"Phil Hoffman and I had two things in common," Sorkin wrote in an obituary for Time magazine. Hoffman as Gust Avrakotos in a scene from Charlie Wilson's War. "We were both fathers of young children, and we were both recovering drug addicts. Of course I'd known Phil's work for a long time — since his remarkably perfect film debut as a privileged, cowardly prep-school kid in Scent of a Woman — but I'd never met him until the first table read for Charlie Wilson's War." On breaks during rehearsals, Sorkin and Hoffman would gather outside the soundstage on the Paramount lot and "get to swapping stories". "It's not unusual to have these mini-AA meetings — people like us are the only ones to whom tales of insanity don't sound insane," Sorkin wrote. “I told him I felt lucky because I'm squeamish and can't handle needles. He told me to stay squeamish.

"And he said this: 'If one of us dies of an overdose, probably 10 people who were about to won't.' He meant that our deaths would make news and maybe scare someone clean. Award-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. Credit:Getty Images "So it's in that spirit that I'd like to say this: Phil Hoffman, this kind, decent, magnificent, thunderous actor, who was never outwardly 'right' for any role but who completely dominated the real estate upon which every one of his characters walked, did not die from an overdose of heroin — he died from heroin. "We should stop implying that if he'd just taken the proper amount then everything would have been fine. He didn't die because he was partying too hard or because he was depressed — he died because he was an addict on a day of the week with a 'y' in it. Loading

"He'll have his well-earned legacy — his Willy Loman that belongs on the same shelf with Lee J. Cobb's and Dustin Hoffman's, his Jamie Tyrone, his Truman Capote and his Academy Award. Let's add to that 10 people who were about to die who won't now." In 2001, after wrapping up the second season of The West Wing, Sorkin was arrested at Burbank Airport in a highly publicised incident for possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms, marijuana, and crack cocaine. He was ordered by a judge to attend a drug diversion program.