# Philip Seymour Hoffman has died. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 2, 2014, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364 "2014-02-02T18:34:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2014, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/61 "2014-02-02T22:10:29Z")
Posted by mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2014, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/62 "2014-02-02T22:11:22Z")
Is there any doubt? ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2014, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/63 "2014-02-02T22:14:53Z")
Greenage. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2014, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/64 "2014-02-02T22:17:09Z")
This one strikes fairly close to home. One of my relatives knew him in high school. We even had a copy of the yearbook which had PSH as a senior in it in our basement until recently. He was on the wrestling team but had to quit due to an injury. He turned to acting instead. In the yearbook he’s listed in the cast of _Death of Salesman_. Small turns make a life. Watching _The Big Lebowski_ won’t be the same. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2014, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/65 "2014-02-02T22:19:07Z")
Just a really talented guy. He could do drama, comedy… apparently action too (never saw MI:3). Tragic and sad. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2014, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/66 "2014-02-02T22:27:33Z")
I don’t know how such a big man _became_ little Truman Capote, but he did. Brilliant portrayal. Both he and De Niro were great in Flawless. It may have been the first time I saw him act because after that movie I remember thinking, “I want to see everything he’s in.” ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2014, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/67 "2014-02-02T22:35:50Z")
I don’t know how to link to a thread so I cut and pasted this OP from 3-6-2006 I remember having read. The title was; The kid who went up a hilland came down with a hit. > [@The Kid Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down With a Hit](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kid-who-went-up-a-hill-and-came-down-with-a-hit/347252/1): > > I was born in Iowa. > > Stay with me, the story gets better, I promise. > > I was born in Iowa. Iowa is really, really flat. You can place a marble on any surface in Iowa and it won’t roll. When I was seven we moved to upstate New York. New York has hills. Big ones. > > Our street (in NYS) was shaped like a U. The turn in the U was on a hill. At the top of the hill was our driveway, which went farther up the hill. Two hundred feet up. This sucked, because you had to push your bike all the way up. And when it was icy, it was almost impossible to get a car up it. Sometimes it would backslide. I learned to swear from my dad trying to get the car up that hill. > > My best friend Gordy learned to swear from his dad, who apparently would swear simply because the day ended in a Y. Nasty mouth on that man. > > This is headed somewhere, honest. > > The fun thing about that driveway was that when it was icy, it was balls for sledding. Remember those sleds that were just a sheet of blue plastic? Balls on that driveway. Blue balls. Except that we weren’t allowed to sled down it. My mother had some strange notion that we’d slide into the street and get hit by a car. Stupid parents. Don’t know nuthin’. > > So Gordy and I used to play at the bottom of the hill, near his house. Our favorite game (next to The Ginger and Maryann Club) was to play Partridge Family in the woods. There was a clearing that we made the stage. We used sticks for guitars. Gordy was always Danny. Stupid Doug was always Keith. I always got stuck playing Reuben. I hated it. And it was always hard getting a Chris. We’d usually kidnap some little kid and force him to pretend to play air drums. He’d usually run away in tears, crying “I don’t wanna!” Usually the kid was Gordy’s little brother Phil. Red-headed little brat. Obviously had no interest in the entertainment arts. Phil would rather just ride his Big Wheel. Remember those? They were the Lamboghinis of tricycles. > > I guarantee, I’m going somewhere with this. > > A few years later, Gordy and I had a falling out. We even got into a fistfight. We rarely spoke. My sister no longer spoke to his sister. My mother no longer spoke to his mother. It was sad, really. Our families used to be so close. Drifted apart, I guess. > > But every now and then we’d still see Phil. He’d walk his Big Wheel up our long driveway, then ride it, pedal-free, down our driveway, then turn right onto the street and ride all the way down the hill to his house. I’m sure it was a sweet ride, but by this time I realized what folly it was. He could have been hit by a car! And he’d do this over and over again. > > My mother used to worry about him a lot. “That kid’s going to get hit by a car and die!”, she say. > > And he did. He got hit by a car and died. Or maybe not. I forget. Either he got hit by a car and died, or he went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Silly me, I can never remember which it was. 😉 > > Good on yer, Phil. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2014, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/68 "2014-02-02T22:53:08Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > He did a great job in “The Master” too, although that movie was otherwise not very good. Yes it is. ---
**Author:** ![DaphneBlack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daphneblack/32/5389_2.png) [@DaphneBlack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaphneBlack)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2014, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/69 "2014-02-02T22:55:41Z")
So sad to hear this. One of the best character actors. So much talent wasted. I saw him with John C Reilly in ‘True West’ in NYC. It was in a small, intimate space and it was one of my favourite live theatre experiences. He and Reilly would switch roles each performance. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2014, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/70 "2014-02-02T23:17:48Z")
Another talented addict dead. It never stops. Heroin got Cory Monteith too. I guess it’s the current designer drug for todays hip celebrities. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2014, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/71 "2014-02-02T23:28:31Z")
What a horrible loss. Not only was he such a talented actor, but he also had such good taste in what projects to take on. The list of good movies he was in in a pretty short career is crazy. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/72 "2014-02-02T23:31:06Z")
I really liked him in his film roles. However, maybe it was just me but he always seemed to be a sad kind of person in any interview. He would force a smile or two, but I just always thought he seemed to be an unhappy person. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2014, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/73 "2014-02-02T23:45:01Z")
He was with Costume designer Mimi O’Donnell for 15 years. They had 3 young kids. > **[CelebrityBabyScoop](https://celebritybabyscoop.com/)** > > Click here to view the image... ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/74 "2014-02-03T00:09:51Z")
**Owning Mahowny** is one of my favorite movies. I loved him in it. Did anyone else like this movie? I haven’t seen it mentioned here. This makes me so sad. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/75 "2014-02-03T00:17:08Z")
That’s a great story **Mr. Goob** , thank you. In 2005 Phillip Seymour Hoffman was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for his performance in Capote. The nominees that year were: > [@](#): > > Philip Seymour Hoffman - Capote ([won](http://youtu.be/-VcWRJHBUDM) - link is to his acceptance speech > > Heath Ledger - Brokeback Mountain > > David Strathairn - Good Night, and Good Luck > > Terrence Howard - Hustle & Flow > > Joaquin Phoenix - Walk the Line In 2009, he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. The nominees were: > [@](#): > > Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight (won posthumously) > > Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt > > Josh Brolin - Milk > > Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road > > Robert Downey Jr. - Tropic Thunder Years ago, who would have thought Ledger and Hoffman would go before Phoenix and Downey? He also had two other nominations, in 2008 for Charlie Wilson’s War and last year for The Master. He had so many great roles I’m shocked that he wasn’t nominated more. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/76 "2014-02-03T00:32:51Z")
Phillip Seymour Hoffman was from my neck of the woods and one year a local film society gave him an award. Normally, when he came back to visit he didn’t make a big deal about it and a few days later you’d hear someone say that they saw PSH at Wegmans or something. But when they gave him the award, everyone knew he was back and it seemed to really bug him. He actually took a walk downtown and walked right in front of the offices for a local news channel and was completely shocked that one of their reporters spotted him and wanted to talk on camera for a bit. It was bizarre, and a bit jerkish, but it explained so much about the roles he took and how he acted in them. > [@Sampiro](#): > > Not to be indelicate, but I wonder if they have recast Plutarch in Hunger Games 3: Mockingjay 1 yet, and if not whether they’re accepting photos and resumes from non SGA members. Hoffman’s filming was almost done for Part 1 and Part 2. In the books, his character has an assistant that is always right by his side. Giving him (or her, I can’t remember), some of his lines will probably just be given to him (or her). > **[Philip Seymour Hoffman Was Nearly Finished Shooting ‘Hunger Games’](https://variety.com/2014/film/news/philip-seymour-hoffmans-death-will-not-delay-hunger-games-finale-1201083110/)** > > With Hollywood still in shock over the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Lionsgate was forced to consider how it will move forward with the industry’s most lucrative franchise. “The Hunger Games” is currently in production on its final two... ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/77 "2014-02-03T00:36:16Z")
Really, really sad. He was so fun to watch in everything he did. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/78 "2014-02-03T00:41:04Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I guess it’s the current designer drug for todays hip celebrities. There’s nothing “designer” about heroin. Please stop regurgitating your half-formed opinions from shitty tabloid websites ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/79 "2014-02-03T01:46:34Z")
I’ve watched people die from Heroin for 40 years. I knew people doing it when I was in college. Hoffman is just another victim in a long, long line. People just never learn. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364/80 "2014-02-03T01:52:43Z")
Drug addiction is a sad thing but at the end of the day it was the person’s choice to use drugs. Unless someone literally forced it on him I honestly don’t feel to bad about it. Obviously he wanted out, he wanted to stop, and he tried and failed (possibly, nothing his proven yet). That’s why you can’t even start though, because stopping (heroin especially) is almost impossible. So, I’ll miss him. But in the same way somebody offs themselves because they were speeding on a motorcycle without a helmet, I never can feel too sad about it, no matter how much I respected what they did. He made a bad choice to ever try drugs and now these are the consequences. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-seymour-hoffman-has-died/680364.md?page=5)