Hoffman left ‘enormous amount of love behind’
NEW YORK — Philip Seymour Hoffman’s private funeral was held in Manhattan on Friday, with stars Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Ethan Hawke, Brian Dennehy, Amy Adams and Ellen Burstyn paying their respects to an actor widely considered among the best of his generation.
The coffin holding Hoffman’s body was brought out of the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola by pallbearers and put it a hearse as family and guests began to stream out Friday afternoon. Streep hugged Diane Sawyer as they left.
The list of mourners also included Michelle Williams, Julianne Moore, Joaquin Phoenix, Louis C.K., Mary Louise Parker, John Slattery, Jerry Stiller, Chris Rock, Marisa Tomei, Spike Lee and Sawyer’s husband, the director Mike Nichols. Playwright David Bar Katz, who found Hoffman’s body, looked visibly upset as he arrived.
“He left an enormous amount of love behind. It’s a terrible loss,” said Jose Rivera, a playwright whose work has been produced by Hoffman’s Labyrinth Theatre Company.
Hoffman, 46, was found dead Sunday of an apparent heroin overdose in his apartment. He leaves behind his partner of 15 years, Mimi O’Donnell, and their three children. O’Donnell was seen cradling their youngest child as she entered the church.
Police did not allow anyone to linger on the block outside the church, and the media was penned in an area far from the mourners.
A larger memorial service is being planned for later this month. On Thursday evening, family and close friends gathered for a private wake at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home in Manhattan.
The rumpled, heavyset Hoffman was known to dive into roles and was nominated for Academy Awards four times: for The Master, Doubt, Charlie Wilson’s War and Capote, the latter which he won.
The theatre community mourned the actor Wednesday with a candlelit vigil outside his beloved Labyrinth company downtown and with Broadway’s marquee lights turned off for a minute.
More tests are needed to determine what exactly killed Hoffman, who was found with a syringe in his arm and what authorities said were dozens of packets of heroin in his apartment. Autopsy results were inconclusive, authorities said this week.