Philip Seymour Hoffman (Actor)

About Philip Seymour Hoffman

Widely recognized as one of the strongest stage and film actors of his generation, Philip Seymour Hoffman delivered knockout supporting roles in films like “Boogie Nights” (1997), “Magnolia” (1999) and “Almost Famous” (2000), before breaking out with an Oscar-winning lead as the famed author in “Capote” (2005). The co-creative director of New York’s LAByrinth theater company brought theater-trained sensibilities and a fearless approach to some of cinema’s most uncomfortably realistic portrayals, battling dark human urges, addictions, and moral conflicts with powerful if unflattering vulnerability. That was not to overlook Hoffman’s considerable comedic talents, expressed in finely nuanced characterizations of a loyal assistant in “The Big Lebowski” (1997), a blocked screenwriter in “State and Main” (2000), a desperate former child actor in “Along Came Polly” (2004), and a maturity challenged college professor in “The Savages” (2007).

Philip Seymour Hoffman was born on July 23, 1967, and raised in the upstate New York town of Fairport, along with two sisters and a brother. Their father was a salesman with Xerox and their mother, a politically active liberal and feminist organizer – in a conservative town, no less – went to law school and eventually became a lawyer and family court judge. She was also the cultural ambassador of the family, taking her children on arts and theater trips to New York City, where the future Academy Award winner first absorbed stage dramas by the likes of Arthur Miller. But whereas older brother Gordon enjoyed making Super 8 films and younger sister Emily appeared in school plays, Hoffman was initially the “jock” of the family, particularly talented at baseball and wrestling — a complex battle of wit and will that he would one day say prepared him for the stage.

Wrestling was bumped from the agenda after Hoffman suffered a neck injury that prevented him from returning to the mat, leading the teen to become active in the theater department at Fairport High School. The drama coach’s surprisingly sophisticated choice of productions included “M*A*S*H,” “The Crucible,” and “Death of a Salesman,” in which Hoffman starred as Willy Loman. Hoffman enrolled at a youth acting summer program and landed his first professional stage role in a regional theater before graduating high school and pursuing acting at New York University. Hoffman was extremely dedicated to his craft while studying at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, augmenting his curriculum with training at the Circle in the Square Theater, in spite of a lifestyle that was beginning to threaten his aspirations. He received his BFA in Drama in 1989 and promptly checked into a rehab facility, wisely establishing a strong foundation for the challenging road of a struggling (and eventually successful) actor.

Hoffman’s talents were well advanced beyond his 22 years, according to director Austin Pendleton, who hired him to appear in several productions at the Williamstown Theater in Massachusetts that summer. At the close of the season, Pendleton cast Hoffman again in “King Lear” at the Hole Theater in New Jersey. Settled back in New York City, Hoffman held down a string of random service jobs and began the arduous task of “getting himself out there,” landing a small role in TV’s “Law & Order” (NBC, 1990- ) and a few micro-budget independent films before scoring a big break in a small but pivotal role as Chris O’Donnell’s snooty prepster buddy in "Scent of a Woman" (1992). Al Pacino won an Oscar for his starring role as a cantankerous blind general, and Hoffman’s association with the high profile film helped open doors for the newcomer.

Hoffman next appeared as one of charismatic healer Steve Martin’s employees in "Leap of Faith" (1992), and began building his character resume with "Sliver" (1993), “Money for Nothing” (1993), "When a Man Loves a Woman" (1994), and “Nobody’s Fool” (1994), in which he was punched out by real-life hero Paul Newman. He had the opportunity to work with another film legend when he was cast in Peter Sellars’ infamous staging of "The Merchant of Venice," which opened at Chicago’s Goodman Theater before touring internationally. While on the production, Hoffman met New York actor David Ortiz, and upon the pair’s return to New York they partnered as creative directors of the LAByrinth theater company, a collective where budding actors, directors, and playwrights could develop and stage their works.

Following several off-Broadway performances in 1996, Hoffman regained focus on film work, appearing as an infectiously enthusiastic storm chaser in "Twister" (1996), before being cast as a casino gambler in “Hard Eight,” which began his long-term association with director Paul Thomas Anderson. The following year, Anderson gave Hoffman his first significant supporting role as a film crew member with a crush on porn star Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg) in "Boogie Nights" (1997). Hoffman's fearlessly realistic portrayal of the hanger-on who does not stand a chance elicited both sympathy and horror in moviegoers, the actor establishing the unsettling emotional verite that would become a hallmark of his exceptional work.

The year 1998 was Hoffman’s busiest year yet, with several off-Broadway performances and no less than six film roles. The actor offered a gallery of portraits from earnest assistant to "The Big Lebowski" to Hope Davis' politically active boyfriend in "Next Stop Wonderland." In Todd Solondz's darkly comedic "Happiness," Hoffman played an average cubicle dweller who sublimates his boring, lonely existence with graphic obscene phone calls. This no-holds-barred performance nearly stole the film out from under talented actors in incendiary performances, including Dylan Baker as a family man/pedophile. Hoffman was colder and more composed as the by-the-books med school roommate of Robin Williams' "Patch Adams.” Throughout his growing range of characterizations, Hoffman continued to stand out for his willingness to be emotionally exposed, and often physically unattractive to great dramatic effect.

As his profile increased, so did his opportunities to work with high-caliber acting and directing veterans. Following his breakout in 1998, Hoffman landed his biggest and most challenging role to date, starring as a pre-op transsexual vocal coach opposite Robert De Niro's homophobic stroke victim in Joel Schumacher's "Flawless" (1999). Disclosing in interviews that he got in touch with Rusty's need to be a woman by calling upon his own feelings of inadequacy and not belonging, Hoffman delivered another almost uncomfortably emotionally true performance. He followed up with Paul Thomas Anderson's ambitious drama "Magnolia" (1999), playing gentle and well-adjusted caretaker Phil Parma, a role written specifically for the actor by Anderson and one that showcased a different angle of the actor’s raw fragility. A turn in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" as a wealthy lad of leisure who sees through Ripley's facade rounded out 1999’s film appearances.

Hoffman made his LAByrinth directing debut in 1999 with the "In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings," a drama about the changing face of Times Square. From downtown independent theater to the Great White Way, Hoffman next performed opposite John C. Reilly in Sam Shepard’s family portrait “True West.” The actors alternated their lead roles as dissimilar brothers, a promising young screenwriter and an errant drifter, throughout the four-month run and each earned a Tony nomination for their formidable performances. Hoffman took on a very different screenwriter and leading role in David Mamet’s “State and Main” (2000) and tackled still another scribe in Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical rock-and-roll coming of age odyssey, "Almost Famous" (2000). As groundbreaking rock critic Lester Bangs, Hoffman give a tour-de-force supporting performance that rang true to the idealistic passion and acerbic, cynical spirit of Bangs. At this point in his career, if Seymour Hoffman was NOT stealing every scene he was in, it was the exception and not the rule.

The actor who had rarely offered any glimpses into his personal life or political standing was a surprising center of the 2000 political documentary "The Last Party 2000," bringing a sense of wonder and urgency as the film's host and guide to the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. With LAByrinth, Hoffman returned to the director’s seat for "Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train,” a well-reviewed drama about Riker’s Island inmates starring John Ortiz. He then took to the stage in a Mike Nichols-directed production of “The Seagull” at the New York Shakespeare Festival, which placed Hoffman alongside Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, Kevin Kline, and John Goodman. The casting choice proved that Hoffman, while still mainly a supporting player with little public screen recognition, was among the most well-regarded actors in the industry. He would soon be considered one of the best of his generation.

A busy 2002 included supporting turns in Brett Ratner's "Red Dragon" (2002) as a journalist who gets too close to a serial killer story, and a reuniting with Anderson for "Punch Drunk Love" (2002), in which Hoffman played a nefarious waterbed salesman/phone sex con blackmailer. Both Hoffman and John C. Reilly teased the writer-director for not creating leading roles for his favorite actors, but Hollywood was still leery that neither of the two names had the seat-filling power to carry a studio film. Indie director Spike Lee had no such reservations, giving Hoffman second billing in "25th Hour" (2002), where he portrayed a disillusioned high school English teacher who envies his friends' drug dealing lifestyles, but has no intention of giving up his job for the easy money. Likewise independent director Todd Louiso directed Hoffman as the star of “Love, Liza" (2002), a screenplay by Hoffman’s brother Gordon about the collapse and rebirth of a recent widower.

Hoffman took the lead in the indie crime drama "Owning Mahowny" (2003), playing a seemingly quiet and helpful bank manager who pulls off the largest single-handed bank fraud in Canadian history to feed his gambling obsession, before adding a lascivious spark to "Cold Mountain" (2003) as a defrocked preacher constantly tempted by carnal sins. He went on to earn Tony nominations that year for a four-month run in “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” which garnered Tonys for co-stars Brian Dennehy and Vanessa Redgrave. Hoffman next directed the neighborhood chronicle “Our Lady of 121st Street” at the LAByrinth Theater and spent a semester at Columbia University teaching a directing course for master’s degree students. In one of his more mainstream film appearances, Hoffman was hilarious as Ben Stiller's charismatic but hopelessly inept former child actor buddy in "Along Came Polly" (2004).

Hoffman’s career triumph was just around a New York corner, with his painstaking portrayal of author and Manhattan socialite Truman Capote in "Capote” (2005). As co-producer, Hoffman helped bring to the big screen – along with childhood friends Dan Futterman and Bennett Miller – the story behind Capote’s true crime masterpiece, In Cold Blood, and the author’s conflicted five-year relationship with the book’s central character, convicted murderer Perry Smith. Gone were any doubts that Hoffman could carry the lead in a mainstream film, with both audiences and critics transfixed by his embodiment of the author’s notorious character quirks and unexpectedly sensitive core; his outgoing party charm and episodes of deep depression; and his moral struggle as the book’s dark conclusion became increasingly apparent. His performance earned Hoffman a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar for Best Actor at the 78th Annual Academy Awards, and his masterpiece topped critic’s year-end lists.

Back at LAByrinth, Hoffman directed fellow company members Sam Rockwell and Eric Bogosian in the ambitious “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” before picking up his first Emmy nomination for the HBO miniseries “Empire Falls” (HBO, 2005). In "Mission Impossible 3" (2006), Hoffman tackled a rare role as an out-and-out villain with delightfully misanthropic relish, upstaging the dramatic limitations of co-star Tom Cruise. On the other hand, his thespian achievements were a perfect match with fellow stage vet Laura Linney in “The Savages” (2006), writer-director Tamara Jenkins’ darkly funny story of grown siblings called upon to care for their estranged but ailing father. As Jon Savage, a self-centered professor with no interest in interrupting his project on Bertolt Brecht to forge a bond with his long-dismissed sister and father, Hoffman again wowed critics with a studied and empathetic performance.

Director Sidney Lumet’s “Before the Devil Knows Your Dead” (2007) featured Hoffman as a desperate businessman who robs his own family business, but despite accolades for Hoffman and co-stars Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, and Marisa Tomei, the film only received limited release. At the end of 2007 Hoffman appeared in Mike Nichols’ “Charlie Wilson’s War,” a political drama starring Tom Hanks in which he portrayed Gust Avrakotos — a real-life CIA agent who armed Afghani tribesmen during the guerilla uprising against the Soviets in the 1980s. Hoffman earned a Golden Globe nomination, which was soon followed by an Oscar nod for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role.

Family

Name:	Relation:	Notes:
Talluhlah Hoffman	daughter	Born November 2006; mother, Mimi O'Donnell
Cooper Alexander Hoffman	son	Born in March 2003; mother, Mimi O'Donnell
Gordon Hoffman	father	Divorced from Hoffman's mother
Marilyn Hoffman Connor	mother	Divorced from Hoffman's father
Jill Hoffman	sister	Older
Emily Hoffman	sister	Younger
Gordy Hoffman	brother	Won the Waldo Salt Award at the Sundance Film Festival for "Love Liza" (2002)

Companions

Name:	Relation:	Notes:
Mimi O'Donnell	companion	Met while working on the 1999 play "In Arabia We'd All Be Kings," which Hoffman directed

Milestones

	Moved to NYC to attend college
	Raised in the Rochester, NY area
1991	Film acting debut in Amos Poe's "Triple Bogey on a Par 5 Hole" (credited as Phil Hoffman)
1991	Guested in an episode of the NYC-filmed series "Law & Order" (NBC)
1992	Co-starred as a cocky peer of Chris O'Donnell's earnest college student in "Scent of a Woman"
1992	Had a supporting role in the comedy "Leap of Faith"
1994	Had featured role in Peter Sellars' staging of "The Merchant of Venice"
1994	Made TV-movie debut in "The Yearling" (CBS)
1996	Appeared as one of the storm chasers in a memorable turn in "Twister"
1996	First collaboration with director Paul Thomas Anderson and actor John C Reilly, a small part in the film "Hard Eight"
1997	Breakthrough screen role as Scotty, the crew member with a crush on Mark Wahlberg's character in Anderson's "Boogie Nights"
1997	Featured in the PBS six-part documentary special "Liberty! The American Revolution"
1998	Co-starred in the Off-Broadway production of "Shopping and Fucking"
1998	Delivered an unsettling and unforgettable turn as loner who enjoys making obscene phone calls in "Happiness"
1998	Had a pivotal supporting role in the Coen brothers' comedy "The Big Lebowski"
1998	Played a by-the-book medical student who clashes with the idealistic titular character in the sentimental biopic "Patch Adams"
1999	Brought life to Freddie Miles, a leering trust fund playboy who gives "The Talented Mr Ripley" some deserved ribbing
1999	Made stage directorial debut with "In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings"
1999	Played the gentle caretaker of a dying man, in Anderson's "Magnolia"; a role that Anderson wrote especially for the actor
2000	Acted opposite John C Reilly in stage revival of Sam Shepard's "True West"; the actors alternated the roles of two brothers during the course of the run; each received Tony nomination as Actor in a Play
2000	Had leading role as a mild-mannered screenwriter in David Mamet's "State and Main"
2000	Portrayed legendary rock writer Lester Bangs in Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous"
2000	Staged the play "Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train" at LAByrinth Theater Company
2001	Directed Anna Paquin in her NYC stage debut in "The Glory of Living"
2001	Hosted the documentary "The Last Party 2000," which focused on the Republican and Democratic National Conventions for the 2000 Presidential race
2001	Played Konstantin in Mike Nichols' staging of Chekhov's "The Seagull" at Central Park's Delacorte Theater
2002	Cast in director Spike Lee's "The 25th Hour" starring Edward Norton
2002	Co-starred in "Love, Liza," a film scripted by Gordy Hoffman, the actor's brother
2002	Portrayed Freddy Lounds in the thriller feature "Red Dragon, " the prequel to "Silence Of The Lamb"
2002	Reteamed with Anderson for "Punch-Drunk Love," a dark romantic comedy starring Adam Sandler and Emily Watson
2003	Joined Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Natalie Portman and Renee Zellweger in the all-star cast of director Anthony Minghella's "Cold Mountain
2003	Starred as Dan Mahowny in "Owning Mahowny" based on the story of the largest one man bank fraud in Canadian history
2004	Cast alongside Ben Stiller, Debra Messing and Jennifer Aniston in "Along Came Polly" a film by writer-director John Hamburg
2005	Portrayed writer Truman Capote in Bennett Miller's "Capote," a film written by Dan Futterman that focuses on Capote's close relationship with killer Perry Smith
2005	Starres opposite Ed Harris in the drama "Empire Falls"; earned an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie
2006	Cast opposite Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames in "Mission: Impossible III"
2007	Co-starred with Ethan Hawke in Sidney Lumet's "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead"
2007	Co-starred with Laura Linney in "The Savages," as adult siblings who are forced to care for their estranged father; earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor
2007	Co-starred with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in "Charlie Wilson's War" directed by Mike Nichols; earned Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor
2008	Co-starred in Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, "Synecdoche, New York"
2008	Directed the West End premiere of Andrew Upton's "Riflemind"
2008	Portrayed a priest accused of abusing a black student in the film adaptation of John Patrick Shanley's play "Doubt"

Notes

"A lot of people describe me as chubby, which seems so easy, so first-choice. Or stocky. Fair-skinned. Tow-headed. There are so many other choices. How about dense? I mean, I'm a thick kind of guy. But I'm never described in attractive ways. I'm waiting for somebody to say I'm at least cute. But nobody has." - Philip Seymour Hoffman quoted in The Los Angeles Times, April 5, 1998

"Flawless" director Joel Schumacher, describing Hoffman's performance: "He worked hard on every detail about Rusty. He'd do a great take, and when we looked at the scene on video playback, he'd say, 'I don't like the way I'm holding my pinkie when I'm smoking that cigarette. Can I have another take?' He's calling that indulgent, but it's a passion for perfection, and we were all there to serve it. Which, when you're working for scale, as we all were, is the only way to work." - to the New York Times, Nov. 21, 1999

"I can be tempermental, I know it. You're focusing your ass off. When you're doing that hour after hour, it's almost like you're mentally lugging a sofa up six flights of stairs." - Hoffman on the emotional trials involved in acting, quoted in Interview, December 1999

"I don't particularly think that Allen, or Scotty J or Grant in 'The Big Lebowski' are the most atrociously ugly characters in the world. I really don't think so. If you saw Allen walk down the street, you'd think, Okay, that's a business guy. If you saw Scotty, you'd say, This guy lives in the West Village. But they're exposed to you. You see them in extraordinarily private moments, and I think that Clark Gable, sitting in his room, wondering if he's ever going to have love in his life, with his boxers on, is going to be that attractive." - Hoffman to Talk, December 1999/January 2000

"I think most people have their moments of being unlikable, most people have their moments of being disturbing," he says. "I think it's an exploration of one aspect of humanity, looking at that part in all of us. I like that about it. Hopefully I don't do anything that distances people too far from the part. I always try to show that they're people, that their human. I've yet to play a psychopath." - Hoffman to Empire, August 2004

"I'm a big fan of studying and working with really good teachers for a long time before you get into it. If you study for three, four, five years, I studied for six. If at the end of that period of time you still want to be an actor, you're that much ahead of the game than everybody else because you know something about yourself. And you're also going to be that much better." - Hoffman to Backstage West, March 13, 1998

"If I do a lot of different things, people aren't watching the actor, they're watching the character. There are a lot of great actors who, after a while, well, you're watching the actor, no matter what character it is. I want to try for as long as possible to have people watch my characters, not me." - Hoffman to The Los Angeles Times, Aug. 26, 1998

"No role is easy. To act well is difficult. The guy Phil in 'Magnolia' is pretty much me, though I don't think I have the same moral backbone, but to be truthful to the emotionl life he lived in that movie was very difficult, and to make people interested in watching that was even more difficult." - Hoffman quoted in The Daily Telegraph, Nov. 24, 2000

"Philip Seymour Hoffman has a remarkable face. One look at it and you know that, contrary to rumor, movies haven't lost their genius for discovering actors who are capable of being themselves while occupying the spirit of another person and mirroring the secrets and desires of everyone watching in the dark. Hoffman's is not a stereotypically Hollywood-handsome face; you need to live with it to discover its magic. It dates back to an era when male movie stars didn't all have to look like Brads or Matts. It's a face enough like our own faces to be recognizable, yet so vividly unique you can't take your eyes off it." - Interview's Patrick Giles, in the February 1999 issue

Clark Gregg, co-star of Hoffman in "Magnolia" and "State and Main" on the actor: "Phil brings a tremendous amount of visceral sensitivity. If you saw those roles written on the page, you wouldn't see that character at all. Phil brings real humanity to roles like that because he lets you in on what they're needing so deperately." - to USA Today, Jan. 3, 2001

Frequent co-star John C Reilly on Hoffman: "He's an actor's actor, really fearless. He's not afraid to explore all sides of the character, including the ugly, creepy things that go on inside of all our heads." - quoted in The Observer, Nov. 19, 2000

Hoffman on finding a way to play Rusty, his transgendered character in "Flawless": "I'm pretty much a guy guy. I had to decide what it was about this person that I could identify with, and I came to this little piece of truth about myself: I have known what it's like to want to be someone else. There was a time in my life, and even now, that I assumed someone else is better than me, sexier than me, more intelligent than me. That's what this guy is about." - to Premiere, October 1999

Hoffman on the subjectivity of "unconventional", in reference to the parts he has played: "Listen to the rhythms of the way you talk. Do you know how high your voice sounds? The quirks you have? The way that you look? Do you think if someone portrayed you accurately in a film, people would be like, 'Hey, that guy, he's playing a leading man role!' Nobody's like that. Humans aren't like that." - to Newsday, Nov. 23, 1999

Hoffman, then starring onstage in a production of Sam Shepard's "True West" on his craft: "Acting's not easy, ever. When you start thinking it's easy, all of a sudden, you suck." - to Time Out New York, Feb. 17-24, 2000

Paul Thomas Anderson, excitedly extolling the virtues of Philip Seymour Hoffman: "Phil does these things on screen that make you flip out; weird twitches, movements, accidents, stutters. And you guys are f---in' onto it! I know it. I know you're gonna say the right thing, which is, Hey! The jackass character-actor guy is now a lead actor!" - to Entertainment Weekly, Nov. 19, 1999

Philip Seymour Hoffman on the similarities he has with characters like the oddly innocent Scotty in "Boogie Nights", namely a penchant for letting his mouth hang open in wonder: "That's how I am. When I was doing David Mamet's movie, he had to keep telling me to keep my mouth closed. I told him, 'That's what happend to me.' This friend of mine does this imitation of me where he opens his mouth and his tongue hangs out. When I'm intently listening to someone, I start turning into this, you know, Labrador retreiver or something." - quoted in GQ, January 2001