Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead of an apparent drug overdose —- with a hypodermic needle still stuck in his arm —- inside a Greenwich Village apartment on Sunday, cops said.
A personal assistant found Hoffman in his underwear on a bathroom floor at 35 Bethune St. and called 911 around 11:30 a.m., sources said.
Cops found heroin inside the apartment, where Hoffman — who has repeatedly struggled with substance abuse — had been living recently, sources said.
“He was shooting up in the bathroom,” a law-enforcement source said.
The building is less than three blocks from the three-bedroom, 2-1/2-bath apartment on Jane Street that Hoffman, 46, and longtime girlfriend Mimi O’Donnell, a costume designer, bought for $4.4 million in 2008.
The couple have three children together.
A relative told The Post: “We’re just really devastated that this could happen.”
“There had always been a concern with the business he was in,” said Doris Barr, 76, whose son is married to Hoffman’s sister.
“We just worried there was a great opportunity for [drug] issues to come up.”
Barr, who lives in suburban Rochester, N.Y., said son Mark went to middle and high school with Hoffman and his sister, Emily.
“He was an extremely private person,” she said. “But he was very, very dedicated. This [acting] had been his dream for so many years, and he worked hard to accomplish what he did.”
In a statement released by Hoffman’s manager, Karen Samfilippo, his family called his death”a tragic and sudden loss.”
“We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil and appreciate the outpouring of love and support we have received from everyone,” the statement said.
“Please keep Phil in your thoughts and prayers.”
In 2006, Hoffman publicly admitted that he nearly succumbed to substance abuse after graduating from NYU’s drama school, but got sober in rehab.
“It was all that (drugs and alcohol), yeah. It was anything I could get my hands on….I liked it all,” he told “60 Minutes” at the time.
Last year, Hoffman reportedly checked himself into rehab again for 10 days after relapsing in 2012.
TMZ said he began using prescription pills, then snorted heroin for about a week before realizing he needed help.
Witnesses said Hoffman appeared “slightly disheveled and pasty” last month during a party for his movie “God’s Pocket” at the Sundance Film Fesival in Park City, Utah.
He initially declined interviews while co-stars Christina Hendricks and John Slattery talked to the media, with his reps telling reporters, “He needed a minute and didn’t feel like coming down yet.” Later, he seemed more relaxed and agreed to do some interviews but would only talk about the movie, before being spotted at another party chatting to Sam Rockwell.
Hoffman had been shooting “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” and was in post-production for the Showtime series “Happyish.”
Just over a week ago, he was spotted in the audience at the Broadway revival of “Waiting for Godot.”
The “Mission: Impossible III” star won the Oscar for best actor for his 2005 film “Capote,” and received three Academy Award nominations as best supporting actor.
In a bizarre twist, just hours before Hoffman’s body was discovered, a satirical Web site posted that the actor had been the subject of an “internet death hoax” last month.
Mediamass.net — which claims to be “an international collective based in China” — says its celebrity reports are “a humorous parody of Gossip magazines, all stories are obviously not true.”
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