Philip Seymour Hoffman's 10 Immortal Film Performances

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi2XCsPKlY8

Generation X has lost another of its greatest acting talents. Academy Award-winning star Philip Seymour Hoffman is dead at 46.

What makes the news even more tragic is how predictable — and preventable — it was. When my wife told me the news while we were driving home from buying groceries at Ralph’s this morning I had only one question: “Was it drugs?”

He was found with a needle in his arm.

Here’s the blog post I wrote by hand in June last year:

Hoffman left behind some of the last two decades’ most incredible screen performances. Here are my [personal and biased] picks for the ones that have made him a Hollywood legend, immortal and iconic. Counting down to his most important work:

10. 2009: The Count, leader of Pirate Radio

9. 2002: Thuggish “Mattress Man” Dean Trumbell, the villain in P.T. Anderson’s underrated, under-appreciated Punch Drunk Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHaebFoW9UA

8. 2005: writer Truman Capote in Capote, his Oscar-winning performance

7. 2008: accused abuser Father Brendan Flynn in Doubt

6. 1997: Shy Scotty J., a member of the porn filming crew in P.T. Anderons’s San Fernando valley ’70s epic Boogie Nights

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ1O1vb9AUU

5. 2012: Cult leader Lancaster Dodd in P.T. Anderson’s The Master

4. 1998: Creepy phone sex pervert Allen in Todd Solondz’s infamous dark comedy Happiness

3. 1998: Brandt, the unforgetable assistant to the titular character in the Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski

2. 2002: Rock journalist and mentor Lester Bangs in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous

1. 1999: Nurse Phil Parma in P.T. Anderson’s Magnolia, a powerful, heartbreaking performance, the most memorable of his career