Philip Seymour Hoffman

He was an Oscar-winning actor, Screen Actors Guild winner, too; he was esteemed, wealthy, talented, a drug addict. The face of drug addiction seems to always surprise us – as though the addiction could be canceled out by an Oscar acceptance speech or a winning role or a happy marriage or just the right life. It can’t.

If the answer were easy, we would have it. We don’t. And while we postulate and ponder , another talented person in the public world succumbs to the evil of addiction.

(S-R archive photo: Philip Seymour Hoffman won best actor honors in 2006 at the Screen Actors Guild awards in Los Angeles.)