{"id":13329,"date":"2014-02-02T11:32:35","date_gmt":"2014-02-02T19:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/?p=13329"},"modified":"2015-03-10T10:02:44","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T17:02:44","slug":"philip-seymour-hoffman-lord-rest-his-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2014\/02\/02\/philip-seymour-hoffman-lord-rest-his-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Philip Seymour Hoffman: Lord Rest His Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Perhaps the finest actor of my generation (IMHO), the Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead <\/a>today in his New York City apartment.<\/p>\n

Goddammit. Addiction is an awful disease.<\/p>\n

My heart, and those of millions of other fans and those who knew and loved him best, felt shattered upon hearing the unexpected and tragic news.<\/p>\n

As we mourn his death and celebrate his life, may we remember him in our prayers and especially lift up his children, Cooper, Tallulah, and Willa.<\/p>\n

In 2005, Hoffman directed an off-Broadway production of \u201cThe Last Days of Judas Iscariot,\u201d for which our mutual friend, Father James Martin was the \u201ctheological dramaturge.\u201d I was writing for the Chicago Sun-Times<\/em> when Fr. Jim\u2019s book, \u201cA Jesuit Off Broadway,\u201d came out and wrote about it in a column recounting the choice I had to make 25 years ago or so between acting and journalism. On this incredibly sad occasion of Philip\u2019s untimely passing, I wanted to share a bit of it with all of you. May God rest his soul and comfort all those who loved him.<\/p>\n

Ideally at least, both acting and journalism are all about chasing, uncovering and presenting what\u2019s true. Both vocations do that in community \u2014 be it a metro news staff or a dinner theater troupe.<\/p>\n

Some of the similarities are vividly explored in a marvelous new book by one of my favorite priests, the Rev. James Martin, about his experience as a \u201ctheological dramaturge\u201d for the Public Theater production of the play \u201cThe Last Days of Judas Iscariot\u201d in New York two years ago.<\/p>\n

Martin\u2019s book, A Jesuit Off-Broadway,<\/em> recounts the months he spent consulting on spiritual and biblical matters for the play written by Stephen Adly Guirgis, directed by Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, and featuring actor Sam Rockwell as Judas.<\/p>\n

Martin, author of last year\u2019s best-seller, My Life With the Saints<\/em>, is also a journalist. A onetime Chicagoan, he is an editor at America<\/em> magazine in New York. In A Jesuit Off-Broadway,<\/em> he tenderly records the play\u2019s creation process from 10 pages of dialogue to a heralded five-week sold-out run.<\/p>\n

Far from being an outsider, the priest is quickly adopted into the sometimes hard-partying, profane and deeply spiritual ensemble of actors that included Eric Bogosian in the role of Satan.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Martin discovered a loving camaraderie among the cast of \u201cJudas\u201d that most churches would envy and learned lessons about his faith and his Lord that he hadn\u2019t anticipated. One of the most poignant comes in a conversation with Hoffman about his gentle method of directing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you have to tell someone exactly what you want,\u201d Hoffman says, \u201cbut you can\u2019t dictate. You have to keep suggesting. Otherwise the person becomes a sort of empty shell, they end up performing in a way that\u2019s not, well, spiritual.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

This reminds the priest of someone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis approach mirrored the way Jesus preached,\u201d Martin writes. \u201cMuch of Jesus\u2019 preaching involves inviting his listeners to consider something new. . . . Or, to use [Hoffman\u2019s] words, Jesus was always suggesting, in order that the decision to follow or not to follow was that person\u2019s own decision.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps the finest actor of my generation (IMHO), the Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead today in his New York City apartment. Goddammit. Addiction is an awful disease. My heart, and those of millions of other fans and those who knew and loved him best, felt shattered upon hearing the unexpected and tragic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2102,"featured_media":35268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1592,1593,1594,1595,1596,1597,1598,1599],"class_list":["post-13329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-godstuff-2","tag-a-jesuit-off-broadway","tag-actor","tag-dead","tag-father-james-martin","tag-last-days-of-judas-iscariot","tag-oscar","tag-overdose","tag-philip-seymour-hoffman"],"yoast_head":"\nPhilip Seymour Hoffman: Lord Rest His Soul<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Perhaps the finest actor of my generation (IMHO), the Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead today in his New York City apartment.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2014\/02\/02\/philip-seymour-hoffman-lord-rest-his-soul\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Philip Seymour Hoffman: Lord Rest His Soul\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Perhaps the finest actor of my generation (IMHO), the Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead today in his New York City apartment.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2014\/02\/02\/philip-seymour-hoffman-lord-rest-his-soul\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Dude Abides\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-02T19:32:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-10T17:02:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/493\/2014\/02\/actor-philip-seymour-hoffman-1527808.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"615\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"409\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cathleen Falsani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cathleen Falsani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2014\/02\/02\/philip-seymour-hoffman-lord-rest-his-soul\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2014\/02\/02\/philip-seymour-hoffman-lord-rest-his-soul\/\",\"name\":\"Philip Seymour Hoffman: Lord Rest His Soul\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-02T19:32:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-10T17:02:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/47c87be03ef08b2eb209b2e7242d4dea\"},\"description\":\"Perhaps the finest actor of my generation (IMHO), the Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead today in his New York City apartment.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2014\/02\/02\/philip-seymour-hoffman-lord-rest-his-soul\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2014\/02\/02\/philip-seymour-hoffman-lord-rest-his-soul\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2014\/02\/02\/philip-seymour-hoffman-lord-rest-his-soul\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Philip Seymour Hoffman: Lord Rest His Soul\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/\",\"name\":\"The Dude Abides\",\"description\":\"Chilling at the intersection of faith and culture.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/47c87be03ef08b2eb209b2e7242d4dea\",\"name\":\"Cathleen Falsani\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cc435ed440814d4b3330d6bf38d75d37?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cc435ed440814d4b3330d6bf38d75d37?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cathleen Falsani\"},\"description\":\"Cathleen Falsani is an award-winning religion journalist and author of the critically acclaimed The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People, Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace, The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers, BELIEBER: Fame, Faith and the Heart of Justin Bieber, and the newly released Disquiet Time: A Devotional for Ordinary Skeptics (edited with co-author Jennifer Grant and published by Jericho Books, Oct. 2014.)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/author\/cathleenf\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Philip Seymour Hoffman: Lord Rest His Soul","description":"Perhaps the finest actor of my generation (IMHO), the Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead today in his New York City apartment.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2014\/02\/02\/philip-seymour-hoffman-lord-rest-his-soul\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Philip Seymour Hoffman: Lord Rest His Soul","og_description":"Perhaps the finest actor of my generation (IMHO), the Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead today in his New York City apartment.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2014\/02\/02\/philip-seymour-hoffman-lord-rest-his-soul\/","og_site_name":"The Dude Abides","article_published_time":"2014-02-02T19:32:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-10T17:02:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":615,"height":409,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/493\/2014\/02\/actor-philip-seymour-hoffman-1527808.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cathleen Falsani","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cathleen Falsani","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2014\/02\/02\/philip-seymour-hoffman-lord-rest-his-soul\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2014\/02\/02\/philip-seymour-hoffman-lord-rest-his-soul\/","name":"Philip Seymour Hoffman: Lord Rest His Soul","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-02-02T19:32:35+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-10T17:02:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/47c87be03ef08b2eb209b2e7242d4dea"},"description":"Perhaps the finest actor of my generation (IMHO), the Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead today in his New York City apartment.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2014\/02\/02\/philip-seymour-hoffman-lord-rest-his-soul\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2014\/02\/02\/philip-seymour-hoffman-lord-rest-his-soul\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2014\/02\/02\/philip-seymour-hoffman-lord-rest-his-soul\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Philip Seymour Hoffman: Lord Rest His Soul"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/","name":"The Dude Abides","description":"Chilling at the intersection of faith and culture.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/47c87be03ef08b2eb209b2e7242d4dea","name":"Cathleen Falsani","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cc435ed440814d4b3330d6bf38d75d37?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cc435ed440814d4b3330d6bf38d75d37?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Cathleen Falsani"},"description":"Cathleen Falsani is an award-winning religion journalist and author of the critically acclaimed The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People, Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace, The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers, BELIEBER: Fame, Faith and the Heart of Justin Bieber, and the newly released Disquiet Time: A Devotional for Ordinary Skeptics (edited with co-author Jennifer Grant and published by Jericho Books, Oct. 2014.)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/author\/cathleenf\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}