Big names attend Hoffman funeral

NEW YORK - Philip Seymour Hoffman’s private funeral on Friday drew stars Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Ethan Hawke, Amy Adams and others paying their respects to an actor widely considered among the best of his generation.

The list of mourners also included Michelle Williams, Julianne Moore, Joaquin Phoenix, Louis CK, Mary Louise Parker, John Slattery, Jerry Stiller, Marisa Tomei, Spike Lee and the director Mike Nichols. Playwright David Bar Katz, who found Hoffman’s body, looked visibly upset as he arrived.

Hoffman, 46, was found dead Sunday of an apparent heroin overdose in his Manhattan 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.

The rumpled, heavy-set Hoffman was nominated for Academy Awards four times: for “Capote,” “The Master,” “Doubt,” and “Charlie Wilson’s War.” He also received three Tony nominations for his work on Broadway, which included an acclaimed turn in 2012 as Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman.”

The theater community mourned the actor Wednesday with a candlelit vigil outside his beloved LAByrinth Theatre 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.

AP