Philip Seymour Hoffman Dead

[Flagg]

Apparent drug overdose. No article yet. Loved him in everything I saw him in.

[SCRawl]

Here's what the CBC has to say. Apparently heroin, but take it with the usual amount of salt.

He was an excellent actor, and his work will be missed.

Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in his New York City apartment on Sunday of an apparent drug overdose, according to a New York Police Department source.

The source said Hoffman was found dead after a 911 emergency call from a friend of the actor. The source gave no further details.

The New York Times, citing a law enforcement official, said investigators found a syringe in Hoffman's arm and an envelope containing what was believed to be heroin.

Hoffman, 46, won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 2005 biographical film Capote, and received three Academy Award nominations as Best Supporting Actor.

He often played comic, slightly off-kilter roles in movies like Along Came Polly, The Big Lebowski and Almost Famous. More recently, he was Plutarch Heavensbee in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and was reprising that role in the two-part sequel, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, which is in the works. And in Moneyball, he played Art Howe, the grumpy manager of the Oakland Athletics who resisted new thinking about baseball talent.

Just weeks ago, Showtime announced Hoffman would star in Happyish, a new comedy series about a middle-aged man's pursuit of happiness.

In The Master, he was nominated for the 2013 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the charismatic leader of a religious movement. The film was partly inspired by the life of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

He also received a 2009 supporting nomination for Doubt, as a priest who comes under suspicion because of his relationship with a boy, and a best supporting actor nomination for Charlie Wilson's War, as a CIA officer.

Born in 1967 in Fairport, N.Y., Hoffman was interested in acting from an early age, mesmerized at 12 by a local production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons. He studied theatre as a teenager with the New York State Summer School of the Arts and the Circle in the Square Theatre. He then majored in drama at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

With files from The Associated Press

Edit: I forgot to include the CBC's report inline. Bolding mine.

[Executor32]

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Actor, Dies at 46

By BRUCE WEBER and J. DAVID GOODMAN
February 2, 2014

Philip Seymour Hoffman, perhaps the most ambitious and widely admired American actor of his generation, who gave three-dimensional nuance to a wide range of sidekicks, villains and leading men on screen and embraced some of the theater’s most burdensome roles on Broadway, died Sunday at an apartment in Greenwich Village. He was 46.

The death, apparently from a drug overdose, was confirmed by the police. Mr. Hoffman was found in the apartment by a friend, David Bar Katz, who became concerned after being unable to reach him.

Investigators found a syringe in his left forearm, at least two plastic envelopes with what appeared to be heroin nearby, and five empty plastic envelopes in a trash bin, a law-enforcement official said.

Mr. Hoffman was long known to struggle with addiction. In 2006, he said in an interview with “60 Minutes” that he had given up drugs and alcohol many years earlier, when he was 22. But last year, he checked into a rehabilitation program for about 10 days after a reliance on prescription pills resulted in his briefly turning again to heroin.

“I saw him last week, and he was clean and sober, his old self,” said Mr. Katz, a playwright, who said he called 911 after finding Mr. Hoffman. “I really thought this chapter was over.”

On Sunday afternoon, Mr. Hoffman’s family released a statement saying: “We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil and appreciate the outpouring of love and support we have received from everyone. 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.”

As news of Mr. Hoffman’s death spread, fellow actors as well as fans took to Twitter to express their admiration for his acting and grief over his death. Ellen DeGeneres, who will host the Oscars ceremony in March over which Mr. Hoffman’s death is likely to cast a pall, posted: “Philip Seymour Hoffman was a brilliant, talented man. The news this morning is shocking and sad. My heart goes out to his loved ones.”

Mr. Hoffman won an Academy Award in 2006 for best actor for his role in the film “Capote,” in which he portrayed the author Truman Capote as Mr. Capote researched the book “In Cold Blood.”

Known for his scene-stealing supporting roles, Mr. Hoffman was nominated for the Academy Award for best supporting actor three times: for the 2012 film “The Master,” the 2008 film “Doubt,” and the 2007 film “Charlie Wilson’s War.” He also recently had a role in the hugely popular “The Hunger Games” films.

Mr. Hoffman had been acting in films for the last two decades, often transforming physically for each new role. He was prolific as well, sometimes filming several movies in a year and appearing in plays on Broadway.

In 2012, he played Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” on Broadway, a performance that earned him his third Tony Award nomination. He was also nominated for “True West” in 2000 and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in 2003.

“I try to live my life in such a way that I don’t have profound regrets,” Mr. Hoffman told The New York Times in 2008. “That’s probably why I work so much. I don’t want to feel I missed something important.”

Mr. Hoffman had three young children, a son and two daughters, with his partner, Mimi O’Donnell, a costume designer. The family lived in an apartment on Jane Street, neighbors said, not far from the building on Bethune Street where, according to the police, Mr. Hoffman was found dead in a fourth-floor apartment around 11:30 a.m. He appeared to have been living in the apartment for a short time, they said. The downstairs buzzer listed a different name.

Outside the Bethune Street building, more than 100 people had gathered Sunday afternoon to mourn the actor’s death. Near the crowd, two men who identified themselves as friends of Mr. Hoffman embraced and cried.

“He’s a local. He’s a fixture in this neighborhood,” said Christian McCulloch, 39, who said that he lives nearby. “You see him with his kids in the coffee shops. He is so sweet. It’s desperately sad.”

The plastic envelopes near Mr. Hoffman’s body that were believed to be heroin were stamped with two drug brands: one had purple letters spelling the words Ace of Spades and the other had a red icon of the ace of hearts, according to a law-enforcement official.

Narcotics detectives from the New York Police Department were investigating whether the brands had any significance or had surfaced in any other overdose cases. Investigators also planned to test the substances inside to determine if they had been tainted in anyway, though there was no initial indication that they had been.

The city medical examiner will also conduct tests to determine a cause of death. By early afternoon, his body remained in the apartment as crime scene investigators combed through the area.

Annie Correal, Emma G. Fitzsimmons and Dave Itzkoff contributed reporting.

Requiescat in pace.

EDIT: Article was updated, completely rewritten by the look of it.

[Flagg]

I absolutely loved him as the closeted homosexual cameraman with the crush on Mark Wahlberg in 'Boogie Nights'.

[Darth Yan]

I'm honestly shocked by this, and saddened. He really was a great and wonderful actor who will be missed. Just never knew he had drug problems

[JME2]

I'm honestly shocked by this, and saddened. He really was a great and wonderful actor who will be missed. Just never knew he had drug problems

Likewise.

[spaceviking]

I cant believe he was only 46, I assumed he was at least in his sixties.

[Iroscato]

I cant believe he was only 46, I assumed he was at least in his sixties.

I must admit I thought the same - I guess his earlier addiction could go some way to explaining that. He was hugely talented, and he will be missed. RIP.

[Havok]

He didn't have drug problems, he had all he wanted.

I thought he was amazing in and as Capote

[Ziggy Stardust]

My favorite role of his was as Gust Avrakotos in "Charlie Wilson's War."

[Lord Revan]

I must say he was very good at playing a supporting role that was both interesting to watch and not actively trying to upstage the main cast.