RIP Philip Seymour Hoffman

I guess I'm naive, or was unfamiliar with his background. I would have never guessed him to be the guy found dead in his apartment from an OD. I knew he had a wife and kids and lived a pretty grounded life away from the screen.

The best TV actor and the best film actor of the last 20-30 years, both dead within months of each other. Sucks.

 

OK, I'm honestly blanking on the TV actor. Unless you were just a really big Uncle Phil fan...

EDIT: Figured it out. I'm a moron. Of course it was Uncle Phil!

 

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/hoffman-junod

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Would Matt Damon ever be found dead, with a syringe still hanging from his arm? Would George Clooney essentially eat himself to death? No, for the simple fact they both have way too much to lose. But neither would they permit themselves to be weepily jerked off by Amy Adams, as Philip Seymour Hoffman was, in The Master, or to crawl as far into his own dead eyes as James Gandolfini regularly did in The Sopranos. The great character actors are now the actors whose work has the element of ritual sacrifice once claimed by the DeNiros of the world, as well as the element of danger— the actors who thrill us by going for broke. It should be no surprise when, occasionally, they break, or turn out to be broken. RIP.

 

That picture, if you squint right, looks like Charlie Pierce.

 

Occasionally?
All actors are broken. That's why they are actors.
They crave the attention and fame. It's needed to fill the void in their soul. They are unhappy being themselves.

 

Blue font?

 

Yeah, I kind of had the same reaction. When they said, "He'd been clean for 24 years..." my initial reaction was, "Sure he was..."

I don't know one way or the other, but that was my reaction.

 

One wonders if the doctor who originally prescribed the painkillers doesn't have some responsibility here, assuming he or she knew about the history of drug addiction.

And thanks for sharing Xan. A good friend had a very similar experience with Heroin. Always said shooting up just freaked him out to much and that's why he mostly avoided it.

 

This is just a simplistic cliché.

ALL actors are not broken, and they find the profession for a variety of different reason. Some because they happen to be exceedingly beautiful and it's a natural career path for exploiting such gifts. Some because their daddy/family happens to have connections in the industry. Some simply because they think it beats a real word job and are drawn by the money and attractive women in the industry.

There's a HUGE difference between the truly gifted character actors like Hoffman/Gandolfini/Ledger, etc. and the John Stamos and Tori Spellings of the acting world. And, although immeasurably more talented, the former group also appears far more likely to have the broken and tortured souls.

 

All actors are not broken. Many are. Many aren't.

 

Did Paul Newman seem "broken"? Do George Clooney or Meryl Streep seem that way? Obviously the vast majority of what we know about these people is only what they want us to know, but there are plenty of examples of actors who from all appearances are relatively well-adjusted people.

 

Hoffman didn't have the look of someone who had been abusing it very long.
Heard the buzz described as feeling as if you are in the arms of God.
The most powerful comfort you can imagine.