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Name: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Occupation: Actor of Stage, Screen, TV
Date of Birth: July 23rd, 1967
Current Age: 36
Place of Birth: Fairport, New York, USA
Currently Resides: Manhattan, New York
Height: 5'10" [approximately]
Training: Graduated from NYU's Tisch School of Drama
Long Time Partner: Mimi O'Donnell
Child/ren: 1 son with Mimi: Cooper Alexander
Parents: Mother is Marilyn Hoffman O'Connor -- Family Court Judge for Monroe County, NY. Father is retired from Xerox.
Siblings: Jill (a home school educator, health care instructor/certified birth assistant), Gordy (screenwriter (Love, Lisa) and playwright (Tricycles)), Emily (a nurse practitioner/midwife specializing in women and children with HIV.)
Favorite Music: All kinds: pop, rock and roll, jazz, Miles Davis, etc.
Favorite Writers: Richard Ford, J.D. Sallinger,Bo Goldman, John Guare
Inspirations: Al Pacino, Peter Brook, Paul Scoffield, Sean Penn
Cranial Circumference: 24"
Favorite TV Show as a Kid: The Six-Million Dollar Man ['it was cool that he could run so fast, pick up heavy objects, and see through things.']
Fan Mail Address:

Philip Seymour Hoffman
c/o Phil's Phans
P.O.Box 249
Penfield, NY 14526

*** Notice: I try to post all of the information I have on Phil. If you have a specific question, feel free to email me and ask, but I encourage you to check the FAQ first or to read some of my extensive collection of Phil Articles and bear in mind that I am not going to try to keep secret info to myself - if I know it, it'll most likely be posted. Thanks.

From the 2001 Academy Awards Special Magazine

Hoffman was born July 23, 1967, in Fairport, NY. Raised by his mother, he has three siblings, Gordy, Jill, and Emily. While attending high school, Hoffman became active in amateur theatrics, appearing in several school productions. After graduating from NYU's Tisch School of Drama, he pursued a stage career but took on odd jobs to pay the rent. He received his first big screen break in the 1992 film Scent of a Woman, billing himself as Philip S. Hoffman.

In addition to his extensive theater credits, Hoffman has worked steadily in Hollywood and has become a respected and dependable actor. His movie credits include Boogie Nights, Twister, The Big Lebowski, Patch Adams, Magnolia, and The Talented Mr. Ripley.

If he doesn't walk away with an Oscar nod, count on this talented young actor to be among those nominated in the future.

The following was posted on the official Patch Adams site:

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN has been as active on stage as he has on screen. Having been seen recently in Paul Thomas Anderson's critically acclaimed Boogie Nights, Hoffman has also worked with Todd Solondz in Happiness, Martin Brest in Scent of A Woman, Joel and Ethan Coen in The Big Lebowksi, Jan De Bont's Twister, Robert Benton's Nobody's Fool, Brad Anderson's Next Stop Wonderland, and many others.

On the stage, Hoffman has worked in theatre in New York, Chicago and on tour in Europe. He is a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Hoffman's theater credits are extensive and include appearances at New York's Public Theater in The Skriker, Greensboro: A Requiem at the McCarter Theater, The Merchant of Venice at the Goodman Theater, and most recently Defying Gravity at the American Place Theater.

On television he has appeared in Law and Order and The Yearling.

Philip Seymour Hoffman's work has received recognition from such prestigious awards as the Chlotrudis Awards. He was the recipient of their 1998 Gertrudis Award, given to up and coming actors who have shown a truly great acting ability. He has also been nominated for their 1998 Best Supporting Actor award for his performances in Next Stop Wonderland and Happiness. He has also been nominated for a Screen Actor's Guild Award for his work in Flawless.

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Daryn does a little summarization [please report any flaws]:

Philip was born in Fairport, NY in July of 1967. He was raised by his mother, Rochester lawyer Marilyn Hoffman Connor, along with his siblings Gordy, Jill and Emily. He attended Fairport High School. It was there that he became enamoured of acting. He was a wrestler and very much into athletics until his interest in acting was sparked by a female of the species [he also got an injury from wrestling...]. He became pretty well-known in high school theater playing Radar in a production of M*A*S*H and the lead in Death of a Salesman. After graduating NYU's Tisch School of Drama, he held a few odd jobs, including that of a waiter [which he disliked intensely] and was working in the prepared foods section of a deli when he landed his first major acting job -- Scent of a Woman. To this day, Phil considers it his big break and he has not had a non-acting job since then. Over the years, Phil has established himself as a phenominal character actor in many films and has earned acclaim also on the stage. He received much critical acclaim for his performance in Todd Solondz' film 'Happiness', and laid a triple-whammy on the planet in the fall and winter of 1999 with astounding performances in 'Flawless', 'The Talented Mr Ripley' and 'Magnolia' consecutively. Phil continues to do films and take time off for theater engagements. He is a very down-to-earth [the great Hollywood cliche] fellow who deserves every positive word said about him.

The following was obtained from Phil's page at Mr. Showbiz:

Raised in upstate New York, Hoffman was a hardcore athlete in high school, and was particularly accomplished in wrestling and baseball. He fell into acting as so many men before him have: as a means to impress a girl. En route to baseball tryouts his sophomore year, he encountered a beautiful, popular senior headed to auditions for a school production of The Crucible — Hoffman shelved his mitt to tag along, and that was all she wrote.

A summer course at New York City's Circle Repertory Company cemented his resolve to pursue a career in acting, and he went on to graduate from New York University's prestigious Tisch School of Drama.

Like most aspiring actors, Hoffman held down a series of odd jobs while trying to break into the biz, including working as a waiter and a lifeguard. He has said the highlight of his life occurred while working in the latter capacity, which afforded him the serendipitous opportunity to meet legendary jazz great Miles Davis.

Hoffman earned his (rather inauspicious) film acting debut in Amos Poe's 1991 film Triple Bogey on a Par 5 Hole. His first big break came the following year, when director Martin Brest rescued him from a life trapped behind a deli counter by casting him as a snooty prep in the Al Pacino-Chris O'Donnell starrer Scent of a Woman. Hoffman would turn in his breakthrough performance five years later in Paul Thomas Anderson's critically hailed Boogie Nights, portraying Scotty, the slightly pathetic film technician who carries an unrequited torch for porn star Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg).

 

The following bio info is from Playbill.com in reference to Phil's work as director on Jesus Hopped the A-Train

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN (Director) last directed In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings by Stephen Adly Guirgis with LAByrinth in the previously un-airconditioned Center Stage/NY. As an actor, Phil just finished True West for which he received an Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk nomination, and a Tony nomination. Highlights of Hoffman's stage work include Jane Anderson's Defying Gravity at The American Place Theatre, The Merchant of Venice directed by Peter Sellars, Shopping and Fucking by Mark Ravenhill at New York Theater Workshop, and The Author's Voice at Drama Dept. (Drama Desk nomination). Philip starred opposite Robert DeNiro in Joel Schumacher's Flawless, and was nominated for the Screen Actor's Guild Award. He received the Best Actor Award from the Golden Satellite Awards, and the Best Actor Award from Schermi d Amore in Verona, Italy. He shared this award with Gerard Depardieu. Phil also co-starred with Tom Cruise and Jason Robards in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, and alongside Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow in Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley. For these performances Philip was acknowledged by the National Board of Review as Best Supporting Actor. His other film credits include Almost Famous, Boogie Nights, Happiness (nominated for an IFP/West Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor), Patch Adams, The Big Lebowski, Twister, Scent of a Woman, Nobody's Fool, When a Man Loves a Woman and the upcoming State and Main. Philip is a proud member and co-artistic director of the LAByrinth Theater Company.

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