https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YcTf7CO-hdA

 

Hoffman was the greatest actor in English-language movies about a decade ago. He would have made the ideal Ignatius J. Reilly in A Confederacy of Dunces.

Back in 2005 I called him "the American Alec Guinness," but that was imperceptive. He was almost always conspicuous in character roles. I can remember watching Scent of a Woman in 1992 and wondering who is playing the other high school kid. Hoffman tended to cause elbow-nudging among audiences: Hey, look, it's what his name. This is going to be good! (Guinness was conspicuous too, of course, as is his heir Gary Oldman — nobody goes into acting to be inconspicuous — but Guinness wasn't conspicuously conspicuous.)

Lately, you could see a few problems. Before starting an article, I make up a page of random notes where I just jot down observations without attempting to fit them together. From my notes for my review of the recent Hunger Games sequel:

Philip Seymour Hoffman looked like he was needing the Big H to get through his dialogue.

Fat actor life expectancy:

• P.S. Hoffman 46
• James Gandolfini 51
• Chris Farley 33
• John Candy 43
• John Belushi 33

Now my wife is worried about John Goodman. Oliver Platt, too. But, there's also:

• Jackie Gleason 71
• W.C. Fields 66
• Sydney Greenstreet 74