On Sunday, February 2, 2014, Philip Seymour Hoffman was
found dead in his NYC apartment. The cause of death was an apparent overdose of
heroin, a substance which he had quite a history with.
A friend found his body in the apartment and phoned police. Hoffman
was alone in his bathroom when he was discovered with a heroin-filled needle in
his arm, law enforcement sources said. The police responded to the
46-year-old's apartment in the West Village shortly after 11 a.m., police
sources told FoxNews.com.
One police source told FoxNews.com that authorities are
investigating whether Hoffman received a more potent type of heroin that's
being blamed for numerous deaths over the past two weeks, first in the
Pittsburgh area and later along the east coast. The substance combines heroin
and fentanyl, an opiate used to soothe the pain of cancer patients, and is
being blamed for dozens of deaths across the country, the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette.
By Sunday night, nearly 100 reporters and photographers had
congregated outside Hoffman's apartment, and a well-wisher had left flowers in
the actor's memory. New York police officers debated whether to block the body
from waiting photographers as it was wheeled out of the building.
Hoffman was one of the most admired actors around and was
renowned for many stellar performances. perhaps the most ambitious and widely
admired American actor of his generation, who gave three-dimensional nuance to
a wide range of sidekicks, villains and leading men on screen and embraced some
of the theater’s most burdensome roles on Broadway.
History reveals that he had gone to great lengths to curb
his addiction to drugs and alcohol including several stints in rehab. However,
what caused him to relapse remains unknown. The world is deeply saddened by
this loss to one of the film industry’s greats and he will certainly be
remembered by generations to come.
