New York - Actresses Amy Adams and Michelle Williams were among friends and family who mourned Philip Seymour Hoffman at a private wake on Thursday evening for the actor who died of a suspected drug overdose.
Photographers and fans trying to get a glimpse of the celebrities were cordoned off behind barriers near the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on Manhattan's Upper East Side as police escorted the visitors in and out of the building.
Neither Adams nor Williams, who both starred in films with Hoffman, said anything as they entered the building. Williams' former partner, actor Heath Ledger, died of an accidental drug overdose in 2008.
“I came to pay my respects,” said Amy Paschold, 40, a financial adviser from Virginia and a long-time fan of Hoffman's work.
“I wasn't surprised,” she added about his death. “He fell off the wagon.”
Although the body of Hoffman, 46, was found on Sunday in his Greenwich Village apartment with a syringe in his arm, autopsy results to determine the cause of his death were inconclusive. A spokeswoman for New York City's Chief Medical Examiner said further studies were being done.
Four people have been arrested and charged with drug offences possibly connected to substances found at the actor's home.
The wake will be followed by a private funeral service in New York, according to a representative for the family. Hoffman is survived by three children with his longtime partner Mimi O'Donnell.
A memorial is planned for later this month.
Hoffman, an Academy Award winner for his role in the 2005 biographical film Capote, was considered one of the most gifted stage and film actors of his generation.
On Wednesday evening, hundreds of friends and fans paid homage to him during a sombre candlelight vigil outside the Labyrinth Theatre Company in Greenwich Village.
Hoffman had been a member and a former artistic director of the New York company, which is one of the nation's leading ensemble Theatre groups.
Broadway also honoured the actor when it dimmed marquees for a minute on Wednesday evening. Although Hoffman is best known for his film roles, he appeared on stage frequently. He earned Tony award nominations for his role as Willy Loman in Death Of A Salesman, and for his parts in Long Day's Journey Into Night and True West.
On the big screen Hoffman appeared in blockbusters such as The Hunger Games series and also garnered best supporting actor Oscar nominations for The Master, Doubt and Charlie Wilson's War. - Reuters