PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN
Date of Birth: July 23, 1967
Raised by his mother after his parents divorced in Rochester, New York, Philip Seymour Hoffman's spare time in high school was mostly occupied by sports. En route to baseball tryouts during his sophmore year, he saw a beautiful senior heading the other way. He asked where she was going and she told him she was on her was to try out for a played called The Crucible. He put his mitt in his locker and never looked back.
After studying drama at NYU, he landed a role in Scent of a Woman (1992), followed by parts in Leap of Faith (1992), Twister (1996) and several indie films. Around this time, he met Paul Thomas Anderson, whose short film he'd seen at Sundance. The director cast him in a small role in Sydney (1996), and then wrote what would be a career-making role for him, the bumbling Scotty in Boogie Nights (1997), which was followed by Todd Solondz's critically acclaimed Happiness (1998).
Hoffman has won many awards for his work, including a Golden Satellite Award for his role in Flawless (1999), a Vancouver Film Critics Circle award for his work in Owning Mahoney (2003) and not only a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for portraying the title role in Capote (2005), but an Academy Award for Best Actor as well. He has since received two more Academy Award nominations: for Charlie Wilson's War (2007)and for Doubt (2008). His older brother, Gordy Hoffman, is a screenwriter who wrote a starring role for him in the dark feature film Love Liza (2003).
Filmography:
Jack Goes Boating(2011)
Pirate Radio(2009)
The Invention of Lying (2009) (uncredited)
Mary and Max (2009) (voice)
Doubt(2008)
Synecdoche, New York(2008)
Charlie Wilson's War(2007)
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead(2007)
The Savages(2007)
Mission: Impossible III(2006)
Capote(2005)
Strangers with Candy(2005)
Along Came Polly(2004)
Captured (2003)
Cold Mountain(2003)
Owning Mahowny(2003)
Love Liza(2003)
25th Hour(2002)
Punch-Drunk Love(2002)
Red Dragon(2002)
Almost Famous (2000)
State and Main (2000)
Magnolia(1999)
The Talented Mr. Ripley(1999)
Flawless (1999)
The Big Lebowski(1998)
Culture (1998)
Happiness(1998)
Montana (1998)
Next Stop Wonderland (1998)
Patch Adams(1998)
Boogie Nights(1997)
Twister(1996)
Hard Eight (1996)
The Fifteen Minute Hamlet (1995)
The Getaway(1994)
Nobody's Fool (1994)
When a Man Loves a Woman (1994)
Joey Breaker (1993)
Money for Nothing (1993)
My Boyfriend's Back (1993)
Leap of Faith (1992)
My New Gun (1992)
Scent of a Woman(1992)
Szuler (1992)
Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole (1991)