Philip Seymour Hoffman, 46, found dead at home

I just heard the sad news on Channel 4 News that the Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman has been found dead of an apparent drug overdose at the age of 46. Police have said he was found in the bathroom with a hypodermic needle still in his arm.

The New York Post also report that a personal assistant found the actor’s body in the apartment at 35 Bethune St and then phoned 911 around 11:30 a.m, their time.

Police are still investigating, but Hoffman has previously admitted, in 2006, how he nearly succumbed to drug abuse after graduating from NYU’s drama school, but then got sober while in rehab. He told 60 Minutes at the time how he was into drugs and alcohol and would get his hands on anything he can. More recently, he reportedly checked himself into rehab again for 10 days after relapsing in 2012, having resorted to using prescription pills and snorting heroin for about a week beforehand.

Philip Seymour Hoffman was a prolific actor and he still has a few films due out. This year sees the release of God’s Pocket, starring Christina Hendricks, John Turturro, Eddie Marsan, Richard Jenkins and Caleb Landry Jones, and A Most Wanted Man starring Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright, Daniel Brühl and Willem Dafoe. He’ll also return, alonside Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks and Julianne Moore in the final two parts of The Hunger Games series in Mockingjay, due out this November and November 2015 respectively, as Plutarch Heavensbee.

I’d also recommend his recent movie, The Last Quartet – also starring Christopher Walken, Catherine Keener and Imogen Poots, as well as Magnolia, Mission: Impossible III where he made for a decent baddie, but I still have to check out Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master. Hoffman has also made appearances in scores of other films including The Getaway, Hard Eight, The Big Lebowski, Patch Adams, The Talented Mr Ripley, Punch Drunk Love, Red Dragon, Almost Famous, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Invention of Lying, The Boat That Rocked, The Ides of March, Magnolia and Moneyball.