Philip Seymour Hoffman has established himself as one of the most respected and acclaimed character actors in Hollywood, and recently received a Best Actor Oscar for his terrific performance in 2005’s “Capote”.
Born July 23, 1967 in Fairport, New York, Hoffman attended the prestigious New York University Tisch School of the Arts, where he received a BFA in drama in 1989. His revered screen career began with a “Law & Order” guest spot in 1991, and it soon took off after a villainous supporting role alongside Chris O’Donnell in 1992’s “Scent of a Woman”. A string of high-profile supporting roles followed in films like “Nobody’s Fool”, “When a Man Loves a Woman”, and “Twister”, before Hoffman came to the attention of critics with two Paul Thomas Anderson films, “Hard Eight” (also known as “Sydney”) and “Boogie Nights”. Hoffman has consistently tackled offbeat and diverse roles, and has starred in all four of Anderson’s films to great acclaim. In addition to the aforementioned two, he portrayed a kind, nervous male nurse in “Magnolia” and a self-righteous Utah criminal in “Punch-Drunk Love”.
Hoffman’s reputation as a talented and daring actor solidified with memorable turns in the Coen Brothers’ “The Big Lebowski”, the disturbing drama “Happiness”, and as a drag queen opposite Robert De Niro in the rarely-seen “Flawless”. Almost never appearing in a mediocre film, Hoffman has often outgunned the lead actors in his films with his incredibly dense, focused, yet rarely distracting performances. In addition to another string of terrific appearances in films like “The Talented Mr. Ripley”, David Mamet’s “State and Main”, “Almost Famous”, “Red Dragon”, and starring roles in the under-appreciated indie gems “Love Liza” and “Owning Mahowny”, Hoffman has become a respected actor and director on stage as well. He has earned two Tony nominations for acting in the past five years, one for the 2000 revival of Sam Shepard’s “True West” and another for the 2003 revival of “Long Day’s Journey into Night”. He is currently the co-artistic director of the LAByrinth Theatre Company in New York, and his stage directing projects have included Rebecca Gilman’s “The Glory of Living” and Stephen Adly Guirgis’s “Jesus Hopped the A Train”.
One of the best actors working today, Hoffman is currently causing Tom Cruise major grief as the villain in “Mission: Impossible 3” and will be seen this summer in the big-screen version of “Strangers with Candy”. If his fabulous work in last year’s “Capote” is any indication, Hoffman could become one of the most unique leading men in screen history.