Talent, humility defined actor from Fairport
Jeff Spevak :: Staff writer http://rochesterdemocrat.ny.newsmemory.com/
Philip Seymour Hoffman’s life was a triumph-to-tragedy role that he might have pursued as an actor, had he not lived it himself. Suburban kid goes from local community theater to Oscar winner, and dies tragically at age 46.
The Fairport native was found dead in his Manhattan apartment of an apparent drug overdose Sunday morning. By Sunday afternoon, people in film, theater and the Rochester area were remembering Hoffman as one of the premier actors of his day.
He won a best actor Academy Award in 2005 for Capote and earned three Academy Award nominations for his supporting work in Charlie Wilson’s War , Doubt and The Master . His Broadway performances led to three Tony Award nominations. He also was nominated for an Emmy for his role in the 2005 HBO miniseries Empire Falls .
“He did the indies, he did theater,” said Barbara Biddy, whose Shipping Dock Theatre here in Rochester gave the 18-year-old Hoffman his first acting role outside of high school. “I think he was a very brave person when I worked with him, very brave with the roles he chose. He took chances.
“He took chances,” she added sadly, “with other stuff.”
Hoffman had two stints in rehab. One was for drug and alcohol addictions not long after he graduated from New York University in 1989; the second was last year.
Hoffman was already dead from a heroin overdose when he was found on the floor of the bathroom in his apartment late Sunday morning by his friend, screenwriter David Katz, the needle still in Hoffman’s arm, according to a New York City law enforcement official.
“I wish people would leave him alone,” Biddy said.
“I’ve been crying for two hours. I can’t tell you what a good guy he was. His family and his mother are wonderful people. He was parented right,” she said. “But some people, I guess, are predisposed. Now people are talking about his tortured soul. … I don’t know that to be true.”
The outpouring of praise for Hoffman’s film and theater work was matched by tributes to his character and humility. Choreographer Garth Fagan, attending the PeaceArt Community Peace Celebration Sunday afternoon at Hochstein Performance Hall, had not yet heard of Hoffman’s death and was stunned by the news.
He recalled Hoffman’s wit and articulate manner. “He was a very talented, effervescent young man,” Fagan said.
Hoffman was a star, but showed few signs of it. He shunned interviews.
“His life was worth more than his use,” Biddy said, in a plea to remember Hoffman as an artist, and not how he died. “Look at his body of work, talk to his neighbors. He was not pretentious; he came back to do a fundraiser for my little theater where he got his start.”
“I had the highest respect for Philip in all of his work,” said Nora Brown, film commissioner of the Rochester/Finger Lakes Film Office. She was with Hoffman last week at the Sundance Film Festival.
“We have been really proud of our hometown boy, and I enjoyed bragging that his roots were here,” she said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Philip’s family.”
One of Hoffman’s early performances was in Death of a Salesman while at Fairport High School; the next time he played Willy Loman was in 2012 with an acclaimed run of the Arthur Miller classic on Broadway. At the nowclosed Shipping Dock Theatre, fresh out of high school, he landed the lead role in a 1986 production of A Breeze From the Gulf . Michael Arve, who now directs plays at MuCCC, was the stage manager on that production.
“He was amazing then,” Arve said, recalling that the play was constructed so that in one scene he was 15 years old, the next 30. “I swear to God, when he was playing 30, he got bigger. I wish more of those early roles were on film so actors could watch them as a lesson; there was never a wasted movement even back then.”
“It’s such a big loss. I had also seen him in Death of a Salesman before that and on Broadway the other year.” At that 2012 performance, “I sat in the second to last row in the balcony,” Arve said. “Even from there, I could see his eye movements. He was unbelievable.”
Hoffman’s prolific career included directing plays. He most recently starred as Plutarch Heavensbee in the summer blockbuster The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. He finished his work in that role for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I , set for a November release.
His best-known films, in which he often played unusual characters, included his first major role, in 1992’s Scent of a Woman. Other memorable works included The Big Lebowski , Twister , Boogie Nights and The Talented Mr. Ripley .
“There wasn’t a single film you saw him in that he wasn’t wonderful,” Arve said. “He was so real.”
Hoffman’s publicist released this statement from his family: “We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil and appreciate the outpouring of love and support we have received from everyone. This is a tragic and sudden loss and we ask that you respect our privacy during this time of grieving. Please keep Phil in your thoughts and prayers.”
“I can’t imagine what that family is going through,” Biddy said. “The family is very close, and his mother kept it that way. She supported him all the way. When he won the Academy Award, do you remember who his date was?”
His mother, Marilyn O’Connor, is a retired Monroe County family court judge.
Hoffman is survived by his partner of 15 years, Mimi O’Donnell, and their three children. His father, Gordon S. Hoffman, retired from Xerox.
“I never thought of Phil as a star,” Biddy said. “He was an actor. He was an artist. My heart is broken. He’s one less beautiful person to inspire, and I think the world is a lesser place.”
Perhaps the prolific pace, and the intensity that he put into the characters that he played, was too much of a load for Hoffman.
“That’s a very scary thing, to put yourself out there as an actor,” Biddy said. “To be a good actor, a really good actor, to expose yourself, and that’s what you do. He put himself in that zone, to be raw and out there.”
Hoffman’s 10-day rehab in May 2013 came after he had been snorting heroin. It followed 23 years of sobriety. On Sunday, a heroin-filled envelope was reportedly found next to his body.
“I knew he had been in rehab, so I thought things were together,” Biddy said. “I wish to hell I had called him. I wish to hell I had called him.”
JSPEVAK
Actors Philip Seymour Hoffman, left, and Andrew Garfield take a curtain call at the Broadway opening night of Death Of A Salesman at the Barrymore Theatre on March 15, 2012 in New York City. Hoffman was nominated for a Tony Award for his portrayal of Willy Loman. MIKE COPPOLA/GETTY IMAGES
Staff members from the medical examiner’s office enter the building of the home of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman on Sunday. Hoffman, a Fairport native, was found dead of an apparent heroin overdose in his Greenwich Village apartment late Sunday morning. He was 46. JOHN MINCHILLO/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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