Breaking: Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman found dead in Manhattan apartment.

[anneboleyn]

77. A sublimely talented Oscar winner who relied on his HUGE talent (Moneyball, Hunger Games)

to turn out some fantastic performances that always pushed the edges and never, ever were predictable. He was honestly a great talent, something of a younger and even more intense John Malkovich, and this is just such a shitty loss. He's been excellent in every film he's been in, and the list includes just about every great film of the past two and a half decades, from Scent of a Woman (one of his very first films, in which he stole scenes with his outstanding character-acting from the hyperventilating Al Pacino), the cult favorite The Big Lebowski, his career-making turn as music-journalist-icon Lester Bangs in Almost Famous...on and on.

His filmography is frankly dazzling -- there are too many to list from imdb but here is a selection. If you don't know him you missed out on one of the few truly great actors of the past twenty years. He was a rare type in Hollywood -- a fabulously talented, REAL actor, who did not use looks or celebrity to get roles, who avoided fame and all of its obnoxious trappings to live a very quiet life. His death, and what must have been a terrible addiction, are tragedies. Truly.

The Hunger Games franchise
The Master (he portrayed the L. Ron Hubbard character) 2012
Moneyball (2011)
The Ides of March (2011)
Pirate Radio (2009)
Doubt (2008) -- one of his many outstanding performances.
Charlie Wilson's War (2007)
Mission Impossible III (2006)
Capote (2005) he won the academy award for this film
Cold Mountain (2003)
25th Hour (2002)
Almost Famous (2000)
State and Main (2000)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) he is the best part of the film
Magnolia (1999)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Boogie Nights (1997)
When a Man loves a Woman (1994)
Scent of a Woman (1993)