James Caan, the curly-haired powerful man recognized to film followers because the hotheaded Sonny Corleone of The Godfather, handed away at age 82 after having constructed a storied appearing profession with 137 credit to his title.
The American actor, whose portrayal of Corleone secured him an Academy Awards nomination in 1973, died on Wednesday. No trigger was given.
Caan, the son of a German-Jewish butcher, grew up in New York City and performed soccer at Michigan State College, earlier than discovering his ardour for appearing.
He managed a protracted profession regardless of drug issues, sizzling mood and minor brushes with the legislation. He was recognized for his good-looking appears, fixed grin and muscular construct, in addition to being a sensible joker on manufacturing units.
‘Jimmy was one of many best. Not solely was he among the finest actors our enterprise has ever seen, he was humorous, loyal, caring and beloved,’ his supervisor Matt DelPiano mentioned. ‘Our relationship was at all times friendship earlier than enterprise. I’ll miss him dearly and am proud to have labored with him all these years.’
He was married 4 instances and is survived by his 5 kids – Tara, 57; Scott, 45; Alexander James, 31; James Arthur, 26; and Jacob Nicholas Caan, 23.
Scott adopted in his father’s footsteps, showing in Ocean’s Eleven, Gone In 60 Seconds and the Hawaii 5-0 reboot.
James Caan, the curly-haired powerful man recognized to film followers because the hotheaded Sonny Corleone of The Godfather, handed away at age 82. He’s pictured in December 2010
The American actor, whose portrayal of Sonny Corleone secured him an Academy Awards nomination in 1973, died on Wednesday. No trigger was given. Caan is pictured in 1968
James Caan holds his profession tribute on the tenth Marrakesh Movie Competition in 2010
James Caan and Al Pacino are pictured in a movie nonetheless from The Godfather
Caan’s family members confirmed his demise in a assertion on Twitter on Thursday: ‘It’s with nice disappointment that we inform you of the passing of Jimmy on the night of July 6.
‘The household appreciates the outpouring of affection and heartfelt condolences and asks that you just proceed to respect their privateness throughout this troublesome time. Finish of tweet.’
The veteran actor is greatest recognized for his breakout function in The Godfather, which additionally noticed him nominated for greatest supporting actor on the Golden Globes.
His character – Sonny Corleone, a violent and reckless man with a thirst for killing – met his personal finish in one of the crucial jarring film scenes in historical past. On his strategy to one other job, Corleone stops at a toll sales space that he discovers is unnervingly empty of consumers. Earlier than he can escape he’s minimize down by a seemingly limitless fusillade of machine-gun fireplace.
For many years after, Caan as soon as mentioned, strangers would strategy him on the road and jokingly warn him to remain away from toll roads.
The 1972 basic crime saga, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, additionally stars Al Pacino and Diane Keaton.
Caan had been a favourite of Coppola for the reason that Nineteen Sixties, when the director solid him for the lead in Rain Folks, which primed him for the function of Corleone.
He was primed for a featured function in ‘The Godfather’ as Sonny, the No. 1 enforcer and eldest son of Mafia boss Vito Corleone.
Caan bonded with Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall and different The Godfather solid members and made it a degree to get everybody laughing throughout an in any other case tense manufacturing, typically dropping his pants and ‘mooning’ a fellow actor or crew member.
Regardless of Coppola’s fears he had made a flop, the 1972 launch was an unlimited important and business success and introduced supporting actor Oscar nominations for Caan, Duvall and Pacino.
James Caan attends the 2016 Summer season TCA Hallmark Occasion on July 27, 2016, in Beverly Hills, California
Caan is greatest recognized for his breakout function as Sonny Corleone in 1972 crime movie The Godfather. He’s pictured with co-stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and John Cazale
Caan is pictured alongside his spouse Linda Stokes and sons James and Jacob on the Younger Hollywood Awards in April 2007
Earlier than starring in The Godfather, Caan was already a star on tv, breaking by way of within the 1971 TV film Brian’s Tune – an emotional drama about Chicago Bears working again Brian Piccolo, who had died of most cancers the 12 months earlier than at age 26.
It was among the many hottest and wrenching TV films in historical past and Caan and co-star Billy Dee Williams, who performed Piccolo’s teammate and greatest buddy Gale Sayers, have been nominated for greatest actor Emmys.
After Brian’s Tune and The Godfather, he was one in all Hollywood’s busiest actors, showing in Cover in Plain Sight (which he additionally directed), Humorous Girl (reverse Barbra Streisand), The Killer Elite and Neil Simon’s Chapter Two, amongst others.
He additionally made a short look in a flashback sequence in The Godfather, Half II.
However by the early Nineteen Eighties he started to bitter on movies, although Michael Mann’s 1981 neo-noir heist movie Thief, wherein he performed an expert safecracker on the lookout for a approach out, is amongst his most admired movies.
‘The enjoyable of it was taken away,’ he advised an interviewer in 1981. ‘I’ve achieved photos the place I might moderately do time. I simply walked out of an image at Paramount. I mentioned you have not received sufficient cash to make me go to work day-after-day with a director I do not like.’
He had begun to battle with drug use and was devastated by the 1981 leukemia demise of his sister, Barbara, who till then had been a guiding pressure in his profession. For a lot of the Nineteen Eighties he made no movies, telling individuals he most popular to educate his son Scott’s Little League video games.
Diane Keaton, James Caan, Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino and Talia Shire take a bow onstage through the panel for The Godfather forty fifth Anniversary Screening throughout 2017 Tribeca Movie Competition
Left: James Caan Jr and James Caan attend ‘The Godfather’ fiftieth Anniversary Celebration at Paramount Theatre on February 22 in LA. Proper: James and Scott in 2010
James Caan is pictured in a nonetheless from the 1975 movie Rollerball
Brief on money, Caan was employed by Coppola for the main function within the 1987 movie Gardens of Stone. The film, about life at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery, proved too grim for many audiences, however it renewed Caan’s appearing profession.
He returned to full-fledged stardom reverse Kathy Bates in Distress in 1990. Within the movie, primarily based on Stephen King’s novel, Caan is an writer taken captive by an obsessed fan who breaks his ankles to maintain him from leaving. Bates gained an Oscar for the function.
As soon as once more in demand, Caan starred in For the Boys with Bette Midler in 1991 as a part of a song-and-dance crew entertaining U.S. troopers throughout World Conflict II and the Korean and Vietnam wars.
The next 12 months he performed a tongue-in-cheek model of Sonny Corleone within the comedy Honeymoon in Vegas, tricking Nicolas Cage into betting his girlfriend, Sarah Jessica Parker, in a high-stakes poker recreation so he can spirit her away and attempt to persuade her to marry him.
Different later movies included Flesh and Bone, Bottle Rocket and Mickey Blue Eyes. He launched himself to a brand new technology taking part in Walter, the workaholic, stone-faced father of Buddy’s Will Ferrell in Elf.
The famed actor was grateful for his profession and the lasting affect his hits, equivalent to Distress and The Godfather, had on followers.
‘Look, you solely pray once you begin on this enterprise that you just get to the purpose the place individuals acknowledge you,’ he as soon as advised Cigar Aficionado journal. ‘I’ve received lots of people who’re, like, “Hey, your ankle OK?” from Distress. Or they’ll say: “Hey, don’t undergo that toll sales space once more” or “Have the suitable change?”‘
‘It implies that they keep in mind the image. There’s nothing to not like about it. The one factor that I get somewhat upset about is once I’m in a restaurant and other people… beckon me with their finger. I get somewhat sideways. I am going: “No, you come right here! What, am I a taxi or one thing?”‘
He added: ‘I hope they by no means cease.’
Earlier than starring in The Godfather, Caan was already a star on tv, breaking by way of within the 1971 TV film Brian’s Tune. Caan is pictured in an undated photograph
Caan begun to battle with drug use and was devastated by the 1981 leukemia demise of his sister, Barbara, who till then had been a guiding pressure in his profession. For a lot of the Nineteen Eighties he made no movies. He’s pictured in a nonetheless from the 1981 movie Thief
Caan returned to full-fledged stardom reverse Kathy Bates in Distress in 1990. The pair are pictured collectively within the movie
Caan (pictured in Mickey Blue Eyes) was born on March 26, 1939 in The Bronx and was the son of a kosher meat wholesaler. He was was raised in part of Queen he as soon as known as ‘a neighborhood not conducive to the humanities’
Born March 26, 1939, in New York Metropolis, Caan was the son of a kosher meat wholesaler. He was born within the Bronx however raised in part of Queen he as soon as known as ‘a neighborhood not conducive to the humanities.’
He was a star athlete and sophistication president at Rhodes Excessive College, the place he graduated at age 16 after having been kicked out by a number of public colleges for ‘disruptive conduct.’ In response to The Washington Post, Caan would joke that his academics accelerated him ‘simply to be achieved with him.’
He later attended Michigan State – meaning to play on its praised soccer crew – however as a substitute wound up being a ‘tackling dummy.’
He transferred to Hofstra College however dropped out after getting kicked out of the ROTC program following a fistfight with a superior.
Caan could not afford faculty on his personal so he served in lots of odd jobs together with as a bouncer and lifeguard. He additionally labored for godfather unpacking meat alongside the docks of the Hudson River.
Shortly thereafter, he enrolled at New York Metropolis’s Neighborhood Playhouse College of the Theatre, the place he studied for 5 years.
Caan was a star athlete and sophistication president at Rhodes Excessive College, the place he graduated at age 16 after having been kicked out by a number of public colleges for ‘disruptive conduct.’ His junior yearbook photograph, taken in 1955, is pictured on left and his senior 12 months photograph, taken in 1956, is pictured proper
Caan is pictured together with his highschool basketball crew in 1955. He’s within the again row on the left
Caan found his ardour for appearing whereas in faculty, prompting him to enroll at New York Metropolis’s Neighborhood Playhouse College of the Theatre, the place he studied for 5 years. He’s pictured alongside Marion Brando in The Godfather
Following a short stage profession that noticed him seem in a number of off-Broadway performs and included a Broadway debut within the play Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole, Caan moved to Hollywood.
He made his film debut in a short uncredited function in 1963 in Billy Wilder’s Irma La Douche, then landed a task as younger thug who terrorizes Olivia de Havilland in Girl in a Cage.
He additionally appeared reverse John Wayne and Robert Mitchum within the 1966 Western El Dorado and Harrison Ford within the 1968 Western Journey to Shiloh.
Off-screen Caan and Wayne had a ‘contentious and playful relationship.’ Wayne performed pranks of Caan, together with as soon as filling his dressing room with trash,
Wayne allegedly cheated throughout video games of chess the pair would play in between takes, with Caan as soon as telling The Guardian: ‘He was so lame. He’d say, “Hey, Jimmy, what’s that over there,” and shove the rook round whereas I gazed yonder like a schmuck.’
James Caan and Ali MacGraw are pictured on the St. Regis Lodge in New York Metropolis in March 1972
Actor James Caan accepts the Vegas Icon award onstage through the 2008 CineVegas movie pageant
Caan was noticed utilizing a walker at a restaurant with associates in California final 12 months after spending a while in a wheelchair as he recovered from again surgical procedure in 2020
Caan had a checkered relationship historical past, and has been married 4 instances. His first marriage to Dee Jay Mathis resulted in 1966 after 5 years, they usually share daughter Tara, 55.
Ten years later he tied the knot with Sheila Marie Ryan, however they divorced the next 12 months in 1976, the identical 12 months they welcomed son Scott, 43.
In 1990, Caan married Ingrid Hajek, they welcomed son Alexander, 28, the next 12 months and divorced in 1994.
His fourth marriage occurred in 1995, when he tied the knot to Linda Stokes. The couple had sons James, 24, and Jacob, 21, earlier than divorcing in 2009, citing irreconcilable variations.
In 2016 he claimed his estranged spouse Stokes was blowing by way of his financial savings and is pressured to maintain working with a purpose to pay the payments in line with authorized paperwork discovered by TMZ.
The gossip website claimed he was at present paying $13,000 a month in little one help for his or her two boys however it appeared she was asking for extra money.
Caan is photographed together with his first spouse Dee Jay Mathis on the Golden Globes in Los Angeles, California, having stayed collectively from 1961 to 1966
Caan is pictured together with his fourth spouse Linda Stokes, who in 2016 was mentioned to be estranged and ‘blowing by way of financial savings and ruining his repute by forcing the legendary actor to take roles as a substitute of retire’
Caan and his ex-wife Ingrid Hajek are pictured attending the screening of ‘So I Married An Axe Assassin’ on the Galaxy Theater in Hollywood in 1993. They stayed collectively from 1990 till 1995
Caan is pictured together with his second spouse Sheila throughout an outing in New York Metropolis in 1970
Maybe essentially the most hanging declare within the paperwork was Caan felt the cash points have been forcing him to take sub-par roles with a purpose to sustain financially.
The paperwork learn: ‘I’m not keen to take components in movies and/or tv reveals which detract from the 50 years I’ve spent constructing my repute.’
He goes on to say he needed to do a drama named Sicilian Vampire, launched in the summertime of 2015, which was ‘humiliating’ because the New York Metropolis premiere solely had 50 individuals present up.
In 1961, he married Dee Jay Mathis and had daughter Tara; they divorced in 1966. Caan’s second marriage to Sheila Marie Ryan – a former girlfriend of Elvis Presley – in 1976 was short-lived as they divorced the next 12 months.
Their son, Scott Caan, who is also an actor, was born in 1976. Caan was married to Ingrid Hajek from September 1990 to March 1994; they’d a son, Alexander, born 1991.
Actor James Caan poses on the set of the NBC collection Las Vegas in Culver Metropolis, California on December 10, 2003
Craig Sheffer and James Caan are pictured within the 1993 movie The Program
James Caan is pictured within the 1977 movie A Bridge Too Far (left) and The Glory Guys (proper), launched in 1965
Within the Nineteen Eighties Caan pursued a decadent life-style full of drug use and frequent visits to the Playboy Mansion.
He grew to become hooked on cocaine after his youthful sister Barbara misplaced her battle with most cancers in 1981.
Throughout his downward spiral, Caan misplaced his life financial savings and his dwelling. He additionally owed a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars} in again taxes. He blamed his ‘incompetent enterprise managers’ for the monetary battle, in addition to himself for being too excessive to handle his issues.
Caan went to drug rehab a minimum of twice within the 80s and 90s, making headlines over his violent, addiction-fueled behaviors. He was accused of slapping and choking his girlfriend and for pulling a gun out throughout an argument over a parking house.
The actor, additionally whereas battling his habit, publicly admitted to having friendships with mobsters, saying of a buddy: ‘I do know he’s not a carpenter, OK?’
from Hollywood – My Blog https://ift.tt/FcKYgTN
via IFTTT