Here he is as a bad guy in The Getaway:
http://www.hotflick.net/flicks/1994_The_Getaway/tn640/fhd994TGW_Philip_Seymour_Hoffman_001.jpg
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 2 February 2014 19:39 (ten years ago) link
RIP
― Bee OK, Sunday, 2 February 2014 19:40 (ten years ago) link
I liked him in almost everything I saw him in, led by (in order) Magnolia, Capote, Boogie Nights, Happiness, Almost Famous, Moneyball, Love Liza, The Big Lebowski...a few others, too--I must have seen more than one film just because he was in it. (One of the few times he lost me was, Academy Award notwithstanding, the role he'll probably be most remembered for, Lancaster Dodd.) I wrote about him (sort of) soon after first noticing him. A couple of things to look forward to (maybe they've been mentioned already):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2920808/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_5http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1972571/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_4
― clemenza, Sunday, 2 February 2014 19:54 (ten years ago) link
he was my favorite currently working actor. RIP. he was able to embody evil, or hollowed out, or desperate and broken characters with such vividness and emotional precision. http://i1354.photobucket.com/albums/q686/tinyservants/Screenshot2014-02-02at24907PM_zps4ac9417d.png
― slam dunk, Sunday, 2 February 2014 19:55 (ten years ago) link
I know I'm restating the obvious here, but this is so sad. Such a huge fucking loss.
― the "Weird Al" Yankovic of country music (stevie), Sunday, 2 February 2014 20:00 (ten years ago) link
I cannot take it when people who've kicked and moved on and made it out suddenly fall like this. Fuck.
it fucking horrifies
― joe perry has been dead for years (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, 2 February 2014 20:07 (ten years ago) link
Synecdoche, NY is one of my two or three favorite movies of the last decade, and he's a major part of that, obviously. RIP.
― Simon H., Sunday, 2 February 2014 20:08 (ten years ago) link
I liked his early roles in Leap of Faith and Twister. He was great at playing a soldier in a misfit army.
― polyphonic, Sunday, 2 February 2014 20:11 (ten years ago) link
I am so sad about this, kind of felt like a blow out of nowhere. I can't believe I still haven't seen either The Master or Synedoche.
― an enormous bolus of flatulence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Sunday, 2 February 2014 20:15 (ten years ago) link
yeah this came out of nowhere for me too. In fact when I clicked a link to the NY post article (posted somewhere without context) I thought it was some kind of Onion joke at first. :(
― Ludo, Sunday, 2 February 2014 20:19 (ten years ago) link
this really sucks
― Matt Armstrong, Sunday, 2 February 2014 20:24 (ten years ago) link
I've loved how his characters in Capote and Moneyball are polar opposites, but made by the same director and (amazingly) played by the same actor.
― tbd (Eazy), Sunday, 2 February 2014 20:31 (ten years ago) link
so sad
― flopson, Sunday, 2 February 2014 20:33 (ten years ago) link
wait what? The one Sunday I'm occupied for most of the afternoon and....shit? Oof.
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 2 February 2014 20:39 (ten years ago) link
An actor of real intelligence. I'm trying to think of anyone who could've played his loathsome snob in The Talented Mr Ripley; the role required him to be out of shape, a bit swollen, and, more importantly, effeminate, as if that was the reason why he loathed Tom Ripley. The moment when he realizes what Ripley wants out of Dickie is A+
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 2 February 2014 20:49 (ten years ago) link
one of the greats. RIP
― the late great, Sunday, 2 February 2014 20:55 (ten years ago) link
Wait, he did a guest spot on PBS's 'Arthur' cartoon?
http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120315034634/arthur/images/1/1f/NPA_72.jpg
― Johnny Fever, Sunday, 2 February 2014 20:56 (ten years ago) link
This is terrible news. RIP
― And when you f--- up, you go backwards (snoball), Sunday, 2 February 2014 20:57 (ten years ago) link
he did snobs so well in early roles like Ripley and Lebowski that i thought he was gonna get stuck in that niche until he ended up playing a pretty huge spectrum of personalities
― scott c-word (some dude), Sunday, 2 February 2014 20:58 (ten years ago) link
i fall in the camp of psh was my favorite working actor and this is absolutely gutting. just terrible news. feeling for his young family. i don't even know what to say.
― Clay, Sunday, 2 February 2014 21:01 (ten years ago) link
― ...out of that weakness, out of that envy, out of that fear.. (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 2 February 2014 21:01 (ten years ago) link
that's lovely, johnny fever
― mustread guy (schlump), Sunday, 2 February 2014 21:02 (ten years ago) link
rip
― call all destroyer, Sunday, 2 February 2014 21:03 (ten years ago) link
synecdoche is one of the very best films from the past decade or so imo and it's simply unimaginable without him.
― Clay, Sunday, 2 February 2014 21:06 (ten years ago) link
in addition to major emotional intelligence, he had a really expressive face without having to move it very much
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HW9qVEVgWLE/UCF9ELkbPgI/AAAAAAAAFrg/riXQGhGNYGs/s1600/Philip%2BSeymour%2BHoffman.jpeg
― we slowly invented brains (La Lechera), Sunday, 2 February 2014 21:07 (ten years ago) link
Just one example of his transformative powers: His performance in Joel Schumacher's flawed, to say the least, Flawless redeems the whole enterprise. It's not even so much that PSH is "convincing" as a drag queen but that he's a goddamn force of nature.
a huge loss. RIP.
― i lost my shoes on acid (jed_), Sunday, 2 February 2014 21:10 (ten years ago) link
― scott c-word (some dude)
re: this and clem's ancient blog posts i remember he did loser creeps so well (thinking of happiness here esp but scent of a woman and boogie nights have aspects of that as well) that i thought he might get stuck in that mode, i remember one thing i enjoyed about him and magnolia was how it played w/ this, that the typecasting was so apparent at that point you could turn a 'lol psh is ordering porn on the phone' scene on its head. was tempted to compare him to hackman in his ability to make anything watchable and this way he was a character actor that could just blow any trad lead off the screen w/o having to go big (thinking of mi:3 here) but he had a vulnerability that hackman rarely had and never just leaned on charisma the way hackman could sometimes. i'm sure someone can provide examples but thinking of river phoenix and then heath ledger and now hoffman from this generation, it just seems like a ridiculous waste, i can't immediately think of another generation of actors to lose this many giants or potential giants w/ so much work left on the table. obv hoffman got to fulfill his potential more than phoenix and ledger but 46 is just ridiculously too young, we should've had thirty more years of watching this guy.
― balls, Sunday, 2 February 2014 21:21 (ten years ago) link
I also really loved his sparkle and swagger when he got to play guys with a lot of ego and force. One of my favorite small roles is the sex-phone scam guy in Punch-Drunk Love. He's a total asshole, but so much fun to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE2FCCZ50VU
― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 2 February 2014 21:23 (ten years ago) link
saw him onstage about three times, he was consistently exciting
― PSY talks The Nut Job (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 2 February 2014 21:47 (ten years ago) link
just saw this news. a huge loss; r.i.p. was a singular-star from his appearance in boogie nights forward.
― Daniel, Esq 2, Sunday, 2 February 2014 21:50 (ten years ago) link
RIP, PSH
― MV, Sunday, 2 February 2014 21:51 (ten years ago) link
Not the news I was expecting today. Utterly tragic. He played an absurd amount of great roles.
― Spaghetti Sauce Shampoo (Moodles), Sunday, 2 February 2014 21:52 (ten years ago) link
awful news. great actor.
― Isaiah "Ice" McAdams (cajunsunday), Sunday, 2 February 2014 22:06 (ten years ago) link
this is so sad. he was one of those actors you take for granted cos he was in so many movies and he always did a great job. one of my fave performances of his was in "before the devil knows your dead". not an amazing movie but hes just so excellent in it.
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Sunday, 2 February 2014 22:11 (ten years ago) link
he was a leading star, too, but he showed how amazing it can be to focus a career on character/supporting roles.
― Daniel, Esq 2, Sunday, 2 February 2014 22:14 (ten years ago) link
this is devastating.
― estela, Sunday, 2 February 2014 22:28 (ten years ago) link
terrible, just terrible.
― goole, Sunday, 2 February 2014 22:30 (ten years ago) link
Always brought a certain 'je ne sais quoi' to his roles.
Was really looking forward to more of him. Ugh.
― never have i been a blue calm sea (collardio gelatinous), Sunday, 2 February 2014 22:33 (ten years ago) link
addiction is so patient and crafty and vicious, such a nasty thief.
― estela, Sunday, 2 February 2014 22:37 (ten years ago) link
Well this is shit. rip.
― a horse divided cannot stand (darraghmac), Sunday, 2 February 2014 22:38 (ten years ago) link
Nothing further to add, other than that hearing he passed in such a way makes it doubly painful. Similar feeling to when Heath Ledger died.
I remember seeing Synecdoche, New York blowing my mind to pieces when I saw it as an 18 year old. Rest in peace.
― pearly-dewdrops' bops (monotony), Sunday, 2 February 2014 22:47 (ten years ago) link
One of the most OTM things I've read is that PSH and Jude Law should have swapped roles, actually.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 2 February 2014 22:53 (ten years ago) link
http://www.vulture.com/2014/02/edelstein-on-philip-seymour-hoffman-1967-2014.html
Eight years ago, I ate lunch with Hoffman in the East Village for a New York Times profile and had a small inkling of his demons. Capote had just come out and he was the favorite to win an Oscar. (He did.) He talked about what it had taken for a man with a big head, big body, and big deep voice to embody a man with a small head, small body, and bizarre baby voice—about the training that wasn’t unlike what he’d done as a high school jock (yes, he was a jock!), pushing his body and voice to places he wasn't even sure were in reach. And then he talked about the editing fights he’d had with his old friend, the first-time director, Bennett Miller.When you hear about cutting-room fights, it almost always means the star thinks he or she is coming off as too unlikable and wants the director to ratchet up the vulnerability quotient. But Hoffman was arguing to make Capote less attractive—to make him, in fact, thoroughly reprehensible. He said he told Miller, “The way toward empathy is actually to be as hard as possible on this character.”I said I had no idea what he was talking about.“I think deep down inside, people understand how flawed they are,” he said. “I think the more benign you make somebody, the less truthful it is.”
When you hear about cutting-room fights, it almost always means the star thinks he or she is coming off as too unlikable and wants the director to ratchet up the vulnerability quotient. But Hoffman was arguing to make Capote less attractive—to make him, in fact, thoroughly reprehensible. He said he told Miller, “The way toward empathy is actually to be as hard as possible on this character.”
I said I had no idea what he was talking about.
“I think deep down inside, people understand how flawed they are,” he said. “I think the more benign you make somebody, the less truthful it is.”
PSH OTM. Fucking gutted here...
― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 2 February 2014 23:20 (ten years ago) link
So fucking sad. And my sadness is mostly selfish: it really feels like a personal loss, to me, to be deprived of any more PSH roles/ performances... decades of them. Damn. There's just no one else like him in contemporary American cinema, no one comes close. Today, with him gone, it just seems to me a bleak wasteland populated by vapid pretty boys.
― drash, Sunday, 2 February 2014 23:26 (ten years ago) link
this . . . sucks
― rip van wanko, Sunday, 2 February 2014 23:55 (ten years ago) link
He said he told Miller, “The way toward empathy is actually to be as hard as possible on this character.”
Edelstein is no doubt drawing him out, as this is a point so obvious that it's of course missed by lesser actors
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 3 February 2014 00:15 (ten years ago) link
Damn, this is terrible. Anybody who could play his "Happiness" and "Lebowski" roles in the very same year had to be some kinda amazing actor. Loved him in Morbs' favourite "Owning Mahoney" too. RIP
― Sir Lord Baltimora (Myonga Vön Bontee), Monday, 3 February 2014 00:36 (ten years ago) link
i had forgotten about his lebowski role until this happened---so perfect
― gbx, Monday, 3 February 2014 00:42 (ten years ago) link
Love Lebowski, but somehow his role in it never stands out for me. On the other hand: Synecdoche, New York, Boogie Nights, Happiness, The Talented Mr. Ripley, 25th Hour, Love Liza, Owning Mahoney--hell, he was even great in the otherwise worthless Mission: Impossible III. I have a feeling I might be able to add The Master to that list had I seen it yet.
Damn. Just...damn.
― Inside Lewellyn Sinclair (cryptosicko), Monday, 3 February 2014 00:54 (ten years ago) link
just wanna stand up for MI3 for a second here its pretty good
― socki (s1ocki), Monday, 3 February 2014 00:55 (ten years ago) link