Philip Seymour Hoffman was one of Hollywood’s most successful actors when he died of a drug overdose in February, but he had no intention of using his earnings to overindulge his three children.
The star of colon-heavy blockbusters like “Mission: Impossible III” and “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” told his accountant David Friedman on multiple occasions that he “did not want his children to be considered ‘trust fund’ kids,” according to documents filed July 18 in the Manhattan Surrogate Court.
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Those documents show a conversation between Friedman and the court-appointed attorney of Hoffman’s children, James Cahill Jr. In it, Friedman “recalled conversations with [Hoffman] in the year before his demise where the topic of a trust was raised for the kids and summarily rejected by him.”
Hoffman reportedly wanted his $35 million estate, which was sued for $85,000 earlier this year over alleged property damage, to go directly to his longtime partner and the mother of his children, Mimi O’Donnell.
The actor reportedly told his accountant that he “simply did not believe in marriage,” and Cahill said “Friedman also advised that he observed Hoffman treating his partner/girlfriend . . . in the same manner as if she were a spouse.”
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“The size and nature of the jointly held assets support the position that [Hoffman] regarded [O’Donnell] as the natural object of his bounty,” Cahill Jr. said in the court papers. He expects the courts to approve the will since, in his estimation, it contains nothing suspicious.
As TheWrap previously reported, Hoffman was 46 years old when died on Feb. 2, 2014, succumbing to what coroners called “”acute mixed drug intoxication, including heroin, cocaine, benzodiazepines and amphetamine.”
His three surviving children are Cooper, 10, Tallulah, 7, and Willa 5.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.