Филип Сеймур Хоффман: Өмір және шығармашылығы

American actor (1967–2014)

Philip Seymour Hoffman (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014) was an American actor. Known for his distinctive supporting and character roles—eccentrics, underdogs, and misfits—he acted in many films and theatrical productions, including leading roles, from the early 1990s until his death in 2014. He was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time in a 2022 readers' poll by Empire magazine. Hoffman studied acting at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He gained recognition for his supporting work, notably in Scent of a Woman (1992), Boogie Nights (1997), Happiness (1998), The Big Lebowski (1998), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), and Almost Famous (2000). He began to occasionally play leading roles, and for his portrayal of the author Truman Capote in Capote (2005), won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Further Oscar nominations came for playing a brutally frank CIA officer in Charlie Wilson's War (2007), a priest accused of child sexual abuse in Doubt (2008), and the charismatic leader of a Scientology type movement in The Master (2012). While he mainly worked in independent films, including The Savages (2007) and Synecdoche, New York (2008), Hoffman also appeared in Hollywood blockbusters, such as Twister (1996) and Mission: Impossible III (2006). He played Plutarch Heavensbee in the Hunger Games series (2013–2015), in one of his final roles. The feature Jack Goes Boating (2010) marked his debut as a filmmaker. Hoffman was also an accomplished theater actor and director. He joined the off Broadway LAByrinth Theater Company in 1995, where he directed, produced, and appeared in numerous stage productions. Hoffman received Tony Award nominations for his performances in the Broadway revivals of Sam Shepard's True West (2000), Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night (2003), and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (2012). Hoffman struggled with drug addiction as a young adult and relapsed in 2012 after many years of sobriety. In February 2014, he died of combined drug intoxication. Remembered for bringing nuance, depth, and humanity to the versatile roles he inhabited, Hoffman was described in his New York Times obituary as "perhaps the most ambitious and widely admired American actor of his generation".

Philip Hoffman was born on July 23, 1967, in the Rochester suburb of Fairport, New York. before becoming a lawyer and eventually a family court judge. His father, Gordon Stowell Hoffman, was a native of Geneva, New York, and worked for the Xerox Corporation. Hoffman had one brother, Gordy, and two sisters, Jill and Emily. Hoffman was baptized a Catholic and attended Mass as a child, but did not have a heavily religious upbringing. His parents divorced when he was nine, and the children were raised primarily by their mother. Hoffman developed a love for the theater, and proceeded to attend regularly with his mother, who was a lifelong enthusiast. At the age of 14, Hoffman suffered a neck injury that ended his sporting activity, and he began to consider acting. Encouraged by his mother, he joined a drama club, and initially committed to it because he was attracted to a female member. Miller later commented on Hoffman's popularity at the time: "We were attracted to the fact that he was genuinely serious about what he was doing. Even then, he was passionate." He made his film debut the following year, when he was credited as "Phil Hoffman" in the independent film Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole. After this, he adopted his grandfather's name, Seymour, to avoid confusion with another actor. More film roles promptly followed, with appearances in the studio production My New Gun, and a small role in the comedy Leap of Faith, starring Steve Martin. Following these roles, he gained attention playing a spoiled private school student in the Oscar winning Al Pacino film Scent of a Woman (1992). Hoffman auditioned five times for his role, which The Guardian journalist Ryan Gilbey says gave him an early opportunity "to indulge his skill for making unctuousness compelling". The film earned US$134 million worldwide and was the first to get Hoffman noticed. Reflecting on Scent of a Woman, Hoffman later said, "If I hadn't gotten into that film, I wouldn't be where I am today." Hoffman continued playing small roles throughout the early 1990s. After appearing in Joey Breaker and the critically panned teen zombie picture My Boyfriend's Back, he had a more notable role playing John Cusack's wealthy friend in the crime comedy Money for Nothing. In 1994, he portrayed an inexperienced mobster in the crime thriller The Getaway, starring Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, and he subsequently appeared with Andy García and Meg Ryan in the romantic drama When a Man Loves a Woman. He then played an uptight police deputy who gets punched by Paul Newman—one of Hoffman's acting idols—in the drama Nobody's Fool. Still considering stage work to be fundamental to his career, Hoffman joined the LAByrinth Theater Company of New York City in 1995.

Between April and May 1996, Hoffman appeared at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in a Mark Wing Davey production of Caryl Churchill's The Skriker. Following this, based on his work in Scent of a Woman, he was cast by writer–director Paul Thomas Anderson to appear in his debut feature Hard Eight (1996). Twister, playing a grubby, hyperactive storm chaser alongside Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton. According to a People survey of Twitter and Facebook users, Twister is the film with which Hoffman is most popularly associated. He then reunited with Anderson for the director's second feature, Boogie Nights, about the Golden Age of Pornography. The ensemble piece starred Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, and Burt Reynolds; Hoffman played a boom operator, described by David Fear of Rolling Stone as a "complete, unabashed loser", and has been cited as the role in which Hoffman first showed his full ability. Fear commended the "naked emotional neediness" of the performance, adding that it made for compulsive viewing. Hoffman later expressed his appreciation for Anderson when he called the director "incomparable". quote box|width=25em|align=left|quote=That wasn't easy. It's hard to sit in your boxers and jerk off in front of people for three hours. I was pretty heavy, and I was afraid that people would laugh at me. Todd said they might laugh, but they won't laugh at you. He saw what we were working for, which was the pathos of the moment. Sometimes, acting is a really private thing that you do for the world.|source=– Hoffman on his role in Happiness (1998) before working with the Coen brothers in their dark comedy The Big Lebowski. Hoffman had long been a fan of the directors, and relished the experience of working with them. Appearing alongside Jeff Bridges and John Goodman, Hoffman played Brandt, the smug personal assistant of the titular character. Although it was only a small role, he said it was one for which he was most recognized, in a film that has achieved cult status and a large fan base. but critic Xan Brooks highlighted the pathos that Hoffman brought to the role. Happiness was controversial but widely praised, and Hoffman's role has been cited by critics as one of his best. His final 1998 release was more mainstream, as he appeared as a medical graduate in the Robin Williams comedy Patch Adams. The film was critically panned, but one of the highest grossing of Hoffman's career. In 1999, Hoffman starred opposite Robert De Niro as drag queen Rusty Zimmerman in Joel Schumacher's drama Flawless. Hoffman considered De Niro the most imposing actor with whom he had appeared, and he felt that working with the veteran performer profoundly improved his own acting. and Roger Ebert said it confirmed him as "one of the best new character actors". He was rewarded with his first Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. Hoffman then reunited with Paul Thomas Anderson, where he was given an atypically virtuous role in the ensemble drama Magnolia. and it was a personal favorite of Hoffman's. which he considered "as edgy as you can get for a Hollywood movie". He played a "preppy bully" who taunts Matt Damon's Ripley in the thriller, a character which Jeff Simon of The Buffalo News called "the truest upper class twit in all of American movies".

Following a string of roles in successful films in the late 1990s, Hoffman had established a reputation as a top supporting player who could be relied on to make an impression with each performance. His film appearances were likened by David Kamp of GQ to "discovering a prize in a box of cereal, receiving a bonus, or bumping unexpectedly into an old friend". According to Jerry Mosher, as the year 2000 began, "it seemed Hoffman was everywhere, poised on the cusp of stardom". Hoffman had begun to be recognized as a theater actor in 1999, when he received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor for the off Broadway play The Author's Voice. This success continued with the 2000 Broadway revival of Sam Shepard's True West, where Hoffman alternated roles nightly with co star John C. Reilly, making 154 appearances between March and July 2000. and the actor earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play. As a stage director, Hoffman received two Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Director of a Play: one for Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train in 2001, and another for Our Lady of 121st Street in 2003. In a 2008 interview, Hoffman opined that "switching hats" between acting and directing helped him improve in both roles. David Mamet's comedy State and Main, about the difficulties of shooting a film in rural New England, was Hoffman's first film role of 2000 and had a limited release. He had a more prominent supporting role that year in Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe's popular coming of age film set in the 1970s music industry. The following year, Hoffman featured as the narrator and interviewer in The Party's Over, a documentary about the 2000 U. S. elections. He assumed the position of a "politically informed and alienated Generation Xer" who seeks to be educated in U. S. politics, but ultimately reveals the extent of public dissatisfaction in this area. In 2002, Hoffman was given his first leading role (despite joking at the time "Even if I was hired into a leading man part, I'd probably turn it into the non leading man part") in Todd Louiso's tragicomedy Love Liza (2002). His brother Gordy wrote the script, which Hoffman had seen at their mother's house five years earlier, about a widower who starts sniffing gasoline to cope with his wife's suicide. He considered it the finest piece of writing he had ever read, "incredibly humble in its exploration of grief", but few witnessed this as the film had a limited release and earned only US$210,000. Later in 2002, Hoffman starred opposite Adam Sandler and Emily Watson in Anderson's critically acclaimed fourth picture, the surrealist romantic comedy drama Punch Drunk Love (2002), where he played an illegal phone sex "supervisor". Drew Hunt of the Chicago Reader saw the performance as a fine example of Hoffman's "knack for turning small roles into seminal performances" and praised the actor's comedic ability. In a very different film, Hoffman was next seen with Anthony Hopkins in the high budget thriller Red Dragon, a prequel to The Silence of the Lambs, portraying the meddlesome tabloid journalist Freddy Lounds. His fourth appearance of 2002 came in Spike Lee's drama 25th Hour, playing an English teacher who makes a devastating drunken mistake. Both Lee and the film's lead Edward Norton were thrilled to work with Hoffman, and Lee confessed that he had long wanted to do a picture with the actor, but had waited until he found the right role. Hoffman considered his character, Jakob, to be one of the most reticent characters he had ever played, a straight laced "corduroy pants wearing kind of guy." and along with A. O. Scott, considered it to be one of the best films of the 2000s. The drama Owning Mahowny (2003) gave Hoffman his second lead role, starring opposite Minnie Driver as a bank employee who embezzles money to feed his gambling addiction. Based on the true story of Toronto banker Brian Molony, who committed the largest fraud in Canadian history, Hoffman met with Molony to prepare for the role and help him play the character as accurately as possible. He was determined not to conform to "movie character" stereotypes, and his portrayal of addiction won approval from the Royal College of Psychiatrists. but the film earned little at the box office. Hoffman's second 2003 appearance was a small role in Anthony Minghella's successful Civil War epic Cold Mountain. He played an immoral preacher, a complex character that Hoffman described as a "mass of contradictions". The same year, from April to August, he appeared with Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Dennehy, and Robert Sean Leonard in a Broadway revival of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night. Director Robert Falls later commented on the dedication and experience that Hoffman brought to his role of alcoholic Jamie Tyrone: "Every night he ripped it up to an extent that he couldn't leave [the role]. Phil carried it with him." Hoffman received his second Tony Award nomination, this time for Best Featured Actor in a Play. Portraying the idiosyncratic writer proved highly demanding, requiring significant weight loss and four months of research—such as watching video clips of Capote to help him affect the author's effeminate voice and mannerisms. Hoffman stated that he was not concerned with perfectly imitating Capote's speech, but he did feel a great duty to "express the vitality and the nuances" of the writer. During filming, he stayed in character constantly so as not to lose the voice and posture: "Otherwise," he explained, "I would give my body a chance to bail on me." Capote was released to great acclaim, particularly regarding Hoffman's performance. Many critics commented that the role was designed to win awards, and indeed Hoffman received an Oscar, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award, BAFTA, and various other critics' awards. In 2006, Premiere listed his role in Capote as the 35th greatest movie performance of all time. After the film, several commentators began to describe Hoffman as one of the finest, most ambitious actors of his generation. Hoffman received his only Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his supporting role in the HBO miniseries Empire Falls (2005), about life in a New England town. He ultimately lost to castmate Paul Newman. In 2006, he appeared in the summer blockbuster Mission: Impossible III, playing the villainous arms dealer Owen Davian opposite Tom Cruise. A journalist for Vanity Fair stated that Hoffman's "black hat performance was one of the most delicious in a Hollywood film since Alan Rickman's in Die Hard ", and he was generally approved of for bringing gravitas to the action film. With a gross of nearly US$400 million, it exposed Hoffman to a mainstream audience. Returning to independent films in 2007, Hoffman began with a starring role in Tamara Jenkins's The Savages, where Laura Linney and he played siblings responsible for putting their dementia ridden father (Philip Bosco) in a care home. Jake Coyle of the Associated Press stated that it was "the epitome of a Hoffman film: a mix of comedy and tragedy told with subtlety, bone dry humor, and flashes of grace". He next appeared in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, the final film by veteran director Sidney Lumet, where he played a realtor who embezzles funds from his employer to support his drug habit. Mosher comments that the character was one of the most unpleasant of Hoffman's career, but that his "fearlessness again revealed the humanity within a deeply flawed character" as he appeared naked in the opening sex scene. The film was received positively by critics as a powerful and affecting thriller. Mike Nichols's political film Charlie Wilson's War (2007) gave Hoffman his second Academy Award nomination, again for playing a real individual—Gust Avrakotos, the CIA agent who conspired with Congressman Charlie Wilson (played by Tom Hanks) to aid Afghani rebels in their fight against the Soviet Union. Todd McCarthy wrote of Hoffman's performance: "Decked out with a pouffy '80s hairdo, moustache, protruding gut and ever present smokes  whenever he's on, the picture vibrates with conspiratorial electricity." The film was a critical and commercial success, and along with his Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Hoffman was nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe Award. Hoffman again showed his willingness to reveal unattractive traits, as the character ages and deteriorates, and committed to a deeply psychological role. Critics were divided in their response to the "ambitious and baffling" film. Sonny Bunch of The Washington Times found it "impressionistic, inaccessible, and endlessly frustrating", likening Hoffman's character to "God, if God lacked imagination". Conversely, Roger Ebert named it the best film of the decade and considered it one of the greatest of all time, and Robbie Collin, film critic for The Daily Telegraph, believes Hoffman gave one of cinema's best performances. Hoffman's second role of the year came opposite Meryl Streep and Amy Adams in John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, where he played Father Brendan Flynn—a priest accused of sexually abusing a 12 year old African American student in the 1960s. Hoffman was already familiar with the play and appreciated the opportunity to bring it to the screen; in preparing for the role, he talked extensively to a priest who lived through the era. The film had a mixed reception, with some critics such as Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian suspicious of it as Oscar bait, but Hoffman gained second consecutive Best Supporting Actor nominations at the Oscars, BAFTAs, and Golden Globes, and was also nominated by the Screen Actors Guild. Ben Brantley, theatre critic of The New York Times, found it to be "exasperatingly misconceived", remarking that even when Hoffman is attempting to "manipulate others into self destruction, he comes close to spoiling everything by erupting into genuine, volcanic fury". Hoffman also did his first vocal performance for the claymation film Mary and Max, although the film did not initially have an American release. He played Max, a depressed New Yorker with Asperger syndrome, while Toni Collette voiced Mary—the Australian girl who becomes his pen pal. Continuing with animation, Hoffman then worked on an episode of the children's show Arthur and received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Performer In An Animated Program. Later in the year, he played a brash American disc jockey opposite Bill Nighy and Rhys Ifans in Richard Curtis's British comedy The Boat That Rocked (also known as Pirate Radio)—a character based on Emperor Rosko, a host of Radio Caroline in 1966. He also had a cameo role as a bartender in Ricky Gervais's The Invention of Lying. Reflecting on Hoffman's work in the late 2000s, Mosher writes that the actor remained impressive, but had not delivered a testing performance on the level of his work in Capote. The film critic David Thomson believed that Hoffman showed indecisiveness at this time, unsure whether to play spectacular supporting roles or become a lead actor who is capable of controlling the emotional dynamic and outcome of a film.

Hoffman's profile continued to grow with the new decade, and he became an increasingly recognizable figure. The low key film had a limited release, and was not a high earner, though it received many positive reviews. However, Dave Edwards of the Daily Mirror remarked that "Hoffman's directing debut delivers a film so weak I could barely remember what it was about as I left", while critic Mark Kermode appreciated the cinematic qualities that Hoffman brought to the film, and stated that he showed potential as a director. In addition to Jack Goes Boating, in 2010 Hoffman also directed Brett C. Leonard's tragic drama The Long Red Road for the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Steven Oxman of Variety described the production as "heavy handed" and "predictable", but "intriguing and at least partially successful". Hoffman next had significant supporting roles in two films, both released in the last third of 2011. In Bennett Miller's Moneyball, a sports drama about the 2002 season of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, he played the manager Art Howe. The film was a critical and commercial success, and Hoffman was described as "perfectly cast" by Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post, but the real life Art Howe accused the filmmakers of giving an "unfair and untrue" portrayal of him. Hoffman's second film of the year was George Clooney's political drama The Ides of March, in which he played the earnest campaign manager to the Democratic presidential candidate Mike Morris (Clooney). The film was well received and Hoffman's performance, especially in the scenes opposite Paul Giamatti—who played the rival campaign manager—was positively noted. Hoffman's work on the film earned him his fourth BAFTA Award nomination. Many critics felt that Hoffman, at 44, was too young for the role of 62 year old Loman, Hoffman admitted that he found the role difficult, A talented dancer, and Drew Hunt of the Chicago Reader also felt that it contained Hoffman's finest work: "He's inscrutable yet welcoming, intimidating yet charismatic, villainous yet fatherly. He epitomizes so many things at once that it's impossible to think of [Dodd] as mere movie character". In 2013, Hoffman joined the popular Hunger Games series in its second film, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, where he played gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. The film finished as the 10th highest grossing in history to that point, and Hoffman became recognizable to a new generation of film goers. The other was God's Pocket, the directorial debut of actor John Slattery, in which Hoffman played a thief. In November 2014, nine months after his death, Hoffman was seen in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, which was dedicated in his memory. At the time of his death, Hoffman was filming The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, the fourth film in the series, and had already completed the majority of his scenes. His two remaining scenes were rewritten to compensate for his absence, and the film was released in November 2015. Hoffman was also preparing for his second directorial effort, a Prohibition era drama titled Ezekiel Moss, which was to star Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal. In addition, he had filmed a pilot episode for the Showtime series Happyish, in which he played the lead role of an advertising executive, but plans for a full season were put on hold following his death. The role was later passed on to Steve Coogan.

Hoffman rarely mentioned his personal life in interviews, stating in 2012 that he would "rather not because my family doesn't have any choice. If I talk about them in the press, I'm giving them no choice. So I choose not to." For 14 years, he was in a relationship with costume designer Mimi O'Donnell, whom he had met in 1999 when they were both working on the Hoffman directed play In Arabia We'd All Be Kings. They lived in New York City and had a son, Cooper, and two daughters. While some reports stated Hoffman and O'Donnell separated in late 2013, O'Donnell later said she and Hoffman were both committed to their relationship, but he had moved out of their longtime residence to a nearby apartment to protect their children from the effects of his relapse into substance abuse. He felt that keeping his personal life private was beneficial to his career: "The less you know about me the more interesting it will be to watch me do what I do". In a 2006 interview with 60 Minutes, Hoffman revealed he had engaged in drug and alcohol misuse during his time at New York University, saying he had used "anything I could get my hands on. I liked it all." Following his graduation in 1989, he entered a drug rehabilitation program at age 22, and remained sober for 23 years. However, he relapsed in 2012, and admitted himself to drug rehabilitation for about ten days in May 2013. He was 46 years old. Although friends stated that Hoffman's drug use was under control at the time, Hoffman's death was officially ruled an accident caused by "acute mixed drug intoxication, including heroin, cocaine, benzodiazepines, and amphetamine". Michael Schwirtz of The New York Times said, "whether Hoffman had taken all of the substances on the same day, or whether any of the substances had remained in his system from earlier use, was not reported." A funeral Mass was held at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Manhattan on February 7, 2014, and was attended by many of his close friends and former co stars including Amy Adams, Cate Blanchett, Ellen Burstyn, Louis C. K., Ethan Hawke, Laura Linney, Julianne Moore, Paul Thomas Anderson, Mike Nichols, Joaquin Phoenix, John C. Reilly, Jake Gyllenhaal, Diane Sawyer, Ben Stiller, Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Marisa Tomei, Brian Dennehy, Sam Rockwell, Josh Hamilton, Justin Theroux, Chris Rock and Michelle Williams. After the Mass, Hoffman's body was taken to be cremated, with his ashes given to his partner and children. He left his fortune of around $35 million to Mimi O'Donnell in his October 2004 will, trusting her to distribute money to their children. Hoffman's death was lamented by fans and the film industry and was described by several commentators as a considerable loss to the profession. On February 5, 2014, the LAByrinth Theatre Company honored his memory by holding a candlelight vigil, and Broadway dimmed its lights for one minute. Three weeks after Hoffman's death, Katz established the American Playwriting Foundation in Hoffman's memory. With the money received from a libel lawsuit against the National Enquirer which inaccurately claimed that Hoffman and Katz were lovers, the foundation awards an annual prize of $45,000 to the author of an unproduced play. Katz named this the "Relentless Prize" in honor of Hoffman's dedication to the profession. He would later remember Hoffman with a poem published in The Guardian in December 2014. In tribute, actress Cate Blanchett dedicated her BAFTA trophy to Hoffman when she received the award for Blue Jasmine on February 16. Years later, at the 90th Academy Awards, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri actor Sam Rockwell dedicated his win for Best Supporting Actor to Hoffman.

Hoffman was held in high regard within both the film and theater industries, and he was often cited in the media as one of the finest actors of his generation. In a 2022 readers' poll by Empire magazine, he was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time. With his being overweight, one writer considered Hoffman to be "too pudgy to look romantic or heroic"; however, the actor said he was grateful for his appearance, as it made him believable in a wide range of roles. Joel Schumacher once said of him in 2000, "The bad news is that Philip won't be a $25 million star. The good news is that he'll work for the rest of his life". The Aiken Standard of South Carolina referred to him as an "anti star", whose real identity remained "amorphous and unmoored". Hoffman was acutely aware that he was often too unorthodox for the Academy voters. He remarked, "I'm sure that people in the big corporations that run Hollywood don't know quite what to do with someone like me, but that's OK. I think there are other people who are interested in what I do." but was noted for his ability to make small parts memorable. David Fear of Rolling Stone wrote that Hoffman "added heft to low budget art films, and nuance and unpredictability to blockbuster franchises. He was a transformative performer who worked from the inside out, blessed with an emotional transparency that could be overwhelming, invigorating, compelling, devastating." Xan Brooks of The Guardian remarked that the actor's particular talent was to "take thwarted, twisted humanity and ennoble it".

Hoffman appeared in 55 films and one miniseries during his screen career spanning 22 years. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Capote (2005), and was nominated three times for Best Supporting Actor for Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Doubt (2008), and The Master (2012). He also received five Golden Globe Award nominations (winning one), five BAFTA Award nominations (winning one), four Screen Actors Guild Awards (winning one), and won the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival. Originally on loan from a gallery in New York City, the statue was permanently installed outside the George Eastman Museum in 2023. Hoffman’s mother, Marilyn O'Connor, called the sculpture "a loving memorial" to her son.