Philip Seymour Hoffman’s body underwent medical autopsy last night in New York. It is hoped these reports will provide explanation as to the actor’s death last Sunday, though it could take several weeks for results to come through.
The 46-year old Oscar winner was found dead in his apartment at West Village, Manhattan, on February 2. Playwright and screenwriter David Bar Katz found him in his bathroom with a syringe in his arm. The New York Police Department ruled his death as due to an apparent drug overdose. Large quantities of heroin and prescription medication was discovered in his apartment.
Hoffman had suffered from alcohol and drug addiction since graduating college, recovering at 22. He later relapsed, checking himself into a rehab program in May last year for ten days, for addiction to heroin and prescription pills.
The actor’s breakthrough came in 1992, starring in Martin Brest’s Scent Of A Woman. He achieved numerous awards and acclaim for his performance as American author Truman Capote in 2005’s Capote, directed by Bennett Miller. Hoffman’s performance won him an Academy Award for Best Actor, a Golden Globe for Best Actor – Drama, among others. Another incredibly successful victory came in 2012 for his portrayal as charismatic cult leader Lancaster Dodd in 2012’s The Master, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (the actor’s fifth collaboration with the celebrated director). He won numerous film critic awards for Best Supporting Actor, and was nominated for a BAFTA and an Academy Award (he lost both to Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained).
In 2012 Hoffman, known for his theatre work, also won his third Tony Award nomination, for Best Leading Actor In A Play for his performance as Willy Loman in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre’s adaptation of Arthur Miller’s Death Of A Salesman.
Hoffman leaves behind his partner Mimi O’Donnell, of fifteen years, and his one son and two daughters. They had recently been living apart.