Philip Seymour Hoffman RIP

I to am sorry that Philip has died at age 46 from a drug overdose and my sincere sympathy goes out to his ex wife and three very young children.
I have to say however that at a time when there is more flooding due to hit parts of the country it was disappointing for the BBC News to spend 20 minutes of its 30 minute programme talking about him.
I am sorry if this upsets anyone but there was, in my opinion, just too much coverage given to his sad, tragic and unnecessary death.

One of my ex students, mother of 2, aged 38- just put a comment on her Facebook. What a shame... but to her it means something totally different (:
She would give anything to be able to live, but she has lost the fight against the big C.

I have heard the name but don't know who this actor is; always sad to hear of a drugs overdose. Actors often are fragile [mentally[ and prone to all kinds of destructive behavior.

Couldn't believe how young he was, same age as my sons. I thought he was at least ten years older, probably because he plays much older parts. Shows what a good character actor he was.

Yes, I remember him in parts where he played young-ish to middle-aged men with very establishment characters.

Bloody drugs - they see off so many talented people who really should know better. But any of us, under severe stress, could succumb to the temptation, given a huge income and people ready to supply the stuff.

I've never been tempted to drugs - nor to tobacco either, but I regard this as my good luck rather than my good character. In any case, i wouldn't know where to get the stuff, even if I had the money and the inclination.

I suppose most of us just use a stiff drink and a moan to friends when under stress! or just the moan to friends. Well, i do anyway,

Yes, I was surprised to read that he was 46. Must make a point of seeing The Master, which I missed at the cinema [to be honest it didn't appeal to me].

He graduated to heroin –very briefly – after an addiction to prescription drugs. He sought help very quickly. Sadly, it went pear-shaped.

I am shocked by some of the comments I have read – not, I hasten to add, on Gransnet – as if no one else ever had addictions to alcohol, tobacco, chocolate, gambling, casual sex. As if no one else had suffered problems from eating disorders to post-natal depression. I find it horrible to read things that condemn this superb actor as some kind of human scum. There are some very nasty people out there.

Am I the only one who has never heard of this actor? Very sad to die so young for whatever reason

Well said absent.

Huge amounts of drugs are prescribed by the American psychiatric industry.
Including keeping children on ritalin etc for years.
Many, many extremely good livings have been made by psychotherapists.
They should be the most chilled out nation on earth

Such a terrible waste to the acting profession & three little ones lost their father very sad.I also thought he was a quite a bit older.

On a purely selfish note I realised he was in the Hunger Games films [which I love]. It seems that he has filmed his bit for film 3 but not sure what happens about film 4 [if his character was still in it]. Must be a nightmare for directors shooting these film series; I often wondered about the actors in LOTR's some of whom were quite old.

I feel desperately sorry for his wife and children, but apart from that if anyone chooses to take drugs - and he had got clean, been clean for a long time and started again, its a risk you take.

I think when we hear of these things happening, it brings home the real life actors/actresses live - not all of course take to drugs and become victims, and although it seems a very glamorous life-style, living in the media eye, knowing there will always be someone to knock you off your pedestal, and coming down of that 'high' after a fantastic performance cannot be easy. Such a talented man and such a short life.

I've just got in and watched the news. I had no idea who he was although a death from a drugs overdose is sad for him and for his family.

But I am wondering what the headlines would be if the deceased had been a much respected social worker, a teacher, a care worker or a nurse instead of an actor.

I rather suspect that the 'tributes' would have somewhat different in tone.

MiceElf But he wasn't – he was an immensely talented actor and he was Philip Seymour Hoffman. Surely tributes following someone's death are always personal and relate to that person alone.

A lot of actors/musicians etc are not the uber confident people they appear to be. Often full of self doubt and many struggle with coming to terms with their fame [think Kurt Cobain]. I'd say that people who make music and films are incredibly important, because they reach out to so many people and bring a lot of happiness and enrichment in the process.

That maybe true. I don't know. As I said I had no idea who he was, and I suspect many other people who watched the news had no idea either. I found it odd that it was given such prominence when there are so many news stories that are inadequately reported.

My point was - and I can only comment on the news reports that I have seen - that these tributes spoke as if he was a huge loss to everyone, (only really, I think to his family and perhaps to film goers) and the tone was reverential.

I wouldn't dream of commenting on his personal problems and every death of this sort should be regretted. But if, instead of being an actor, he was a well known member of one of the occupations I referred to above, I suspect the headlines and commentary would have been much more judgmental.

MiceElf You may well be right but Oscar winners are public figures (and quite well known) whereas social workers and nurses aren't. I wouldn't know about the UK news now but it wouldn't surprise me if it was disproportionate. For a long time the BBC certainly was becoming increasingly like the Sun.

It is reported today that the police found 70 bags of what they believe is heroin in his flat. I do not condemn him as human scum or any of the other pejoratives I understand have been used, not on Gransnet, but I still think that for a man in his 40s, whether successful or not, who has a wife and small children, to return to taking hard drugs when he knows the risks he faces is monumentally selfish.

Selfish when judged rationally Flickety but people who seek solace in hard drugs are not often rational. I read that his relationship had broken up and he had moved out of the family home. Perhaps in a moment of weakness it was all too easy for him to fall back on old habits. The quantities of heroin were shocking, but who knows how the mind of an addict works? I think it is all terribly sad for him, his partner and most of all for his children.

As I implied in earlier posts, many people, particularly in the US, are given large amounts of anti-depressants etc by their "therapists" . They get hooked and the addiction makes it more and more difficult for them to cope with the ups and downs of life.
Judy Garland was fed the drugs to try to keep her functioning and pulling in the dough - remember that?