Philip Seymour Hoffman was an extremely talented,
Oscar-winning actor. But underneath his stellar success, dark shadows
were lurking. On February 2nd, 2014, he passed away, and
countless investigations, rumors, and tributes soon followed. Here's what's come out about him since his
passing. Following Philip Seymour Hoffman's unexpected
passing, media outlets tried to piece together the timeline of events leading up to his shocking
death. "Police still trying to determine exactly
how the three men and one woman arrested and all those drugs found are connected to Hoffman's
death." One of the most thorough reports came from
CNN, which carefully dissected the famous actor's final 24 hours. What they discovered was a bizarre chain of
events. Hoffman's morning reportedly began like any
other, with a visit to Chocolate Bar on 8th Avenue, where he placed his usual order, "a
four-shot espresso over ice with a splash of milk." According to manager Jonathan Hanson, who
spoke with CNN, Hoffman, "seemed perfectly fine." Hanson added: "He seemed in good spirits. He was very happy." That was no longer the case around 2 p.m.
when he bumped into his longtime partner, Mimi O'Donnell, on the street. The pair had separated at this point, and
Hoffman was living on his own around the corner. She noted that he seemed high. Then the 46-year-old was later spotted at
a New York City restaurant having dinner with two people, eating a cheeseburger and drinking
a cranberry juice and soda. His night then took a dark turn when, according
to an eyewitness, he entered a supermarket with two men wearing messenger bags around
8 p.m. He proceeded to take out $1,200 from an ATM
in six transactions, authorities confirmed, and that was the last time he was seen alive. Despite his illustrious career, which included
over 50 film credits and a best actor Oscar for Capote in 2006, Philip Seymour Hoffman
reportedly remained humble and friendly. A 2014 People cover story explained: "In the downtown Manhattan neighborhood he
had called home for years, Philip Seymour Hoffman was simply one of the locals: the
rumpled cyclist pedaling through the West Village; the dad walking his three children
to school; the actor poring over scripts or having a drink at one of his favorite low-key
bars." Yet as one local recalled, Hoffman was a master
at pulling it all together, then letting it fall apart. The source told People: "He'd go over to Oliver's restaurant with
his son Cooper. They'd have lunch, and you'd see them talking
and laughing for hours at a time. Then, come nightfall, you'd see Phil back
at Oliver's, hunched over the bar, alone, looking like an entirely different man. He looked very dark and depressed." Photographer Victoria Will, who shot the actor
at the Sundance Film Festival shortly before he passed away, also noted his masterful ability
to put on a brave face. She recalled: "He seemed great. He was just a regular guy, which is what I've
always loved about him." Hoffman's struggle with drugs and alcohol
was a lifelong battle. After drinking heavily and using drugs, he
wound up at a rehabilitation center by the age of 22. Speaking with The Guardian in 2011, he confessed: "I had no interest in drinking in moderation. And I still don't. Just because all that time's passed doesn't
mean maybe it was just a phase. That's who I am." Hoffman's sobriety lasted for 23 years thanks
to therapy and AA meetings, then he relapsed, as Mimi O'Donnell noted in her 2017 Vogue
tribute to her ex. O'Donnell wrote: "I didn't fully understand that addiction
is always lurking just below the surface, looking for a moment of weakness to come roaring
back to life." Hoffman first relapsed with alcohol, then
prescription opioids, then heroin. And yet, throughout it all, the extent of
his addiction was hidden from the public until after his passing. Upon further investigation, authorities reportedly
discovered signs of drug use, including 49 unopened glassines, paper envelopes often
used to hold heroin. There were also eight empty glassines, 20
used needles, and pills prescribed for treating anxiety and high blood pressure. However, those reports varied; the New York
Post reported that five empty glassines were found in a trash bin and three others were
discovered around the home, as well as 70 unused glassines in a desk drawer. Yet The Daily Mail claimed a different number:
49 full glassines and seven empty glassines found in Hoffman's apartment. The exact numbers weren't the only thing that
was disputed. Following a spike in deaths linked to fentanyl-laced
heroin, including 22 overdoses in Pittsburgh in 2014, Slate noted that this may have the
culprit behind Hoffman's own overdose. As the outlet explained, fentanyl, a prescription
drug used for pain relief, is, quote, "cheaper and between 50 to 80 times more potent." But The Atlantic pointed out that the names
stamped on each of the glassines, representing the type of heroin found inside, didn't match
any of those linked to the fentanyl-laced overdoses in other cases, saying, "That Hoffman's death coincides with a rash
of heroin-fentanyl overdoses is certainly suggestive. But, at this point, it seems most likely that
his death was more prosaic: a fairly recently relapsed heroin user taking an overdose of
the drug." On February 4th, 2014, just two days after
Hoffman's overdose, the New York Post reported four suspected dealers were arrested in connection
with his death, following a raid on a New York City drug den where the actor was suspected
of buying heroin. Among them was musician Robert Aaron Vineberg,
who was believed to be the actor's primary drug dealer. In addition to Hoffman, Vineberg was reportedly
close with Jean-Michel Basquiat. He was said to have had him over at his apartment
often where they both, quote, "used a lot of heroin." The legendary artist overdosed in 1988. Vineberg was also reportedly tight with Amy
Winehouse, although there are no reports of the pair ever using drugs together. Vineberg agreed to an interview with the New
York Post from behind bars to maintain his innocence, saying, "He was my friend...I could've saved him...If
I knew he was in town, I would've said, 'Hey, let's make an AA meeting.' If I was with him, it wouldn't have happened. Not under my guard." Even so, he admitted to seeing Hoffman high
and claimed that Hoffman may have been using as many as ten bags of heroin a day. When asked if he had ever sold drugs to the
late actor, Vineberg refused to answer. Screenwriter and playwright David Bar Katz
and Philip Seymour Hoffman's assistant, Isabella Wing-Davey, were the people who discovered
Hoffman's body, and Katz's involvement apparently helped fuel tabloid rumors that the pair were
more than just friends. What actually happened, as reported by the
New York Post, was that Hoffman failed to pick up his kids from Mimi O'Donnell as scheduled,
so she asked the playwright to go check on him at his rented apartment, which he did. Wing-Davey let Katz into Hoffman's home. That didn't stop the National Enquirer from
publishing allegations about a relationship between Hoffman and Katz. The paper ran an alleged interview with Katz
in which he apparently admitted to having an affair with the late actor. Katz vehemently denied the story, going so
far as to sue the National Enquirer for $50 million, claiming the article was "a complete
fabrication." Katz's lawyer issued an additional statement
on his behalf, saying: "There was no interview. Bar Katz and Hoffman were never lovers. Bar Katz did not see Hoffman freebasing cocaine
the night before he died or at any other time. Bar Katz never saw Hoffman use heroin or cocaine." Throughout his career, Philip Seymour Hoffman
kept his private life private. He and his longtime partner, Mimi O'Donnell,
had three children together: Cooper, Tallulah, and Willa, but little was known about any
of them. When the Oscar winner suddenly died in 2014,
the kids were just 10, 7, and 5 years old, People reported, but it turns out that their
young ages weren't the reason why they didn't inherit any of their famous father's fortune. Instead, it was because the actor purposely
left them out of his will, leaving all of the assets of his $35 million estate to their
mother, Today confirmed. E! News was able to gain access to the probate
documents surrounding Hoffman's will from Manhattan's Surrogate Court, in which Hoffman's
reasoning for the unconventional decision was revealed. In the papers, Hoffman was quoted as telling
his accountant that he, quote, "did not want his children to be considered 'trust fund'
kids." The documents also noted that, although they
never wed, Hoffman treated O'Donnell as his wife and their lack of nuptials, "...did not affect his affinity or relationship...He
simply did not believe in marriage." Despite being most widely known for his big
screen roles, Philip Seymour Hoffman decided to throw fans a curveball and signed on to
executive produce and star in a TV show on Showtime called Happyish. According to Variety, the series was set to
debut in 2014 with a 10-episode run in which Hoffman would play, "A 40-something man working for a Facebook-like
company who is frustrated by feeling out of touch while surrounded by younger colleagues." Although a half-hour pilot was already filmed,
having been shot in September 2013 before Hoffman's passing, production hadn't actually
started on the show. Initially unsure how to continue, Showtime
eventually decided to recast Happyish, choosing Steve Coogan to take over Hoffman's leading
role. The Hollywood Reporter pointed out that most
of the original cast didn't actually stick around for the revamped first season, which
marked the beginning of the end. The show premiered in 2015, snagging only
430,000 viewers and receiving largely negative reviews. The Hollywood Reporter dubbed Happyish, quote,
"more annoying than funny." The series was eventually pulled off the air,
failing to secure a second season due to flagging viewership. Mimi O'Donnell, Hoffman's long time partner,
revealed in a Vogue 2017 tribute: "The first time I met Phil, there was instant
chemistry between us." After meeting in 1999 when she interviewed
to be the costume designer for In Arabia We'd All Be Kings, the first play Hoffman ever
directed, the pair went on their first date in 2001. O'Donnell wrote: "From the beginning, Phil was very frank about
his addictions. Being sober and a recovering addict was, along
with acting and directing, very much the focus of his life." "Whatever I was doing made me worry if I was
gonna be able to do the things I wanted to do with my life." Things were fine for years, but as O'Donnell
stated: "The first tangible sign [of trouble] came
when, out of nowhere, Phil said to me, 'I've been thinking I want to try to have a drink
again. What do you think?'" Their relationship would never be the same. That drink gave way to prescription opioids
and Hoffman secretly began using heroin again. O'Donnell recalled: "I sensed it, terrified. I told him, 'You're going to die. That's what happens with heroin.' Every day was filled with worry. Every night, when he went out, I wondered:
Will I see him again?" Watching her love struggle with sobriety became
"heartbreaking", according to O'Donnell, who stated: "For the first time, I realized that his addiction
was bigger than either of us. I bowed my head and thought, I can't fix this. It was the moment that I let go." Released in 2018, Beautiful Boy stars actors
Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet and tells the story of a father and his teenage son
who's battling meth addiction. It scored Chalamet a Golden Globe nom for
best supporting actor and received overall positive reviews. But, as it turns out, the movie almost didn't
get made, at least not with writer Luke Davies attached. Speaking with Pete Hammond from Deadline,
Davies, who battled addiction himself, revealed that he had actually vowed to stay away from
the subject of drugs after penning the novel and screenplay Candy and, thus, decided to
turn down Beautiful Boy. Then everything changed because of Philip
Seymour Hoffman. Three days before Davies was set to meet producers
to turn it down, Hoffman had died, and Davies got a powerful message: "My dad wrote me an email, which said, 'I
suppose you heard about Philip Seymour Hoffman. That's really sad...Luke, sometimes I feel
this family is so blessed.' He was talking about my own history with addiction
that resulted in me eventually getting clean." Davies added: "My dad was not one given to express his emotions
in any very overt way, especially about the past, like that. And at that moment, it was kind of like, oh,
I never, ever dealt with the father-son relationship in Candy because it was too difficult, too
loaded, and so, maybe this is an invitation from the universe to change my opinion about
taking this job. At that moment I thought, 'Oh, I really want
this job.'" "You have to make your reputation on being
honest and unmerciful...and unmerciful." Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Nicki Swift videos about your
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