James Caan, the actor best known for his role as Sonny Corleone in the first two films of Godfather, has died at the age of 82.
“It is with great sadness that we inform you of Jimmy’s passing on the afternoon of July 6,” it can be read on Thursday in a statement posted on its official Twitter account. No cause of death was reported.
“The family appreciates the outpouring of love and the deepest condolences and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time.”
It is with great sadness that we inform you of Jimmy’s death on the evening of July 6th.
The family appreciates the outpouring of love and condolences and asks you to continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time. .
End of tweet
– @James_Caan
The statement concluded with “End of tweet,” a flower that Caan often used to end his tweets.
“Jimmy was one of the greatest. Not only was he one of the best actors our company has ever seen, but he was funny, loyal, affectionate and loved,” Caan manager Matt DelPiano said Wednesday. “Our relationship has always been one of friendship before business. I will miss him very much and I am proud to have worked with him all these years.”
The godfather role brought fame, Oscar nods
A football player at Michigan State University and a practical joker on set, Caan was a handsome, smiling performer with a muscular, rounded complexion as an athlete. He led a long career despite drug problems, outbursts of humor and small brushes with the law.
Caan had been a favorite of Francis Ford Coppola since the 1960s, when Coppola chose him for the lead role in Rain People. He was prepared for a prominent role in The Godfather as Sonny, the No. 1 executor and eldest son of mob boss Vito Corleone.
Al Pacino, left, as Michael Corleone, and James Caan as Sonny Corleone in a scene from The Godfather. The role earned Caan an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. (Paramount Pictures via The Associated Press)
Sonny Corleone of Caan, a violent and reckless man who committed many murders, was found dead in one of the most discordant movie scenes in history. Running to find her sister’s husband, Corleone stops at a toll booth who discovers she is very empty of customers. Before he can escape, he is shot down by a seemingly endless escape from machine gun fire.
Decades later, Caan once said, strangers would approach him on the street and jokingly warn him to stay away from toll roads.
On set, Caan bonded with Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall and other cast members and made everyone laugh during an otherwise tense production, sometimes dropping his pants and “waking up” another actor. or crew member.
Despite Coppola’s fears that he had fallen into failure, the 1972 premiere of The Godfather was a huge critical and commercial success and led to Oscar nominations for supporting actors for Caan, Robert Duvall and Al Pacino.
Caan was already a TV star, and broke the 1971 television movie Brian’s Song, an emotional drama about Chicago Bears runner Brian Piccolo, who had died of cancer the year before. movies in history. Caan and co-star Billy Dee Williams, who played teammate and best friend Piccolo Gale Sayers, were nominated for Emmys for Best Actor.
After Brian’s Song and The Godfather, he was one of the busiest actors in Hollywood, appearing in Hide in Plain Sight (which he also directed), Funny Lady (opposite Barbra Streisand), The Killer Elite and Neil Simon’s Chapter Two, among others. others. He also made a brief appearance in a flashback sequence in The Godfather, Part II.
The death of the sister devastated the star
But in the early 1980s he began to embitter films, although Michael Mann’s 1981 neo-noir robbery film, Thief, in which he played a professional looking for a way out, is a of his most admired films.
“The fun came out of it,” he told an interviewer in 1981. “I’ve taken photos where I prefer to spend time. I just came out of a photo in Paramount. I said you don’t have enough money. To do that.” I go to work every day with a director I don’t like ”.
He had begun battling drug use and was devastated by the 1981 death from leukemia of his sister, Barbara, who until then had been a driving force in his career.
James Caan, left, appears with his son, actor Scott Caan, at the premiere of the HBO documentary His Way in Los Angeles on March 22, 2011. Caan, who died Wednesday, also survives his daughter Tara and his sons Alexander, James and Jacob. (Chris Pizzello / The Associated Press)
For much of the 1980s he didn’t make any films, telling people he preferred to coach his son Scott’s Little League games.
In the short term, Caan was hired by Coppola for the lead role in the 1987 film Gardens of Stone. The film, about life in Arlington National Cemetery, was too sad for most audiences, but it renewed Caan’s acting career.
Misery and return to stardom
He returned to stardom right next to Kathy Bates in Misery in 1990.
In the film, based on Stephen King’s novel, Caan is a prisoner author by an obsessed fan who breaks his ankles to prevent him from leaving. Bates won an Oscar for the role.
Once again sued, Caan starred in For the Boys with Bette Midler in 1991 as part of a song and dance team that entertained American soldiers during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
The following year he played an ironic version of Sonny Corleone in the comedy Honeymoon in Vegas, tricking Nicolas Cage into betting on his girlfriend, Sarah Jessica Parker, in a high-stakes poker game so he could get her out and try. ho. persuade her to marry him.
Other later films included Flesh and Bone, Bottle Rocket and Mickey Blue Eyes. He introduced himself to a new generation playing Walter, the workaholic and father stone face of Will Ferrell’s Buddy in Elf.
The role starring television completed a long career
Caan did not play a starring role in a television series until 2003, but his first effort, Las Vegas, was an immediate success. When the series debuted, he was a casino surveillance chief who dealt with cheaters and competitors from the fictional Montecito Resort and Casino.
His character became the head of the Montecito, but he remained the tough guy who had learned judo in a covert division of the U.S. government. Caan left the show during the fourth season and later canceled.
RIP to legendary actor James Caan. pic.twitter.com/dME2tY7mgi
– @ PrimeVideo
Born on March 26, 1939 in New York City, Caan was the son of a kosher meat wholesaler.
He was a star athlete and class president at Rhodes High School and, after attending Michigan State and Hofstra University, studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater with Sanford Meisner.
After a brief stage career, he moved to Hollywood, where he made his film debut with a brief uncredited role in 1963 in Billy Wilder’s Irma La Douce. He then landed a role as the young bully who terrorizes Olivia de Havilland in Lady in a Cage.
He also appeared alongside John Wayne and Robert Mitchum in the 1966 Western El Dorado and Harrison Ford in the 1968 Western Journey to Shiloh.
Actor tributes arrive
Many of his collaborators wrote their condolences on Twitter on Thursday.
Al Pacino, Caan’s co-star in The Godfather in 1972, made a statement of mourning for the late actor.
“Jimmy was my fictional brother and my lifelong friend. It’s hard to believe he’ll no longer be in the world because he was so lively and daring. A great actor, a brilliant director and my dear friend. I’ll find missing. he. “
Robert de Niro, who starred in The Godfather: Part II of 1974, wrote, “I’m very, very sad to know Jimmy’s death.”
Barbra Streisand starred in Caan Funny Lady in 1972, the sequel to Funny Girl in 1968. “I’m so sorry to hear about Jimmy. He was so talented,” the actress wrote on Twitter.
Michael Mann, who directed Caan at Thief, said: “Jimmy was not only a great actor with a total commitment and an adventurous spirit, but he had a vitality at the core of his being that drove everything, from his art and friendship to athletics and very good. times “.
Adam Sandler, who starred with Caan in Bulletproof and That’s My Boy, wrote that he: “I loved him so much. I always wanted to be like him. So happy I met him. I never stopped laughing when I was next to him. this man. His films were the best of the best. “
James Caan. I loved her very much. I always wanted to be like him. So happy to have met him. I never stopped laughing when I was around that man. His films were the best of the best. We will all miss him a lot. Thinking of his family and sending my love. pic.twitter.com/a0q8rCP1Yl
– @ AdamSandler
Rob Reiner, who directed Caan in Misery, filmmaker Scott Derrickson and actors Michael McKean and co-star of Misery Bates also posted tributes on Twitter.
Married and divorced four times, Caan leaves five children: a daughter, Tara, and their sons Scott, Alexander, James and Jacob.