Philip Seymour Hoffman found dead

[Shaka Zulu]

He was amazing in The Master as Lancaster Dodd (L. Ron Hubbard) and should have won an Oscar for that role, and he was great as the antagonist in the third Mission: Impossible movie I can't believe that he's gone.

 

[Starkers]

This is really shocking news. The drug-overdose report isn't confirmed, but this does feel like Heath Ledger all over again. Why do we tolerate an entertainment industry that puts creative talent under so much stress that they're driven to drug abuse over and over again? We need to find a way to reform the system -- and maybe reform the way we in the audience treat and talk about actors, often forgetting that they're human beings with vulnerabilities of their own.

You've got to be kidding.

Uh... yeah. Drugs drive people to drug abuse. I'm all for reining in our paparazzo-celebrity culture, but to implicate the general public in any way for those two deaths is ludicrous.

You could argue as well that being a celebrity gives you access to the kind of rehabilitation facilities the average person could never hope to get support from. I realise the flipside to this is that money and celebrity ensure you have easy access to whatever you desire as well, and I guess for someone on the wagon temptation must always be just a phone call away and it’s a shame he stayed clean and sober for so long only to fall again.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Money may give you access to all possible resources, but it doesn't ensure that they will work, and it doesn't help you get into the headspace you need to realize you need help, or to believe that getting help will work in the first place. When you're tortured by your own mind, it's easy to believe there's no escape, except that high you remember making you feel so good and invincible before. That's part of why it's so hard to stop, once you've started. Nothing takes the pain away so quickly as a high, and you never forget it.

 

[Borgminister]

Drugs are an equal opportunity destroyer.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

This is really shocking news. The drug-overdose report isn't confirmed, but this does feel like Heath Ledger all over again. Why do we tolerate an entertainment industry that puts creative talent under so much stress that they're driven to drug abuse over and over again? We need to find a way to reform the system -- and maybe reform the way we in the audience treat and talk about actors, often forgetting that they're human beings with vulnerabilities of their own.

You've got to be kidding.

Uh... yeah. Drugs drive people to drug abuse. I'm all for reining in our paparazzo-celebrity culture, but to implicate the general public in any way for those two deaths is ludicrous.

Thirded.

However well-meaning one may be, it's just as unwarranted, to hold people in the general public accountable for the private lives of celebrities, as it is delusional to believe that people in the general public could influence their private lives. The privilege of influencing celebrities' private lives belongs more to the people in personal contact with them.

---

Twister was on TV the other night and Hoffman's performance stood out to me. Coincidentally, I found myself wishing for the first time that we could have found out more about Dusty, due to the way Hoffman sold the character. Hoffman seemed to me to have been underutilized in the film, though obviously it's meant to be Bill and Jo's story.

Looking over his filmography, it seems pretty obvious that I have to add Capote to my list of films to see.

Rest In Peace.

 

[JWPlatt]

The general public funds the paparazzo-celebrity culture. The money comes from us. Don't buy it and it won't sell, but that's unrealistic because people will usually find a way to get what they want. In other words, it's hopeless; people will always buy into that vapid stupidity because the bell curve of constructive intellect says there are enough people to buy it. Expect more of this forever in the same way that just because there are police doesn't mean crime will ever be eradicated. Statistics will prevail until human nature is abolished.

This happens every day to a lot of people. They use drugs; they decline; they die. The only reason this is shocking is because it is a celebrity and makes the news. Every other death like it is just as tragic; you just don't hear about it. If you heard about every death just like this one, the actor would be lost in the numbers and not shocking at all. But if you had never heard of the actor, it's possible he'd live a longer life without the fame and fortune and the vampiric celebrity machine and gossiping locusts that come along with it.

 

[bigdaddy]

Drugs are an equal opportunity destroyer.

Robert Downey Jr. once did an interview saying he didn't stop doing drugs because he started hating them, he fucking loves them. He was doing the drugs because they work so well and only quit because he knew if he didn't he would end up dead.

Point is, don't start doing drugs because you won't want to stop.

 

[Garak]

Probably been mentioned before but Owning Mahowny is an fantastic film that many people don't know about but PSH gives an amazing performance in it. If you haven't seen it, check it out.

Anyways, I'll just leave this here:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW0cLM9Kj1Q[/yt]

 

[cooleddie74]

Robert Downey Jr. once did an interview saying he didn't stop doing drugs because he started hating them, he fucking loves them. He was doing the drugs because they work so well and only quick because he knew if he didn't he would end up dead.

Downey is one of the great success stories of all time when it comes to celebrity rehab. It took a long, long time for the guy to finally get his shit together and kick his habits but when he finally did so he committed himself to sobriety and has experienced a tremendous career renaissance thanks to it. He's clean, focused both professionally and personally and seems like a happy guy. It's the comeback you wish they could all have.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Hoffman found with 50 bags of heroin, addiction meds: sources

 

[CaptJimboJones]

But if you had never heard of the actor, it's possible he'd live a longer life without the fame and fortune and the vampiric celebrity machine and gossiping locusts that come along with it.

PSH first started drugs many years before he became famous, and then he was sober during the vast majority of his period as a well-known actor. In addition, he was never really paparazzi-bait the way some of them are. He said many times that until his Oscar he could usually walk down the street in New York and no one would recognize him.

I see pretty much no correlation between his drug abuse and his fame.

 

[Gaith]

Uh... yeah. Drugs drive people to drug abuse. I'm all for reining in our paparazzo-celebrity culture, but to implicate the general public in any way for those two deaths is ludicrous.

Thirded.

However well-meaning one may be, it's just as unwarranted, to hold people in the general public accountable for the private lives of celebrities, as it is delusional to believe that people in the general public could influence their private lives. The privilege of influencing celebrities' private lives belongs more to the people in personal contact with them.

Er... you aren't "thirding" my remarks there. I'm very much willing to believe the paparazzo-celebrity culture inflicts real and serious harm on certain celebrities, especially such younger ones as your Biebers and Lohans, but I don't think that really applies in this case. I doubt Hoffman was being hounded every waking moment, and unable to have any degree of normal human interaction.



... Call it hometown pride, but in the wake of Ebert's passing, there's a strong case to be made that the San Francisco Chronicle's Mick Lasalle is America's finest active film critic, and his piece on Hoffman is a beautiful one:

They say the graveyards are full of indispensable men, and yet it’s hard not to see the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman as a disaster for motion pictures and for the art of screen acting. To look back on what this consummate American actor accomplished just in the last 15 years is to imagine what he might have done over the next 25 or 30 – except we can’t even have the satisfaction of imagining: Hoffman was always surprising us.


An unprepossessing boy-man caught between types, he started out not looking like anybody or like anything in particular. He turned that into an advantage, by showing he could play everything. His features were raw, his body almost uncouth, and yet he was capable of remarkable delicacy. A real artist, his center was impossible to locate because it was always different, and changing. He could be light or heavy, warm or cold.


...


He understood flaws. He most certainly understood darkness, particularly the kind of darkness that could restructure itself as creativity. Think of him as the political fixer in “The Ides of March” or as the volatile government agent in “Charlie Wilson’s War.” One must assume this darkness was also within Hoffman himself and this disturbance was part of his gift. For sure, he often exuded a lack of ease in his own skin, a submerged self-hatred. Was this real? One sensed it was, though perhaps it was just the movies. In any case, the quality of his intelligence was major, and unmistakable.


But all this summing up is too easy – and inadequate. [...]

 

[Maurice]

I'm sorry for his friends and family.

That said, I'm tired of the hand wringing for the tragedies of celebrities and not for people in other walks of life who suffer from addiction and mental health issues. At least the former have the resources to seek help.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Uh... yeah. Drugs drive people to drug abuse. I'm all for reining in our paparazzo-celebrity culture, but to implicate the general public in any way for those two deaths is ludicrous.

Thirded.

However well-meaning one may be, it's just as unwarranted, to hold people in the general public accountable for the private lives of celebrities, as it is delusional to believe that people in the general public could influence their private lives. The privilege of influencing celebrities' private lives belongs more to the people in personal contact with them.

Er... you aren't "thirding" my remarks there. I'm very much willing to believe the paparazzo-celebrity culture inflicts real and serious harm on certain celebrities, especially such younger ones as your Biebers and Lohans, but I don't think that really applies in this case. I doubt Hoffman was being hounded every waking moment, and unable to have any degree of normal human interaction.

Despite my indicating agreement with what you'd said up to that point, I did not intend my additional words, made subsequently to yours, to be construed as a statement that you would necessarily agree with, so in case they're in order, apologies for not making it crystal clear that I was going on to make my own point.

So as not to feed debate of something that's off-topic in this thread, I'll not defend what I said in here.

 

[Gaith]

Fair enough, and no apology needed.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

A local (Toronto) tribute to Hoffman from Blog TO about his playing of a character based on a local Toronto figure,Brian Molony:

Academy award winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman played several real-life characters on the big screen: Truman Capote, Lester Bangs, Oakland Athletics coach Art Howe, and even a wayward CIBC clerk from Toronto.

Hoffman, who died yesterday of an apparent drug over dose, according to a preliminary police report, played Bay Street bank banker Dan Mahowny, a character based on real-life embezzler Brian Molony, in the 2003 movie Owning Mahowny.

Molony was a mild-mannered Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce clerk with a voracious gambling habit. As part of his job, the chubby 26-year-old with distinctive thick-framed glasses was authorized to approve loans of up to $35,000, which he routinely issued to himself under fictitious names.

Using proceeds from some 93 fraudulent transactions, Molony would leave his Bay and Richmond office in a limousine, travel by private jet to Atlantic City, and routinely lose thousands at craps, baccarat, "almost anything" at the Caesar's Boardwalk Regency Hotel-Casino, one the largest gaming halls on the east coast.

In total, Molony embezzled more than $10 million, a crime which netted him six years in prison. Despite his high-profile downfall, he went on to marry his then-girlfriend, quit gambling, and return to work in the financial sector.

In 2003, Philip Seymour Hoffman was cast as a character based on Molony. The movie adaptation was one of film critic Roger Ebert's top ten films of the year.

That time Philip Seymour Hoffman was a Toronto crook


[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH8mh8e8L_c[/yt]

 

[gblews]

Just gutted. He was good in everything he did, even silly films like Twister. One of the few actors of this generation who could really be called great.

Yes, that little throw away role in Twister he managed to turn into something special, something that you remembered. Same with the small part in Almost Famous and (smallish part in) Boogie Nights.

Actors who can give you what is on the written page are a dime a dozen. Hoffman was one of those guys who would create a character, and then interpret his "role" in the script through the character he created.There aren't many who can do this.

Astonishing talent. RIP.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Just gutted. He was good in everything he did, even silly films like Twister. One of the few actors of this generation who could really be called great.

Yes, that little throw away role in Twister he managed to turn into something special, something that you remembered. Same with the small part in Almost Famous and (smallish part in) Boogie Nights.

And a very early episode of Law & Order, which (IIRC) was PSH's first role.

 

[cooleddie74]

I've said for a long time that Toby Jones looked a lot more like Truman Capote, but Hoffman was Truman Capote - and though both films are terrific the edge has to go to the actor who made you believe you were not only looking at Capote but were listening to him speak to you.

That was Hoffman's great talent: the character underneath the skin.

 

[Trekker4747]

Watching "Twister" right now and am at the scene where Dusty explains to Melissa how Bill got the nickname "The Extreme" and, man it's just fascinating how much he put into such a fairly small role. He's vastly more memorable in this than Hunt, Paxton or any of the other characters. Just a truly great actor. Man.

And honestly, it gets ragged on a bit anymore and I can certainly see why but this movie has a charm to it for me as someone who was once a storm spotter and still am a weather enthusiast. Lots of fun in this movie and not only an incredible score that was the first CD I ever bought, that I still have and still enjoy but also a great sound track.