One journalist criticized Hoffmann for "trying to add a little respectability to these little melodramas" and "putting his own profession in disrepute". In 1954, he appeared in the film "Violated" as a psychiatrist. The film was described by journalist Dorothy Kilgallen as a “lurid flicker”,  Hoffmann was born to Dr. E. Franz Hoffmann, psychiatrist, and wife in 1887. Hoffmann graduated from Cornell University in 1908. He was married and divorced twice. His first marriage was to actress Janet Beecher in August, 1919. He had one son, Richard Jr., who was a decorated bombardier in World War II, but who died as a young man of alcoholism. His son was divorced in 1952 from Christine Dodge Cromwell and they had one son. Cromwell was an heiress to her grandfather, founder of Dodge motor company, and divorced by charging he was only interested in her money. A year later Hoffmann's son remarried to Judith Ann Dexter. Hoffmann was close friends with actor Charles Coburn. Hoffmann was ethnically Jewish, but was an atheist. When asked by a minister if he was an atheist Hoffmann replied, “I don’t believe in Him, but I sure hope He believes in me.” He died at age 80. In 1942, Hoffmann's residence at 870 Park Avenue, NY was rebuilt in a "art moderne style" by prominent architect Ely Jacques Kahn. In 1946, after a traffic accident actress Gloria Swanson asked that she be taken to Dr. Hoffmann's home instead of the hospital. In the 1960s, Hoffmann divorced and lost his Park Avenue home which was one factor contributing to the decline of his career.