Tragic Oscar-winner who died of drugs is unrecognizable in high school yearbook photo… who is he?

A tragic Oscar winner who succumbed to drug addiction can now be seen in his unearthed high school yearbook photo.

The beloved actor was born and raised in upstate New York, where he graduated high school in 1985 as vice president of the senior class.

He had already been bitten by the acting bug: the yearbook also contains a photo of him applying makeup for a campus production of Death Of A Salesman.

In the 1990s, he became both a critical darling and a bona fide Hollywood star, known for his versatile and layered performances.

His Oscar came in 2006 for his portrayal of one of America’s most famous authors, but eight years later he was found dead of an overdose in his bathroom.

Can you guess who he is?

The actor in question is Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is depicted in the yearbook of Fairport High School in Fairport, New York in 1985, his senior year.

He was known for a dizzying variety of films, from blockbusters like Twister and The Hunger Games series to critical films like Boogie Nights and Doubt to his Oscar-winning role as the title character in Capote, a biopic of Truman Capote.

Hoffman fell in love with acting as a child when he saw a production of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons – and a few years later he was in his high school production of the playwright’s most famous work Death Of A Salesman.

In a full-circle moment, Hoffman was nominated for a Tony Award in a Broadway revival of Death Of A Salesman, just two years before his own demise.

His Hollywood career really took off in the 1990s, when he appeared alongside the likes of Al Pacino in Scent Of A Woman and Alec Baldwin in The Getaway.

He became a star in his own right in 1996 with the big action film Twister, in which he co-starred with Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton.

The same year he began his long professional collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson, appearing in the director’s debut Hard Eight.

In 1997, Hoffman cemented his status as one of Hollywood’s leading actors in Anderson’s second film Boogie Nights, in which he played a clumsy boom operator who falls in love with the porn star played by Mark Wahlberg.

A year later, he was part of the cast of the Coen brothers’ beloved The Big Lebowski, alongside Jeff Bridges, who led the cast as “The Dude.”

He closed the 1990s with one of his most famous films, The Talented Mr. Ripley, starring Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett.

Throughout the 2000s, he was showered with praise for his character roles in films such as Almost Famous, Cold Mountain and Synecdoche, New York.

He played a rugged CIA agent during the Soviet-Afghan War in the political satire Charlie Wilson’s War alongside Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.

Hoffman also memorably played a charismatic priest accused of child abuse in Doubt, starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and Viola Davis.

After years of being praised for his talents, he finally won an Oscar for the 2005 drama Capote, in which he played Truman Capote while writing his most enduring book, the true crime classic In Cold Blood about the murder of a Kansas family.

The film was written by Dan Futterman and directed by Bennett Miller, both of whom met Hoffman during his high school years when they all attended the New York State Summer School Of The Arts in Saratoga Springs in 1984.

Capote also continued to act with Anderson in films such as Magnolia and The Master, the latter of which earned him his final Oscar nomination in 2013 for playing a cult leader inspired by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

Although Hoffman kept a veil over his personal life, he was involved with costume designer Mimi O’Donnell from 1999 until his death.

They welcomed a son named Cooper, 21 — who has followed his father’s footsteps into acting and starred in Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film Licorice Pizza — as well as two daughters, Tallulah, 18, and Willa, 16.

Drugs were a problem for Hoffman early in his life; he used heavily in college to the point that he went to rehab at age 22.

He was then able to remain sober for 23 years, during which time he made his way in Hollywood and built his glittering career.

However, he relapsed in 2012, and although he briefly attended rehab in 2013, he was unable to break free from his addictions.

O’Donnell revealed that Hoffman had moved out of their apartment by the time he died, after his children became “anxious” about his changed “behavior.”

“We both felt that some boundaries would be helpful, and tearfully decided that Phil should move to an apartment around the corner,” she wrote in Fashion in 2017.

“It helped us keep our distance a bit, but allowed us all to be together as much as possible – he still took the kids to school and we still had family dinners.”

Hoffman was found dead in the bathroom of his separate New York apartment on February 2, 2014, at the age of 46, with a needle in his arm and several drugs in his system, including cocaine and heroin.

His funeral mass was reportedly attended by around 400 people, including longtime co-stars Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Ethan Hawke and Michelle Williams.

Two years ago, a memorial statue of him was dedicated in his hometown – where he went to high school – and it now stands in nearby Rochester, New York.