I next saw him in PT Anderson's Magnolia, which is still one of my all-time favorite films. PSH plays Phil Parma, a hospice nurse in the service of dying media magnate Earl Partridge, played by Jason Robards, in one of his last screen roles. Hoffman brought a frankness and honesty to his role that was, like most of performances, very true to life and believable. When Parma is desperately trying to get in touch with Earl's estranged son Frank (Tom Cruise) and constantly being put on hold, the tension is ratcheted up several notches through PSH's performance alone.



Hoffman has always had strong bit parts in films, ranging from Twister ("Fooooood!") to his role as faithful assistant Brandt ("Her life is in your hands, Dude.") in The Big Lebowski. These roles, while they could have been played by anyone, are made more memorable by the simple fact that Philip Seymour Hoffman embodied these characters so well, no matter how little screen time he was afforded. From a terrifying villain in the third Mission Impossible movie to a shady mattress salesman in Punch Drunk Love to an embattled priest in Doubt, PSH always gave performances that were to me at least, a punch in the gut, but a most satisfying and welcome punch.



In 2006, Hoffman won the Oscar for Best Actor for his transformative portrayal of the titular character in Bennett Miller's masterful Capote. The rare biopic that works as a cohesive film and requires no prior knowledge of its subject, Capote features one of the best performances of the last decade. This film is cold in the best sense of the word and PSH so owns the role that you almost forget it's him after a while. He truly became Truman Capote and basically carries the entire film on his shoulders, the film would have been a totally different beast with another actor in the lead. No one portrayed an outsider with more skill than PSH, his reaction to the local Kansans' stares get under your skin and remind me of the stares that anyone who's different can get from strangers.