tonight on "nightline" -- oscar-winning actor philip seymour hoffman found dead in his apartment with 70 bags of heroin. an apparent overdose. how he spent the last hours and minutes of his final act. super parties. from vip access to a private jet. >> all right! take us down! >> this guy touched down for the super bowl with more than just the game in mind. it's big business, big bucks, and big celebrities. from jay-z to mary j. blige. after a $100,000 weekend you might even blow off the game. and prison escape. a convicted murderer crawls under the fence in a maximum security facility dressed in

kitchen garb, then abducts a woman in her own jeep. how she got away. we have breaking news tonight. >> keep it right here, america. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ told ya you could do it. (dad vo) i want her to be safe. so, i taught her what i could and got her a subaru. (girl) piece of cake. ♪ (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

good evening and thanks for joining us. when 46-year-old philip seymour hoffman was found dead in his new york city apartment over the weekend, the news shocked the world and devastated hollywood insiders, who considered him one of the finest actors of his generation. with only a week of filming left to go in the latest "hunger games" movie. but his death also exposed a dangerous personal struggle. dozens of bags of heroin found in his home. for more on those final hours, here's abc's david wright. >> reporter: a tragic ending because of a secret struggle behind closed doors. an all too familiar hollywood

story. philip seymour hoffman dead at age 46 of an apparent drug overdose. last seen out with friends saturday night, writer david katz went looking for him sunday morning after he failed to pick up his three kids. at 11:15 a.m. katz found him in the bathroom of his greenwich village apartment, a needle stuck in his arm, a baggie of heroin nearby, one of 70 such bags authorities now say they found inside that apartment. philip seymour hoffman didn't live or die like the typical troubled star. he was neither an aging diva like michael jackson or whitney houston, struggling desperately to rally for one big comeback, nor was he an early flame-out like corey monteith or river phoenix or heath ledger, shooting comets who did not live long enough to fulfill their early potential. >> the oscar goes to -- philip seymour hoffman in "capote." >> reporter: no, hoffman won the best actor statue.

and in his acceptance speech he seemed so humble, so grounded. >> my mom's name is marilyn o'connor, and she's here tonight. and i'd like if you see her tonight to congratulate her because she brought up four kids alone. >> reporter: a gifted actor. some say the most gifted in his generation. >> he was a person with such scope and breadth that he could play anything. he could make you laugh. he could make you cry. he could terrorize you. he could thrill you. he could make you fall in love with him. >> reporter: hoffman's characters on stage and on screen often struggled to keep it together. from the high-strung medical student opposite robin williams in "patch adams" -- >> this isn't play time! this is serious business! >> reporter: to the sycophantic butler in "the big lebowski." >> that is the key to the city of pasadena which mr. lebowski received two years ago in recognition of his various civic -- oh. that's the los angeles chamber of commerce business achiever

award. >> reporter: he often played characters wound so tight they seemed ready to burst. and sometimes they did burst. >> can i kiss you? >> scottie, i -- >> please? can i kiss you on the mouth? >> no! >> reporter: in "boogie nights" he was the stage hand nursing a secret crush on a male porn star. >> i'm a [ bleep ] idiot. >> reporter: in "charlie wilson's war" the aging overweight cia agent railing against his button-down ivy league bosses. >> my loyalty? >> for 24 years people have been trying to kill me. people that know how. now, do you think that's because my dad was a great soda pop maker or because i'm an american spy? go [ bleep ] yourself, you [ bleep ] child. >> reporter: that performance earned hoffman one of his four oscar nominations. >> how was i? >> reporter: his talent widely celebrated. he was an actor's actor, like meryl streep, who starred opposite him in "doubt." >> you've got it in your head that i corrupted this child

after giving him wine, and nothing i say will change that. >> reporter: both of them got oscar nominations for "doubt." >> whoo! >> reporter: hoffman also nominated for his role as a cult leader in "the master." >> i am a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist, a theoretical philosopher. but above all, i am a man. >> reporter: but he won for "capote." >> there's one singular reason i keep coming here. >> truman. >> november 14th, 1959. three years ago. >> reporter: hoffman was at sundance just a few weeks ago, looking slouchy. but that was his style. not primped or groomed like your typical hollywood star. but as "the new york times" put, it always rumpled and sleepy-looking, like an out ofwork actor. but out of work hoffman never has been. at sundance he was promoting the upcoming john le carre movie, "a most wanted man." >> your choice is between us and nobody. >> reporter: the latest of many

hoffman characters who seem to be battling their inner demons. in hoffman's own case addiction was part of the mix. as he told "60 minutes," his substance abuse problems predated his acting career. >> i got sober when i was 22 years old. yeah. >> so this was drugs or alcohol or both? >> yes. all that stuff. yeah. let me get my hands up. yeah. yeah. i liked it all. yeah. >> reporter: but he insisted he had it under control. then in 2012 he checked into rehab for ten days. not long enough says the director of one prominent malibu program. >> anytime i have somebody with a ten-day, i know it's going to be a really bad outcome. these ten-day programs, they don't detox you in a way that will keep you sober. because you're just using it as a gimmick.

and whenever you use any type of detox as a gimmick, that means you're really still wanting to get high. >> reporter: hoffman's intensity was obvious long before he ever started acting. to his high school english teacher back in rochester, new york. >> i've never had a student make me feel so naked as he did because his intelligence when it came to the human condition was off the charts. >> reporter: never let it be said he just phoned it in. he did some of his best work on the phone. as the hard-nosed rock critic in "almost famous." >> the only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool. >> reporter: or the seedy mattress statement in "punch drunk love." >> shut up! shut up! shut up! shut -- shut -- shut -- shut -- shut up! >> reporter: or the worried male nurse in "magnolia. >> i know i might sound ridiculous like this is the scene of the movie where the guy's trying to get hold of the long lost son. you know, but this is that scene. >> reporter: today one critic said hoffman had a rare ability to illuminate the varieties of

human ugliness. no one else ever did it so beautifully. and he died in the prime of his life. >> he was 46 years old. imagine for a moment what he could have gone on to do. >> reporter: among the the movies left unfinished, the final installment of "the hunger games." he died in his prime. a career and a life cut short. >> we lost philip seymour hoffman. we lost everything he would give us for the next 20, 30, 40 ye s years. the finest actor of his generation. and the drugs got him. >> reporter: tragically, he'll also now be remembered for the demons that drove him to an early death. i'm david wright for "nightline" in hollywood. >> i think everyone who appreciated his work will miss his enormous talent while his friends and family will miss so much more. coming up, the latest on a manhunt in the midwest. but first, when we come back, how one guy spent $100,000 on a

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for certain high rollers on super bowl weekend the football is almost optional. but the parties? mandatory. you can take a lot of cash to play in these big leagues. past the velvet ropes, where celebrities let loose behind closed doors. and you're about to get a look at how much one guy and his pals paid to get there. here's abc's rebecca jarvis. >> reporter: it's the hottest ticket in town, and it's not even the game. jay-z leading the charge as a star-studded super bowl carnival took new york city by storm over the weekend. ♪ leo held court in vip while eli worked the room. and that's joe poolit who's right up close to the stars because he's dropped big bucks to get insider treatment at the

nonstop super bowl weekend extravaganza that has little to do with football. this high-end party packaging is a $50 million industry in and of itself, and you're about to see what all access means in the host city of sport's biggest event. you see, joe poolin is what they call a super bowl vip. he runs a luxury travel business with his brothers, jazz and james. his four-day super bowl odyssey starts here. >> all right! >> reporter: on a private plane from montreal to new york city. >> there's a tonic water for you. >> thanks, buddy. >> reporter: for he and his entourage it costs about $10,000. after touching down on the tarmac they're back up in the air. after all, who wants to deal with airport traffic? so in terms of the numbers for this whole weekend, what are you going to be throwing down? >> i don't know yet. you can talk to me on monday. i'll give you the final tab.

>> reporter: it's all part of an exclusive package put together by private luxury jet company wheels up. and its founder kenny dicter. >> how important is it having marquee names, whether they're in sports or they're celebrities, to draw a crowd around stuff like this? >> well, i think successful people, whether they're successful in sports or entertainment or business, they like to be together. >> reporter: the new york city skyline right there. from there it's a quick drive to check in at the james hotel, which has been conveniently rented out by wheels up for high rollers like joe and his brothers, and not just a few rooms but the entire thing. >> awesome. right here on the 16th floor. >> perfect. great. thanks. >> once you're here, if you want anything, say, vip tickets to a party, a suite at the game, or dinner with a celebrity chef, rob tuckman's your guy. he's what you might call a concierge of access. i caught a cab with him en route to one of his client's exclusive events. >> the ticket market too for all

these parties 234 advance it's similar to the ticket market for the super bowl. so -- actually, it's gone up as opposed to the super bowl ticket market where it's gone down. >> so the parties are getting more expensive? the game is getting less expensive? >> exactly. which sometimes happens some years, which is incredible. there's been years where it cost more to get into the maxim party than it did to get into the super bowl. >> what does it cost to get into the maxim party? >> basically, you're probably looking at $1,200 to $1,300 a ticket. >> reporter: our cameras tried to keep up through the weekend as we party hopped all over town, getting a special behind-the-scenes look at what drives the super bowl weekend circuit and its pop-up economy. >> what does a ticket like that cost? >> no comment. >> hi. how are you? >> good. how are you? >> good. we're here with "nightline," abc. >> yeah. great. >> so one side of me is stephen colbert. the other side is mary j. blige. i guess this is how you roll when you're rolling high. >> what are these things like? for someone who has never been.

>> you're seeing people, you know, that you never dreamed that you would see in your lifetime. and for a person that's not a celebrity it's off the chain. it's amazing. >> how much money did it cost you to get in here? >> all i had to do was enjoy pistachios as much as i already do. so it was pretty easy. >> reporter: besides cash celebs of course are the lifeblood of the super bowl party circuit. if you want to be at the same club as justin bieber or mix it up with steven tyler and kendrick lamar at the maxim party, you've got to know people. and just downtown, the single biggest, busiest super bowl event, an 80,000-square-foot venue is going up for the directv party. two years in the making. complete with a million pounds of sand trucked in from west virginia. >> during the day we'll have vip areas all through here on the o'er levels and the upper

levels. we'll have a full field of sand for a celebrity flag football game, a stage off in the background. and then during the evening we'll convert the whole space to a giant nightclub with a stage, put a floor over the sand, and we'll have about 6,000 guests here that night. >> this is crazy. this is just madness. this is new york madness right here. >> reporter: and 24 hours later it's showtime and our vip from montreal joe poolin's ready to party. but something's wrong. >> there's a shutdown. >> reporter: he finds himself in the last place a high roller wants to be. waiting in line. >> if there's one more line, i think we're going to see some problems. >> after six lines -- that's cool. ♪ >> worth the wait? >> worth the wait, yeah. you can see why now.

this is great. >> reporter: of course for anyone unable to score a ticket to the high-profile parties there was always times square. that's where we found tiki barber plying his own super bowl trade, renting himself out for special appearances. super bowls, bar mitzvahs, birthdays, tiki does them all. for five grand he'll appear at your party. for two he'll take in a football game with you, from your couch, or even join you for a round of golf. a promotional tweet is a bargain at $200. >> how many parties are you going to for the super bowl? >> probably two or three. my company booked some parties with a bunch of nfl lemgds, dan marino, phil simms -- >> that's clout. >> reporter: it's finally game day. super bowl sunday. you might think joe and his crew would be about to head to metlife stadium. after all, this is the weekend's big finish, right? >> you had access to tickets,

but you're not going. >> no. i mean, look, we said we'd rather be in the comforts of our home over here. we had access to the game, but we thought we've accomplished a lot over the weekend. we put a lot of mileage, if you will. >> i asked you at the beginning when we were flying in the helicopter how much you thought all of this weekend was going to cost. did you come in below or above budget? >> at the top end of -- top end of the range. >> 100,000 snds. >> probably close to that, yeah. >> the amount joe's willing to pay for a weekend he and his friends considered priceless. for "nightline" i'm rebecca jarvis in new york. >> after all that they didn't go to the game? turns out they didn't miss much. next, a convicted killer escapes prison, abducts a woman, holds her hostage. her amazing escape and the breaking news tonight. ♪ [ alarm sound for malfunctioning printer ] [ male announcer ] you've reached the age where you've learned a thing or two. [ metal clanks ] ♪

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tonight a manhunt has just ended for an escaped quadruple murderer. michael david elliot escaped from a maximum security prison in michigan sunday night. a prison spokesperson said they believe he acted alone, with no assistance. >> he made his way up to our perimeter fences and then moved them, bent them. he got through the fences and was able to flee on foot. >> he wasn't wearing typical prisoner garb either. apparently, he was in a kitchen uniform, which also might have helped him blend in with the snow at the prison during the escape. authorities say he then abducted a woman with a box cutter and drove with her over 100 miles to elkhart county, indiana, where they stopped for gas. the woman was able to call 911. >> i'm being held -- i'm hostage to an escaped convict. from the ionia correctional facility. >> you're being held hostage? >> yes. >> she snuck away and locked herself in a restroom, where she

stayed unharmed until police arrived. elliot fled. authorities say that after a short chase tonight he was captured in a stolen vehicle in laporte, indiana. elliot was serving life for killing four people and burning down their home in 1993. thanks for watching abc news. i'll see you at "good morning america" tomorrow. good night.

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