Hoffman, Philip Seymour (1967- )

US actor and director. He has been acclaimed for both his stage and film performances, becoming known especially for his roles as eccentrics and villians. He won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Actor for his title role in the biopic Capote, about US writer Truman Capote.

After a series of minor roles in indie films during the early 1990s, Hoffman took strong supporting roles in Paul Thomas Anderson's edgy dramas Boogie Nights (1997) and Magnolia (1999). He has appeared on and off Broadway in a number of theatre productions and received Tony nominations for his performances in Sam Shepard's True West (2000) and Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night (2003). He is the co-artistic director of the LAByrinth Theater Company in New York.

Hoffman trained at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and took his bachelor of fine arts degree in drama in 1989. His feature-film debut was in the indie film Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole (1991). He played supporting roles in a number of other films, including the Al Pacino vehicle Scent of a Woman (1992), Anthony Minghella's crime thriller The Talented Mr Ripley (1999), Cameron Crowe's autobiographical drama Almost Famous (2000), and David Mamet's comedy State and Main (2000). In the early 21st century he appeared in big-budget thrillers including Red Dragon (2002) and Mission: Impossible III (2006).