At the scene of the actor's West Side apartment in New York
,
crowds of people and camera crews formed a semicircle outside the
building until police instructed them to go across the street.The actor was found dead with a needle in his arm in the bathroom of his apartment in the West Village, according to CNN, citing sources.
Hoffman had undergone treatment for drug addiction
in the past and said last year that he had been clean for 23 years
before "falling off the wagon" in 2012. In May 2013, Hoffman had entered
a detox facility and completed a 10-day program for his use of
prescription drugs and heroin.Survivors include his young children, Tallulah, Cooper and Willa, whom he had with his longtime partner, costume designer Mimi O'Donnell.
Born on July 23, 1967, in Fairport, N.Y., outside Rochester, Hoffman made his screen debut in a 1991 episode of Law & Order.
Hoffman was nominated for his supporting work in Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Doubt (2008) and The Master (2012). He received Tony Award nominations for True West (2000), Long Day's Journey Into Night (2003) and, as Willy Loman, in Death of a Salesman (2012).
Hoffman appeared as Plutarch Heavensbee in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) and continued in the series with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 1, now in postproduction.
Hoffman was just seen last month in the Sundance entries God's Pocket, directed by Mad Men's John Slattery, and A Most Wanted Man, a spy thriller that also stars Rachel McAdams.
Showtime recently picked up his series Happyish (formerly Trending Down), in which Hoffman stars as a 42-year-old whose new bosses are half his age.
He also has appeared in The Big Lebowski (1998), Patch Adams (1998), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Cold Mountain (2003), Synecdoche, New York (2008), Jack Goes Boating (2010) and Moneyball (2011).
In Doubt, Hoffman was memorable as Father Brendan Flynn, a New York priest who may or may not have sexually abused an altar boy. He portrayed real-life CIA man Gust Avrakotos in Charlie Wilson's War opposite Tom Hanks. And in The Master, he played Lancaster Dodd, the mesmerizing leader of a religious movement known as "The Cause" who messes with Joaquin Phoenix's mind.
In a September 2005 interview with NPR, Hoffman talked about preparing to play larger-than-life author Truman Capote.
"You know, you can do the research," he said. "You can read everything you need to read. You can talk to the people you can talk to, to illuminate things to you. You can get, you know, videotapes, audiotapes, all those things, and I had all those things at my disposal, and I would have all those things and I'd be alone in a room, and I would force myself to be alone in that room with those things for an hour or two every day."
During his Oscar-winning speech, an obviously overwhelmed Hoffman spoke lovingly about his mother, Marilyn O'Connor, and the influence she had on him.
"She's here tonight; I'd like you if you see her to congratulate her," he said. "She brought up four kids alone, and she deserves congratulations for that. … She took me to my first play and she stayed up with me and watched the NCAA Final Four. Her passions became my passions. Be proud, mom, because I'm proud of you. We're here tonight. It's so good."
