R.I.P.: Philip Seymour Hoffman

[Harold]

Dead at 46. Found in his NYC apartment. Reports indicate apparent heroin overdose - more than apparent, actually.

This one is really hitting me hard. A brilliant actor, one of my favorites. He'd apparently struggled with addiction years earlier, was clean for decades, then it flared up again last year to the point where he did a stint in rehab. I was hoping that was the end of it. Truly, truly awful news.

Hoffman won a well-deserved Oscar for Capote, was nominated for Charlie Wilson's War, Doubt, and The Master, and was reliably excellent in dozens of other films (Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Happiness, The Talented Mr. Ripley, etc.). He will be greatly missed. Most of all, of course, by the partner and three children he leaves behind, and by all who worked with him, but also by all of us who appreciate great acting. Damn, damn, damn.

[Greg]

same here. really, really sad.

[JimmyJazz]

RIP, an amazing talent who will be greatly missed. Dead at 46 is a pretty crazy thing. He won an oscar for Capote, but I honestly think that he deserved to win for The Master in 2012, and was criminally robbed because of the Scientology mafia that runs Hollywood. I always really loved his collaborations with PTA. He so heavily helped to define movies like Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and aformentioned movie.

[Gillingham]

I was perplexed when I heard this horrible news. One of the best actors of his time. We've all lost a great talent this week.
R.I.P.

[Bruce]

I saw "Flawless" for the first time a few weeks ago, he was great in that too.

[whuntva]

Such a sad passing. He was one of the best actors of hgis generation. In anotehr ten years, he may have become one of the all-time greats. I loved the Master, Magnolia, even Catching Fire. Whenever he's on screen, he makes the movie that much better.

[Harold]

Such a sad passing. He was one of the best actors of hgis generation. In anotehr ten years, he may have become one of the all-time greats. I loved the Master, Magnolia, even Catching Fire. Whenever he's on screen, he makes the movie that much better.

I would argue that he'd already staked a pretty good claim to all-time greatness. When a magazine like Entertainment Weekly can make a 10-best-performances list for an actor and then get inundated with strong cases for a couple dozen more that it overlooked, that's a fair indicator of the extent to which Hoffman had built a body of work for the ages. The difference between Hoffman and, say, Heath Ledger is that Ledger was only just coming into his own and had acres of yet-untapped potential; Hoffman had fulfilled his potential, and then some, and then some more. It's tragic that we won't get to see how he would have extended that prodigious talent into his fifties, and sixties, and beyond, but thank God we have everything we've got.

I keep going back to YouTube to watch this scene from 2007's Charlie Wilson's War: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=066BFGk6QvA. As perfect a conflation of writer (Aaron Sorkin), director (Mike Nichols), and actor as could be imagined, and very likely the scene that earned Hoffman the richly deserved Oscar nomination he received for a film of which his performance was, very much so, the undisputed highlight. It's far from the best movie Hoffman ever appeared in, but it might be my favorite of his performances.

[JimmyJazz]

Fully agreed, Harold. Very eloquently put.