page_title: Philip Seymour Hoffman
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: Philip Seymour Hoffman / Personal life
caption_attribution_description: English: Philip Seymour Hoffman at a Hudson Union Society event in September 2010.
context_page_description: Philip Seymour Hoffman was an American actor, director, and producer. Known for playing distinctive supporting and character roles, Hoffman acted in many films from the early 1990s until his death in 2014. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest actors of his generation.
  Born and raised in Fairport, New York, Hoffman was drawn to theater in his youth after attending a stage production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons at age 12. Hoffman studied acting at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and began his screen career in a 1991 episode of Law & Order and started to appear in films in 1992. He gained recognition for his supporting work, notably in Scent of a Woman, Twister, Boogie Nights, Happiness, Patch Adams, The Big Lebowski, Magnolia, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Almost Famous, Punch-Drunk Love and Along Came Polly. He began to occasionally play leading roles, and for his portrayal of the author Truman Capote in Capote, won multiple accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Actor.
context_section_description: Hoffman rarely mentioned his personal life in interviews, stating in 2012 that he would "rather not because my family doesn't have any choice. If I talk about them in the press, I'm giving them no choice. So I choose not to." For 14 years, he was in a relationship with costume designer Mimi O'Donnell, whom he had met in 1999 when they were both working on the Hoffman-directed play In Arabia We'd All Be Kings. They lived in New York City and had a son and two daughters. While some reports stated Hoffman and O'Donnell separated in the fall of 2013, O'Donnell later said she and Hoffman were both committed to their relationship, but he had moved out of their longtime residence to a nearby apartment to protect their children from the effects of his relapse into substance abuse.
  Hoffman was also discreet about his religious and political beliefs, but it is known that he voted for the Green Party candidate Ralph Nader in the 2000 presidential election. He felt that keeping his personal life private was beneficial to his career: "The less you know about me the more interesting it will be to watch me do what I do".
  In a 2006 interview with 60 Minutes, Hoffman revealed he had engaged in drug and alcohol abuse during his time at New York University, saying he had used "anything I could get my hands on. I liked it all." Following his graduation in 1989, he entered a drug rehabilitation program at age 22, and remained sober for 23 years. However, he relapsed in 2013, and admitted himself to drug rehabilitation for about ten days in May of that year.
caption: Hoffman at a Hudson Union Society event in September 2010
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