Philip Seymour Hoffman died from a “speedball,” a concoction that has killed several other celebrities, the city’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner said Friday.
Hoffman’s death in his Village apartment earlier this month was an accident and due to an “acute mixed drug intoxication,” including heroin, cocaine, benzodiazepines and amphetamine, the office said.
A speedball is the intravenous injection of cocaine with heroin or morphine in the same syringe.
Benzodiazepine is best known as an anti-anxiety medication and is commercially marketed as Valium.
The deaths of comedians John Belushi and Chris Farley, baseball player Eric Show and several rock performers has been blamed on speedballs.
A deadly mixture of drugs was suspected in Hoffman’s death at age 46 after police found dozens of bags of heroin and prescription drugs inside his apartment. A needle was stuck in the arm of the Oscar-winning star of the 2006 film “Capote.”
The exact composition of the fatal injection was not known until tests led to Friday’s announcement.
Hoffman had overcome the drug addiction he developed as a college student but relapsed after a period of more than 20 years when he began taking heroin and prescription drugs in 2012.
He spent 10 days in a drug rehab center in 2013 and claimed he had kicked the habit again.