James Caan, the curly-haired tough guy known to movie fans as the hotheaded Sonny Corleone of "The Godfather" and to television audiences as the dying football player in the classic weeper "Brian's Song", has died. He passed away at the age of 22.
He died on Wednesday, according to his manager. The cause of Caan's death was not given and his family requested privacy.
He was one of the best. DelPiano said that he was one of the best actors they had ever seen. We were always friends before business. I am sad to see him go, but I am proud to have worked with him.
The man who directed Caan in "Misery" said he loved working with him. I knew who the best calf roper was.
Caan was a football player at Michigan State University and a practical joke on production sets.
Caan was cast for the lead in the film "Rain People" by Francis Ford Coppola. He was going to play the son of a Mafia boss in the movie.
Sonny Corleone, a violent and reckless man who conducted many killings, met his own death in one of the most upsetting movie scenes of all time. Corleone was on his way to another job when he stopped at a toll booth. He is cut down by machine gun fire before he can escape. He once said that strangers would approach him on the street and warn him to stay away from toll roads.
Caan made it a point to get everyone laughing when he dropped his pants and mooned a fellow actor or crew member on set. The 1972 release was an enormous critical and commercial success and brought a number of Oscar nominations for supporting actors.
Caan broke through in the 1971 TV movie "Brian's Song," an emotional drama about Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo, who had died of cancer the year before at age 26. It was one of the most popular TV movies of all time and Caan and Billy Dee Williams were nominated for an award.
He was one of Hollywood's busiest actors after starring in "Brian's Song" and "The Godfather". He appeared in a scene from the first part of the movie.
Michael Mann's 1981 neo-noir heist film "Thief," in which he played a professional safecracker looking for a way out, is one of his most admired films.
He said that the fun of it was taken away.
The year 1981 I prefer taking pictures where I can do time. I just walked out of a movie theater. You don't have enough money to make me go to work with a director I don't like.
His sister, Barbara, who had been a guiding force in his career, died of leukemia in 1981 and he was devastated. He told people that he preferred to coach Scott's Little League games.
Caan was hired by Coppola to play the lead in the film "Gardens of Stone." Caan renewed his acting career after seeing the movie about life at Arlington National Cemetery.
He had a starring role in "Misery" in 1990 Caan is an author who is held captive by a fan who breaks his ankle to keep him from leaving. The Oscar was won by the character.
Caan was part of a song-and-dance team that entertained US soldiers during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. He played a version of Sonny Corleone in a comedy called "Honeymoon in Vegas" that tricked Nicolas Cage into betting his girlfriend's life savings on a high-stakes poker game so he could convince her to marry him.
Other later films were "Mickey Blue Eyes" and "Flesh and Bone". He introduced himself to a new generation as Walter in the movie.
Caan was born in New York City. He was a star athlete and class president at Rhodes High School and went on to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater, where he met his future wife.
He relocated to Hollywood after a short stage career. He made his movie debut in a brief uncredited role in Billy Wilder's "Irma La Douche" and then went on to play a thug in "Lady in a Cage." He played opposite Harrison Ford in the 1968 Western "Journey to Shiloh"
Caan had a daughter, Tara, and five children, Scott, Alexander, James, and Jacob.
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