(Reuters) - Philip Seymour Hoffman, one of the leading actors of his
generation, who won an Academy Award for his title role in the film
"Capote," was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on Sunday in what a
New York police source described as an apparent drug overdose.
Hoffman, 46, was found unresponsive on the bathroom floor of his
Greenwich Village apartment by police responding to a 911 call, and
Emergency Medical Service workers declared him dead on the scene, New
York City police said in a statement. An investigation was ongoing.
A
police spokesman said investigators found Hoffman with a syringe in his
arm and recovered two small plastic bags in the apartment containing a
substance suspected of being heroin. A police department source earlier
told Reuters that Hoffman had died of an apparent drug overdose.
Hoffman,
who is survived by three children with his partner Mimi O'Donnell, had
detailed his struggles with substance abuse in the past.
"We are
devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil and appreciate the outpouring
of love and support we have received from everyone," Hoffman's family
said in a statement issued through his publicist.
"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,"
it added. A representative said the family would not make any further
statements for now.
Onlookers gathered on Sunday afternoon near
Hoffman's apartment in a four-story red brick building in a fashionable
neighborhood of the West Village, where many other actors keep homes.
The entire block was cordoned off by police.
Rachel Melman, a neighbor who described herself as a fan, said she frequently saw him around the neighborhood.
"I
never spoke to him, but I always wanted to," she said, adding that she
would see him sitting on the scaffolding of the building, often dressed
in socks and no shoes, "just reading and hanging out out there.
"Of course I'm sad. It was such a shocker," she said.
CNN,
citing a law enforcement official, reported that Hoffman was last seen
alive at 8 p.m. Saturday. He had been expected to pick up his children
on Sunday but failed to show up, prompting playwright David Katz and
another person to go to his apartment, where they found him dead, CNN
said.
Hoffman spoke in the past of struggling with drugs,
including a 2006 interview in which he told CBS he had abused "anything I
could get my hands on. I liked it all."
His death, if confirmed
from an overdose, would recall the 2008 death of actor Heath Ledger, who
was found dead in his Manhattan apartment from a lethal combination of
drugs.
Born in upstate New York near Rochester, Hoffman won the
Best Actor Oscar for the 2005 biographical film "Capote," in which he
played writer Truman Capote. He also received three Academy Award
nominations as best supporting actor, for "The Master" in 2013, "Doubt"
in 2009 and "Charlie Wilson's War" in 2008.
After more than a
dozen earlier roles, Hoffman burst onto the film scene in 1997's "Boogie
Nights," in which he played a lovelorn gay man in a movie about the
porn industry that helped make Mark Wahlberg a star.
PORTRAYED DISTURBING CHARACTERS
Hoffman
appeared in blockbusters such as "Twister" and "The Hunger Games"
series. But he was more often associated with the independent film world
for his intense portrayals of often disturbing and complex characters
in such films as "Happiness," in which he played an obscene phone
caller, and "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead."
In the latter,
he played a son who schemes to rob his parents' jewelry store, resulting
in their deaths. Hoffman could also play nice, as in his portrayal of
an angelic nurse in "Magnolia."
Other noteworthy films included
"Moneyball," "The Savages," "Cold Mountain" and "Scent of a Woman," one
of his earliest films, which garnered its star, Al Pacino, an Oscar.
Lionsgate, the studio behind "The Hunger Games" called Hoffman "one of the most gifted actors of our generation."
"We're
very fortunate that he graced our Hunger Games family. Losing him in
his prime is a tragedy, and we send our deepest condolences to Philip's
family," the studio said in a statement.
Hoffman also frequently
appeared on Broadway, earning Tony award nominations for "Death of a
Salesman," "Long Day's Journey Into Night" and "True West."
Showtime,
the cable television network which had just ordered a 10-episode
comedy, "Happyish," starring Hoffman and produced by his company,
Cooper's Town Productions, mourned the loss of the talented actor.
"Philip
Seymour Hoffman was one of our generation's finest and most brilliant
actors. He was also a gifted comedic talent. It was a great privilege
and pleasure to work with him and we are all absolutely devastated by
this sudden loss," it said.
Hoffman appeared last month at the
Sundance Film Festival in Utah for the premiere of "A Most Wanted Man,"
an espionage thriller based on the John le Carre novel in which he
played German spy Gunther Bachmann.
At the premiere, Hoffman told
Reuters that he connected to Gunther's personality, a man driven by the
shame of previous failure into an obsessive pursuit of capturing
terrorists by any means necessary.
"I think it'd be hard for
anyone not to connect with the loneliness. He's pretty lonely, driven,
obsessive guy, unforgiving of himself in a lot of ways. A lot of traits
that a lot of people carry in one grade or another," Hoffman said.
New
York Mayor Bill de Blasio said via Twitter: "Saddened by Philip Seymour
Hoffman's tragic and untimely passing. Today New York mourns the loss
of one of stage and screen's greats."
| Reuters
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