Philip Seymour Hoffman Biography

Philip Seymour Hoffman (born July 23, 1967) is an American actor and director. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 2005 biographical film Capote, and received three Academy Award nominations as Best Supporting Actor. He has also received three Tony Award nominations for his work in the theater.

Hoffman began his acting career in 1991, and the following year started to appear in films. He gradually gained recognition for his supporting work in a series of notable films, including Scent of a Woman (1992), Twister (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), The Big Lebowski (1998), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Almost Famous (2000), 25th Hour (2002), Punch-Drunk Love (2002) and Cold Mountain (2003).

In 2005, Hoffman played the title role in Capote, for which he won multiple acting awards including an Academy Award for Best Actor. He received another three Academy Award nominations for his supporting work in Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Doubt (2008) and The Master (2012). Other critically acclaimed films in recent years have included Owning Mahowny (2003), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), The Savages (2007), Synecdoche, New York (2008), Moneyball (2011) and The Ides of March (2011). In 2010, Hoffman made his feature film directorial debut with Jack Goes Boating.

Hoffman is also an accomplished theater actor and director. He joined the LAByrinth Theater Company in 1995, and has directed and performed in numerous stage productions. His performances in three Broadway plays led to three Tony Award nominations: two for Best Leading Actor in True West (2000) and Death of a Salesman (2012); one for Best Featured Actor in Long Day's Journey into Night (2003).

Early life

Hoffman was born in Fairport, New York. His mother, Marilyn O'Connor (née Loucks), who was born in Waterloo, New York, is a family court judge, lawyer, and civil rights activist. His father, Gordon Stowell Hoffman, is a former Xerox executive. He has two sisters, Jill and Emily, and a brother, Gordy Hoffman, who scripted the 2002 film Love Liza, in which Philip starred. He has German, English, Irish, Dutch, and remote Polish, ancestry. His father was Protestant and his mother Catholic; Hoffman was not raised with a deep commitment to either religion. Hoffman's parents divorced when he was nine years old.

Hoffman attended the 1984 Theater School at the New York State Summer School of the Arts. After graduating from Fairport High School, Hoffman attended the Circle in the Square Theatre's summer program, continuing his acting training with the acting teacher Alan Langdon. He received a BFA in drama in 1989 from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. At NYU, he was a founding member of the theater company the Bullstoi Ensemble with actor Steven Schub and director Bennett Miller. Soon after graduating, he went to rehab for drug and alcohol addiction and remained sober until May 2013, when he entered a detox facility after briefly relapsing.

Career

Film and television work

Hoffman's first role was as a defendant in the 1991 Law & Order episode "The Violence of Summer". He made his film breakthrough in 1992 when he appeared in four feature films, with the most successful film being Scent of a Woman, in which he played an unscrupulous classmate of Chris O'Donnell's character. He had been stocking shelves at a city grocery store at the time before landing the role and credits the film with starting his career.

Hoffman has established a successful and respected film career playing diverse and idiosyncratic characters in supporting roles, working with a wide variety of noted directors, including Todd Solondz, The Coen Brothers, Spike Lee, Cameron Crowe, David Mamet, Robert Benton, Anthony Minghella and Paul Thomas Anderson; notably, he has appeared in five out of six of Anderson's feature films to date (Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love and The Master).

He appeared in The Party's Over, a documentary about the 2000 US elections. Throughout his career he has rarely been given a chance to play the lead role. In 2002, however, Hoffman starred as a widower coping with his wife's suicide in Love Liza, for which his brother, Gordy Hoffman, wrote the screenplay. In 2003, he played the lead role in Owning Mahowny as a bank employee who embezzles money to feed his gambling addiction.

Hoffman has continued to play supporting roles in such films as Cold Mountain, as a carnally obsessed preacher, Along Came Polly, as Ben Stiller's crude, has-been actor buddy, and Mission: Impossible III, as villainous arms dealer Owen Davian out to kill Ethan Hunt.

He received his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for the HBO miniseries Empire Falls, but lost to castmate and personal idol Paul Newman. One of Hoffman's earliest roles was as a police deputy who gets punched in the face by Newman in 1994's Nobody's Fool. He received a second Emmy Award nomination for the Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Performer In An Animated Program in his vocal work on Arthur.

In 2005, Hoffman won widespread acclaim for his portrayal of writer Truman Capote in the film Capote. His performance received numerous high-profile accolades and awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actor, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor " Motion Picture, and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. In addition, he was also awarded Best Actor by at least ten film critic associations, including the National Board of Review, Toronto Film Critics, and Los Angeles Film Critics.

In 2007, Hoffman was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for playing Gust Avrakotos, a CIA officer who helps Congressman Charlie Wilson support a covert war in Afghanistan in the movie Charlie Wilson's War. In 2008, he was also nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the same role, which he lost to Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men.

In 2008, he appeared in Synecdoche, New York, in which he played Caden Cotard, a man who attempts to build a scale replica of New York inside a warehouse for a play, and Doubt, in which he played Father Brendan Flynn, a priest accused of sexually abusing a student. He received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for the latter. He also received a second consecutive nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Doubt.

In July 2012, he was cast as Plutarch Heavensbee in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger Games. That same year, he starred in Paul Thomas Anderson's critically acclaimed drama The Master, which featured him as the charismatic leader of a nascent movement in post-war America. For this role, he was once again nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Theater work

Hoffman has also won acclaim for his work in the theater. He joined the LAByrinth Theater Company in 1995, and has staged and performed in numerous productions.

As a director, Hoffman has received two Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Director of a Play: one for Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train in 2001; another for Our Lady of 121st Street in 2003. Of the difference between acting and directing in a play, Hoffman has said that "the director's experience is not the real experience...You are the most subjective person in the room. You have no objectivity. You have to take a couple of weeks off and then come back to watch it without telling anyone, and you will see it with different eyes."

As an actor, he first gained recognition in 2000 for the Off-Broadway play The Author's Voice, receiving a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play. On Broadway, Hoffman starred in the 2000 revival of True West and the 2003 revival of Long Day's Journey into Night, both leading to Tony Award nominations.

In 2012, Hoffman starred as Willy Loman in the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, prompting the New York Times critic to conclude that "Mr. Hoffman is one of the finest actors of his generation [...] beyond dispute." He received his third Tony Award nomination as Best Leading Actor in a Play.

Personal life

Hoffman is in a relationship with costume designer Mimi O'Donnell. They met while working on the 1999 play In Arabia We'd All Be Kings, which Hoffman directed. They have a son, Cooper Alexander, born in March 2003, and two daughters, Tallulah, born in November 2006, and Willa, born in October 2008.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	Law & Order	Steven Hanauer	TV Series " Episode: "The Violence of Summer" (credited as Philip Hoffman)
1991	Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole	Klutch
1992	Szuler	Martin
1992	My New Gun	Chris
1992	Leap of Faith	Matt
1992	Scent of a Woman	George Willis, Jr.	Credited as Philip S. Hoffman
1993	Joey Breaker	Wiley McCall
1993	My Boyfriend's Back	Chuck Bronski
1993	Money for Nothing	Cochran
1994	'	Frank Hansen
1994	'	Buck	TV Film
1994	When a Man Loves a Woman	Gary
1994	Nobody's Fool	Officer Raymer
1995	The Fifteen Minute Hamlet	Bernardo, Horatio & Laertes
1996	Hard Eight	Young Craps Player
1996	Twister	Dustin "Dusty" Davis
1997	Boogie Nights	Scotty J.
1997	Liberty! The American Revolution	Joseph Plumb Martin
1998	Culture	Bill
1998	Montana	Duncan
1998	Next Stop Wonderland	Sean	Nominated "? Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actor
1998	'	Brandt
1998	Happiness	Allen
1998	Patch Adams	Mitch Roman
1999	Flawless	Rusty Zimmerman
1999	Magnolia	Phil Parma
1999	'	Freddie Miles
2000	Titanic 2000	Himself
2000	State and Main	Joseph Turner White
2000	Almost Famous	Lester Bangs
2001	The Party's Over	Himself	Theatrically released as Last Party 2000
2002	Love Liza	Wilson Joel
2002	Punch-Drunk Love	Dean Trumbell	Nominated "? Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
2002	Red Dragon	Freddy Lounds
2002	25th Hour	Jacob Elinsky
2003	Owning Mahowny	Dan Mahowny
2003	Cold Mountain	Reverend Veasey
2004	Along Came Polly	Sandy Lyle
2005	Strangers with Candy	Henry, Board Of Education
2005	Empire Falls	Charlie Mayne
2005	Capote	Truman Capote
2006	Mission: Impossible III	Owen Davian	Nominated " Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
2007	Before the Devil Knows You're Dead	Andy Hanson
2007	'	Jon Savage
2007	Charlie Wilson's War	Gust Avrakotos
2008	Synecdoche, New York	Caden Cotard
2008	Doubt	Father Brendan Flynn
2009	Mary and Max	Max Jerry Horowitz	(Voice Only)
2009	'	The Count	Released as Pirate Radio in the United States and as Radio Rock Revolution in Germany
2009	'	Jim the Bartender
2009	Arthur	Will Toffman	Episode: No Acting Please Nominated "? Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Performer In An Animated Program
2010	Jack Goes Boating	Jack
2011	Moneyball	Art Howe
2011	'	Paul Zara	Nominated "? BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated "? Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Nominated "? Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
2012	The Master	Lancaster Dodd	Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award For Best Supporting Actor Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actor Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor International Cinephile Society Award for Best Supporting Actor International Online Film Critics' Poll Award for Best Supporting Actor Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor London Film Critics' Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor Volpi Cup for Best Actor (shared with Joaquin Phoenix) Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated "? Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated "? BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated "? Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated "? Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated "? Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture Nominated "? Houston Film Critics Society for Best Supporting Actor Nominated "? San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated "? Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture Nominated "? Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated "? Utah Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
2012	A Late Quartet	Robert Gelbart
2013	The Hunger Games: Catching Fire	Plutarch Heavensbee
2013	A Most Wanted Man	Günther Bachmann
2014	Child 44		Filming
2014	God's Pocket		Filming

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	The Skriker	RawHeadAndBloodyBones	April 23, 1996 " May 26, 1996
1997"98	Defying Gravity	C.B.	November 2, 1997 " January 4, 1998
1998	Shopping and Fucking	Mark	March 17, 1998 " April 11, 1998
1999	The Author's Voice & Imagining Brad	N/A	May 11, 1999 " May 29, 1999 Nominated "? Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play
2000	True West	Lee Austin	Broadway Mar 2, 2000 " Jul 29, 2000 Theatre World Award Nominated "? Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play Nominated "? Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play
	Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train		Director November 29, 2000 " December 31, 2000 Nominated "? Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play
2001	The Seagull	Konstantin	August 12, 2001 " August 26, 2001
	The Glory of Living		Director October 30, 2001 " December 1, 2001
2003	Our Lady of 121st Street		Director March 6, 2003 " July 27, 2003 Nominated "? Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play Nominated "? Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Director
	Long Day's Journey into Night	James Tyrone, Jr.	Broadway May 6, 2003 " Aug 1, 2003 Nominated "? Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play Nominated "? Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play
	Dutch Heart of Man		Artistic Director September 25, 2003 " October 19, 2003
2004	Guinea Pig Solo		Artistic Director May 9, 2004 " June 6, 2004
	Sailor's Song		Executive Director November 7, 2004 " November 21, 2004
2005	The Last Days of Judas Iscariot		Director/Artistic Director March 2, 2005 " April 3, 2005
2006	School of the Americas		Artistic Director July 6, 2006 " July 23, 2006
	A Small, Melodramatic Story		Artistic Director October 24, 2006 " November 5, 2006
2007	Jack Goes Boating	Jack	Artistic Director March 18, 2007 " April 29, 2007 Nominated "? Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play Nominated "? Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor
	A View From 151st Street		Artistic Director October 18, 2007 " November 4, 2007
2008	Unconditional		Artistic Director February 18, 2008 " March 9, 2008
	The Little Flower of East Orange		Director April 6, 2008 " May 4, 2008
2009	Othello	Iago	September 27, 2009 " October 4, 2009
2012	Death of a Salesman	Willy Loman	Broadway Mar 15, 2012 " Jun 2, 2012 Nominated "? Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play Nominated "? Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play