Screenwriter David Katz found actor Philip Seymour Hoffman dead in Hoffman’s Greenwich Village apartment in New York City on Sunday morning.
Katz found Hoffman, 46, around 11:15 a.m., reported the Wall Street Journal.
Katz then called 911.
The exact cause of death isn’t yet determined but the NYPD is investigating the possibility of a drug overdose.
Hoffman’s family said in a statement that “We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil and appreciate the outpouring of love and support.
“This is a tragic and sudden loss and we ask that you respect our privacy during this time of grieving,” they added.
Hoffman won the Oscar for best actor in 2006 for his portrayal of writer Truman Capote in “Capote” and created a gallery of other vivid characters, many of them slovenly and slightly dissipated comic figures.
Hoffman in “Capote.” (AP Photo/Attila Doroy, Sony Pictures Classics, File)
In one of his earliest roles, he played a spoiled prep school student in “Scent of a Woman” in 1992. One of his breakthrough roles came as a gay member of a porno film crew in “Boogie Nights,” one of several movies directed by Paul Thomas Anderson that he would eventually appear in.
He often played comic, slightly off-kilter characters in movies like “Along Came Polly,” ‘'The Big Lebowski“ and ”Almost Famous.
More recently, he was Plutarch Heavensbee in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and was reprising that role in the two-part sequel, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay,” which is in the works. And in “Moneyball,” he played Art Howe, the grumpy manager of the Oakland Athletics who resisted new thinking about baseball talent.
Just weeks ago, Showtime announced Hoffman would star in “Happyish,” a new comedy series about a middle-aged man’s pursuit of happiness.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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