Years later, Caan would downplay his contributions to the team, joking that his job was "mostly holding bags and being the tackling dummy," but that experience of being a football player and an athlete in general would mark a number of his most famous roles, from real-life Chicago Bear Brian Piccolo in the 1971 docudrama "Brian's Song" to the star player of a dystopian bloodsport in Norman Jewison's "Rollerball." There was something I especially liked about it and it was the form that it took. Even when James Caan wasn't looking for trouble, trouble seemed to find him. The Godfather star James Caan dies aged 82 Actor who played Sonny Corleone in the groundbreaking 1972 epic engineered a comeback after his career went off the rails in the early 1980s A life in. In The Rain People, the first of the three films Caan made with Coppola, a certain vulnerability and warmth surfaced as he played a soft-hearted drifter. Based on the life of 1980s Ponzi schemer turned Evangelical minister Barry Minkow, the film went into production in 2009 with Minkow producing and even playing himself. In the early 1990s, Caan appeared in a number of hit movies, including 1991's big budget spectacle, For the Boys. This is getting too aesthetic, but the Minuet, I learned in school, has an A-B-A form, it repeats the same eight bars at the end after the 16-bar break, and this script had that A-B-A thing , At first, his guy knows nobody is going to f---- with him, he dont give a s--- about himself, he dont care about anybody. There was something really strange and enticing about the script for Thief, James Caan now recalls. James Caan, the curly-haired tough guy known to movie fans as the hotheaded Sonny Corleone of The Godfather and to television audiences as both the dying football player in the classic weeper Brians Song and the casino boss in Las Vegas, has died. "I've got 14 screws in my left shoulder, six in my right, and three in my elbow," he boasts. Broadway Shows Even at the end, when father and son have reconciled in time to save Christmas, there's the sense that Walter still isn't a big fan of Buddy's whole thing. An acquaintance of Caan, Schwartz fell while attempting to reach the unit. Despite the #MeToo reckoning, which promised to re-examine the treatment of women in media, many of Hollywoods beloved bad boys are still given a pass. Caan asked his friend to take care of Pesci after learning about an unpaid $8,000 bill from Pescis stay at a friends Miami hotel. Sonny Corleone, a violent and reckless man who conducted many killings, met his own end in one of the most jarring movie scenes in history. He was 82. But by the early 1980s he began to sour on films, though Michael Manns 1981 neo-noir heist film Thief, in which he played a professional safecracker looking for a way out, is among his most admired films. Caan had begun to struggle with drug use and was devastated by the 1981 leukemia death of his sister, Barbara, who until then had been a guiding force in his career. His official Twitter account confirmed the American actor's passing in a brief message posted to the social media platform on July 7. The men, 23, were exiting a building about 2 a.m. in the 100 block of West Kinzie Street when a fight broke out between them and three other people. The spotlight on Caans minor brushes with the law (the Associated Press) has been dim. Unfortunately, he passed [] Poles needs to make sure Eberflus maintains significant input. Fans of a certain age will no doubt know James Caan best from "The Godfather," but their children and grandchildren might have a different experience of the actor not as a violent mid-century mobster but as a grumpy dad who needs to learn the true meaning of Christmas. Racing to find his sisters husband, Corleone stops at a toll booth that he discovers is unnervingly empty of customers. No cause was given and Caans family, who requests privacy, said that no further details would be released at this time. When [Mann] came to me with the script [for Thief], I bought three tomatoes, I didnt know what the hell he was selling, cracked Caan. Caan's injured arm brought back memories of his knee injury, back in the first season in 2010. He didn't feature in any movies in 1994, and he went on another break between 1996 and 1998. He survived a car crash in 1985. 1 enforcer and eldest son of Mafia boss Vito Corleone. The news of his death was reported around the . I hardly ever go out, he told an interviewer in 1986. His "two, three days" of work helped bring attention to the movie and its makers, launching Anderson and the Wilson brothers to stardom in just a few years. "When all is said and done, that's the most important thing. James Caan appears at a Miami red-carpet event in 2015. But James saw it otherwise. In Carol Morleys Out of Blue (2018), an adaptation of Martin Amiss 1997 novel Night Train, he was the intimidating father of a murdered astrophysicist daughter, and his movie work continued up to the time of his death. It wasnt just women who were the targets of Caans violence and abuse. As writer Jonathan Meyers recounted in Fortune, one day during filming, Minkow, perhaps giddy from being in the same room as Sonny Corleone, confessed to Caan that the film had been financed with stolen money. "The Moth Keeper," byK. ONeill (Random House Graphic, fiction): This beautifully illustrated fantastical graphic novel tells the story of Anya the Moth Keeper, whose village needs her to protect its precious lunar moths. (Getty Images), Caan's early work included "Red Line 7000," "El Dorado" and "The Rain People. "Godfather" star James Caan's cause of death has been revealed. A character actor with movie star swagger, or perhaps the other way around, Caan got his start on television in the 1960s before becoming one of the biggest names in Hollywood in the 1970s, thanks in large part to his immortal turn as Sonny Corleone in "The Godfather." The late Associated Press writer Bob Thomas contributed biographical information to this report. The actor's rep told The Hollywood Reporter that Caan died Wednesday night at 82, confirming a Twitter post from his family. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Per Rotten Tomatoes, the film also stars Caan who plays "a blue-collar worker in Buffalo whose estranged wife, Ruthie (Barbara Rae), has taken up with a local mobster, Jack Scolese (Robert Viharo)." "It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Jimmy on . The football star played for Michigan State University before transferring to Hofstra University where he discovered his talent as an actor and was accepted into the New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre (via Walk of Fame). The 75-year-old actor - who is best known for playing Sonny Corleone in 1972's The Godfather - had complained of chest pain, according to . 'Godfather' actor James Caan died on Wednesday, July 7. He made his movie debut in a brief uncredited role in 1963 in Billy Wilders Irma La Douce, then landed a role as young thug who terrorizes Olivia de Havilland in Lady in a Cage. He also appeared opposite John Wayne and Robert Mitchum in the 1966 Western El Dorado and Harrison Ford in the 1968 Western Journey to Shiloh.. He was sued by a woman who claimed he had tried to strangle her. He hadnt done any motion pictures but hed done a TV movie, The Jericho Mile, and that was pretty good, so I read the script for Thief and it was fantastic. A 1999 article in The Guardian states the LAPD arrested Caan at the time and interrogated him for 10 hours over Schwartz death. One year ago Vancouver voted to defund a women's shelter. I wear $150 slacks, I wear silk shirts, I wear $800 suits, I wear a gold watch, I wear a perfect D flawless three-karat ring, I change cars like other guys change their f---ing shoes! The coverage reveals something that most women in the industry already know: the Post-#MeToo era has not prompted a larger examination of Hollywoods beloved cast and their treatment of women. I can get that. Outside, they had discovered a body of an aspiring actor, Mark Alan Schwartz, on the pavement eight storeys below. The legendary actor starred in 'Misery' and 'Elf," in addition to hundreds of other roles. The elder Caan experienced addiction in the 1980s, which required him to take a step back from acting. There are some film stars for whom the frisson of fame and the exultation of acting are not enough. Feminist Writing. The generous support of our readers allows 4W to pay our all-female staff and over 50 writers across the globe for original articles and reporting you cant find anywhere else. Fox News' Lauryn Overhultz contributed to this report. He even popped up briefly in a 2005 episode of the E! James Caan had an acting career that spanned over 60 years in which he played various roles. He was 82. The then-81-year-old said, "I want to do a good piece of work. The Chicago in Thief is the Chicago of the Green Mill Lounge and Wise Fools Pub, of the alleys behind Wabash Avenue in the Loop, of the intersection of Ashland and Webster, of diners and finished basements and used car lots but its also almost surreal in its beauty, from the consistent use of neon to the sparkling, rain-soaked streets. As they traveled to the Vibrato Grill Jazz in Los Angeles for supper, the 79-year-old Godfather actor was spotted enjoying time with his youngest child, who is 21. But even an artistic success like "Thief" can't nourish an actor forever, and at a certain point in the early 1980s, James Caan stepped away from the film business, seemingly for good. Sign up now to get updates and support our team of feminist writers. Although Caan had all the right Italian gestures as Sonny, he was the son of Jewish parents, Sophie (nee Falkenstein) and Arthur Caan, who were refugees from Nazi Germany. After undergoing serious back surgery in 2020, he was hospitalized for months and has only recently begun to walk again. On top of this, he walked off the set of The Holcroft Covenant (1985) and was replaced by Michael Caine. Behind the scenes, Caan and his character were not too far apart, as Ferrell once noted on a 2018 episode of "The Late Late Show with James Corden." Above all, as seen in the many tributes that have been published since his death, he was a generous artist and professional whose work continues to inspire. "I got a prescription to live at the Playboy Mansion," he joked to Esquire magazine in 2003. James was best known for playing Sonny Corleone in "The Godfather," which won him both Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor. "Then I felt there was this stigma to doing a TV series. Although he received professional help and was cured of the addiction, he was unemployable in Hollywood. In the film, based on Stephen Kings novel, Caan is an author taken captive by an obsessed fan who breaks his ankles to keep him from leaving. Even offscreen, his life was the stuff of legend: An athlete turned actor turned Little League coach turned actor again; a fixture at the Playboy mansion; a movie mobster who all too often was mistaken for the real thing; and an unlikely star on Twitter. And yes, there was a bruise, but nothing else. Despite the admitted slap, shove, and bruise, Caan claimed the picture was a total fabrication., In 1993, Caan was one of the first stars picked up in a major high-end prostitution bust, according to The Guardian. Short on cash, Caan was hired by Coppola for the leading role in the 1987 film Gardens of Stone. The movie, about life at Arlington National Cemetery, proved too grim for most audiences, but it renewed Caans acting career. Caan receive good reviews for the role he called the most physically demanding of his career as he had to stay in bed most of the time. The "Godfather" star continued to act in recent years, with IMDb listing an upcoming project of his, titled "Fast Charlie," as being in post-production ahead of a 2023 release. Instead of a passive, relatively one-sided character, he wanted to play someone able to walk around the casino and engage in small talk with its most eccentric customers. Caan was 82 years old when he died. At the center of the film is Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf, a human raised at the North Pole, and Caan as his long-lost father Walter. James was a core cast member on the show since the very beginning. Unfortunately, he passed [] I would kill. On being perceived as a macho he said, If macho means I wear the pants, then Im macho. The latter title chimed with Caan, who was once dubbed the Jewish cowboy because of his earlier participation in rodeos and his ownership of a stable of horses. But 12 years later, when oldest sister Jessica sees a woman in a raunchy reality show she thinks might be Ruthy, the Ramirez women go on a road trip to investigate. His mother's name was Sophie and his father was Arthur. A few years earlier, when he was still bankable, Caan had turned down three Oscar winners, M*A*S*H, Kramer vs Kramer (it was such middle-class, bourgeois baloney) and One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Offers may be subject to change without notice. In search ofsomething good to read? This month marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Michael Manns directorial debut, a gritty, Mamet-esque crime drama that perfectly captured the Chicago of the early 1980s and struck the ideal balance between elaborately choreographed safe-cracking sequences, moments of stunningly realistic violence and extended scenes dependent on great actors delivering pages of authentic yet stylized dialogue. Whether or not Caan gets his wish, he will be remembered as a shining star of American cinema. And with that, "Thief" was underway. Would you go down there and do two, three days for me?'". In 1995 he married actress/costume designer Linda Stokes who looks at least a decade younger than him and they divorced in 2016, after filing for divorce three times. Coppola had to fight the studio over everything, including the casting of Caan and newcomer Al Pacino as mob sons Sonny and Michael Corleone. After undergoing serious back surgery in 2020, he was hospitalized for months and has only recently begun to walk again. He has five children and four grandchildren, three from his eldest daughter Tara and one from his son Scott. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Once again in demand, Caan starred in For the Boys with Bette Midler in 1991 as part of a song-and-dance team entertaining U.S. soldiers during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. A brilliant director. Barbra Streisand said, He was so talented. Maria Shriver called him a legend. Please check your inbox (or spam folder) for a log in link. A football player at Michigan State University and a practical joker on production sets, Caan was a grinning, handsome performer with an athletes swagger and muscular build. Caan was born in the Bronx in 1940. I mean, I couldn't stand it. Published July 7, 2022 10:51 a.m. PDT. According to the death certificate obtained by TMZ, Caan died from a heart attack and coronary artery disease. Try refreshing the page!). He married and divorced four times. ", He's most known for his work in "The Godfather," "Thief," "Misery" and "Rollerball.". James Caan was a bona fide A-lister in the 1970s, but in the years following "The Godfather" he took a more eclectic route with his stardom, acting in films like Sam Peckinpah's ninjas-vs-spies mash-up "The Killer Elite" and the turn-of-the-century caper "Harry and Walter Go to New York." James Caan as Billy Rose, the gambling, philandering husband of Barbra Streisands Fanny Brice in Funny Lady (1975). While his roles in "Redemption" and "Acre Beyond the Rye" had only been announced and could be re-cast, "Fast Charlie" is in post-production and slated for a 2023 release. At the time of his death, James Caan was attached to a handful of films. James Caan died last Wednesday from an undisclosed cause (Image: Getty Images) In February 2020, he was pictured being wheelchaired around by his son Jacob. In March 1994, Caan was arrested in North Hollywood for brandishing a weapon (a gun) at rap artist Derek Lee (aka Doc Rapper) during an argument, but the charges were dropped the following August. Few of these films were blockbuster hits, certainly not on the level of "The Godfather," but it wasn't as if he was losing out on big roles in fact, more often than not he was turning them down. And yet, a recurring adjective used to describe Caan in articles is intimidating. In a 1994 appearance on Late Show, David Letterman mentioned that Caan gave him the finger from the wings and made several comments about fearing the actor, giving viewers the impression Caan was wild, unpredictable, and possibly dangerous. After Brians Song and The Godfather, he was one of Hollywoods busiest actors, appearing in Hide in Plain Sight (which he also directed), Funny Lady (opposite Barbra Streisand), The Killer Elite and Neil Simons Chapter Two, among others. ", JAMES CAAN, GODFATHER STAR, DEAD AT 82, FAMILY SAYS, 'Godfather' actor James Caan died on Wednesday, July 7. We may never be able to fully separate the truth from the legends, but we do know that at some point during the production of the film Caan became good friends with Colombo crime family lieutenant Andrew Russo. But then he has to get rid of all the s--- he got in B so he can go back to A, you see what Im saying? Return To The '80s With The 'Back To The Future' Musical. Although James approached the task at hand with a critical mentality, Las Vegas had a seismic impact on his career. Caan was well teamed with Genevive Bujold in Claude Lelouchs romance set in the US, Another Man, Another Chance (1977), and with Jane Fonda in the western Comes a Horseman (1978). Actor James Caan passed away on Wednesday, July 6, but fans did not learn the details until several weeks later. In the early 60s, Caan made his off-Broadway debut in Schnitzlers La Ronde and started to appear on television, mostly as juvenile delinquents, in series including Naked City, Route 66, The Untouchables and Dr Kildare. Ive done pictures where Id rather do time. James Caan and Gianni Russo in the fight scene from The Godfather, in which Russo claims he broke two ribs. As he said in Cigar Aficionado, "I love kids because they're not full of s***, you know?" Get the best of Fox News' entertainment coverage, right in your inbox. He was born in the Bronx, New York, and raised in Queens, where his father was a kosher butcher. He reportedly had back surgery last . Caan was divorced four times. Caan was spotted using a walker at a restaurant with friends in California last year after spending some time in a wheelchair as he recovered from back surgery in 2020 +73 View gallery A. By using our Services, you agree to our use of cookies. In 2007, he announced his departure from the show, stating that he was eager to make movies again. "If there's anything I can attribute my success to," Caan told Roger Ebert in 1988, "it's that I said 'no.'" The creators obliged, and Ed Deline's character was born. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Caan briefly lived at the Playboy Mansion and, in 2010, People reported that his son, Scott, spent much of his unconventional childhood inside the walls of the Playboy Mansion. James Caan told People, Id have Scott bring me girls.

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