman are the only actors with the same last name to win Oscars as lead actor.

DOUBT (1958), directed by John Patrick Shanley

By the time he made Doubt, Hoffman had played so many sleazy characters that there wasn’t much doubt that his outgoing priest would turn out to be the pedophile he was accused of being by stern nun Meryl Streep. Nevertheless his performance and those of Streep, Amy Adams as an impressionable young nun and Viola Davis as the mother of the molested boy are all first-rate and all deserving of their Oscar nominations.

Hoffman was the eighth actor to receive an Oscar nomination for playing a priest behind Spencer Tracy in San Francisco and Boys Town, Charles Bickford in The Song of Bernadette, Bing Crosby in Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary’s, Barry Fitzgerald in Going My Way, Gregory Peck in The Keys of the Kingdom, Karl Malden in On the Waterfront and Jason Miller in The Exorcist. Tracy, Crosby and Fitzgerald all won for their portrayals.

THE MASTER (1964), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

Hoffman gave what many consider to be his very best performance as the charismatic leader of a cult religion modeled on Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Although patterned on Hubbard, the character is actually a fictional one which provides equally powerful acting opportunities for fellow Oscar nominees Joaquin Phoenix as returning World War II sailor who falls under his influence and Amy Adams as Hoffman’s wife. Adams appeared in all three of the films for which Hoffman received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor and was herself nominated for the last two.

Hoffman became the seventh actor or actress to be nominated in support for playing the title character in a film behind Roland Young in Topper, Claude Rains in Mr. Skeffington, Terence Stamp in Billy Budd, Vanessa Redgrave in Julia, Mare Willingham in Georgia and Kate Winslet in Iris. Only Redgrave won for her performance.

A MOST WANTED MAN (2014), directed by Anton Corbijn

Posthumously released, this excellent thriller from a novel by John le Carré (The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, The Constant Gardner, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) with solid direction from Corbijn (Control, The American) provided Hoffman with yet another finely wrought character portrayal.

As can be expected from le Carré’s previous work, nothing in the film is quite as it seems and nothing Hoffman as a beleaguered spy bureau chief does to save the life of an innocent man will succeed. Grigoriy Dobrygin, Rachel McAdams, Daniel Bruhl, Robin Wright and Willem Dafoe also turn in fine performances, but it’s Hoffman’s performance that makes it one for the ages.

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN AND OSCAR

  • Oscar – Best Actor – Capote (2005)
  • Nominated Best Supporting Actor – Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)
  • Nominated Best Supporting Actor – Doubt (2008)
  • Nominated Best Supporting Actor – The Master (2012)

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