Early Life
Hoffman was born in Fairport, New York. He is the son of Marilyn L. O'Connor, a family court judge, lawyer, and civil rights activist, and Gordon Stowell Hoffman, a former Xerox executive. He has two sisters, Jill and Emily, and a brother, Gordy Hoffman, who scripted the 2002 film Love Liza, in which Philip starred. His father was a Protestant of part German ancestry and his mother was of Irish Catholic background; Hoffman was not raised with a deep commitment to either religion. Hoffman's parents divorced when he was nine years old.
Hoffman attended the 1984 Theater School at the New York State Summer School of the Arts. After graduating from Fairport High School, Hoffman attended the Circle in the Square Theatre's summer program, continuing his acting training with the acting teacher Alan Langdon. He received a BFA in drama in 1989 from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. At NYU, he was a founding member of the theater company the Bullstoi Ensemble with actor Steven Schub and director Bennett Miller. Soon after graduating, he went to rehab for drug and alcohol addiction and has since remained sober.
Read more about this topic: Philip Seymour Hoffman
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“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
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