Philip Seymour Hoffman: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

This year the world mourned the loss of quite possibly the greatest actor of a generation. Philip Seymour Hoffman passed away on February 2, 2014 of a drug overdose, leaving a shocked mass of friends, family and fans, alongside a considerably body of work. The guy had an insane work ethic, something that was often commented on, and threw himself into roles in a way no other actor did, often changing his appearance drastically for roles. He remained humble throughout his career, however, never taking it for granted that he would be offered roles, and working hard on whatever project he was involved in. Inspired by a stage production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, Hoffman new from age 12 that he wanted to be an actor, although he only went after it full time when a neck injury took him away from his first love of sports, particularly wrestling and baseball (he would later appear in the baseball-centric biopic Moneyball). He devoured both theatre and movies voraciously, with an appetite that mirrored the sort he developed when he started appearing in films and plays himself. In the end Hoffman appeared in over fifty films during a career that spanned more than two decades whilst remaining active in the theatre, his last part being a starring role in Miller's Death Of A Salesman on Broadway. He brought a commitment, intensity and realism to every character he inhabited, display a range that other actors would kill for, admitting that he sometimes appeared in low-brow films for money, but €œultimately my main goal is to do good work. If it doesn't pay well, so be it.€ During his twenty years on screen he brought us some of the most memorable characters in cinema history; we can probably forgive him a couple of turkeys, too. This weekend sees the release of one of his final productions, A Most Wanted Man, so seems like as good a time as any to remember five Philip Seymour Hoffman performances that blew our socks off - and five that just plain blew.