Philip Seymour Hoffman on the Cover of Rolling Stone

Philip Seymour Hoffman graces Rolling Stone's next cover. Inside the issue, his closest friends remember "the greatest actor of a generation."

From Rolling Stone:

Hoffman's closest friends and colleagues remember the greatest actor of a generation in the new issue of Rolling Stone (on stands Friday), telling contributing editor David Browne intimate stories about an actor who "played those characters so well because he knew about guilt and shame and suffering," as one friend said. Here are five revelations from the story:

Hoffman's Death Didn't Come at the End of a "Downward Spiral"
The actor's closest confidants say if anything, "he was on an upward spiral," as Katz [David Bar Katz, another one of Hoffman's playwright friends, who found Hoffman in his apartment on February 2nd] tells us. Hoffman "believed you don't have to die with a needle in your arm to be a great artist," Guirgis says. The actor was still immersed in his craft with an intensity that could intimidate his castmates.

Friends Say Hoffman's Final Bender Wasn't a Suicidal Streak, But a Relapse Turned Deadly
"The addiction was always trying to find a way back in, and it started with the idea that the kid was an addict, and now he's an adult with incredible willpower," says Katz. (Hoffman checked himself into rehab at 22 after spending college at NYU partying hard). "He was a guy in his midforties who said to himself, 'I never had a drink in my adult life.' So maybe the adult thought he could handle it."

This issue of Rolling Stone will be out February 14th.