Philip Seymour Hoffman - Details

Philip Seymour Hoffman was most recently seen in Cameron Crowe’s upcoming film Almost Famous, as Lester Bangs, the legendary, extremely influential rock critic who wrote for Creem Magazine. Bangs was an idol and mentor to many, including Crowe.

Prior to that, Hoffman spent six months on Broadway in the latest production of Sam Shepard’s 'True West,' for which he was nominated for a Tony Award in dual roles. Last winter, he was seen in three films: starring opposite Robert DeNiro in Joel Schumacher’s Flawless (for which he received a SAG nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role), alongside Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow in Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, and with Tom Cruise and Jason Robards in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia. Hoffman received the National Board of Review’s Best Supporting Actor Award for his work in both Magnolia and The Talented Mr. Ripley. He previously appeared in both of Anderson’s earlier films, Boogie Nights and Hard Eight.

His other film credits include: Todd Solondz’s Happiness (for which he was nominated for an IFP/West Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor), Patch Adams, the Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski, Brad Anderson’s Next Stop Wonderland, Jan De Bont’s Twister, Scent of a Woman, Nobody’s Fool, The Getaway and When a Man Loves a Woman. His stage work includes 'Defying Gravity' at the American Place Theatre, 'The Merchant of Venice,' directed by Peter Sellars and the off-Broadway production of Mark Ravenhill’s 'Shopping and Fucking.' This summer Hoffman directed the play 'Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train,' written by Stephen Adly Guiregis, for his New York based theatre company LAByrinth. This is Hoffman and Guiregis’ second project together—last summer they collaborated on 'In Arabia We’d All Be Kings,' which Hoffman also directed for the company.