Academy Award-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman was only 46, busy as ever and one of the world’s greatest actors. Hoffman’s death Sunday in New York brought a stunning halt to his extraordinary and unpredictable career.

Many younger moviegoers know him as the scheming Plutarch Heavensbee in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.” Older fans will remember his roles in “Boogie Nights,” “The Big Lebowski,” and “Capote,” to name just a few.

Police found Hoffman in his Greenwich Village apartment with a syringe in his arm. Nearby were stamp bags containing what police believe to be heroin. Those items are being tested.

More than one news service, quoting anonymous police sources, said nearly 50 stamp bags of suspected heroin were recovered along with syringes and eight empty bags stamped “Ace of hearts” and “Ace of spades.” Such stamps have been linkd to the “Theraflu” stamp found on bags of the lethal, fantanyl-laced heroin currently circulating in Western Pennsylvania.

An autopsy was to be performed Monday. If preliminary reports are correct, then the autopsy results will show fenatnyl in Hoffman’s blood as well as heroin. The finding will link the famous actor’s death to some two dozen heroin users who died in Western Pennsylvania, including at least two in Butler County.

Hoffman’s death puts the face of a prominent celebrity on this recent rash of overdose deaths, a rash which, so far, includes about 100 fatalities. There are a reported 30 deaths in Maryland alone.

It also catapults the crisis firmly into the public spotlight by claiming its first death in New York City, making it a regional scourge with a new metropolitan center.

The sudden death of such a prominent, relatively young actor will only increase pressure on law enforcement to root out the distributors of this poison and put them out of business.

It should also serve as a cautionary tale that heroin is no recreational drug to be taken lightly; and no one — not even Oscar-winning actors — are immune.