James Caan, the curly-haired tough guy known to movie fans as the hot Sonny Corleone in “The Godfather” and to TV audiences as the dying football player in the classic “Brian’s Song” and as the casino boss in “Las Vegas.” ” has died. He was 82 years old. His manager Matt DelPiano said he died Wednesday. No cause was given and Kaan’s family, who are asking for privacy, said no further details would be released at this time. Many of his colleagues tweeted their condolences on Thursday. Adam Sandler, who starred with him in the films ‘Bulletproof’ and ‘That’s My Boy’ wrote that ‘She loved him dearly. She always wanted to be like him. So glad I met him. I never stopped laughing when I was around this man. His films were the best of the best.” A football player at Michigan State University and a practical joker on production sets, Caan was a smiling, handsome performer with an athlete’s swagger and muscular build. He had a long career despite drug problems, temper tantrums and minor brushes with the law. Caan has been a favorite of Francis Ford Coppola since the 1960s, when Coppola cast him in the lead role in “Rain People.” He was up for a featured role in “The Godfather” as Sonny, the No. 1 law enforcer and oldest son of Mafia boss Vito Corleone. Sonny Corleone, a violent and reckless man who carried out many murders, met his end in one of the scariest movie scenes in history. On his way to another job, Corleone stops at a toll booth which he discovers is empty of customers. Before he can escape, he is destroyed by seemingly endless machine gun fire. For decades afterward, he once said, strangers would approach him on the street and jokingly warn him to stay off toll roads. Caan bonded with Brando, Robert Duvall and other cast members and kept everyone laughing during an otherwise tense production, sometimes dropping his pants and “mooning” a fellow actor or crew member. Despite Coppola’s fears that he had made a flop, the 1972 release was a huge critical and commercial success and brought supporting actor Oscar nominations for Caan, Duvall and Al Pacino. Caan was already a star on television, breaking out 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 and exciting TV movies in history, and Caan and his co-star Billy Dee Williams, who played Piccolo’s teammate and best friend Gale Sayers, were nominated for a Best Actor Emmy. After “Brian’s Song” and “The Godfather,” he was one of Hollywood’s busiest actors, 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. He also made a brief appearance in a flashback sequence in “The Godfather, Part II”. But from the early 1980s he began to explore films, although Michael Mann’s 1981 neo-noir heist film Thief, in which he played a professional firecracker looking for a way out, is among his most celebrated films. “The fun was taken out of him,” he said in a 1981 interview. director I don’t like.” He had begun to struggle with drug use and was devastated by the death from leukemia in 1981 of his sister, Barbara, who had until then been a guiding force in his career. For much of the 1980s he stayed out of movies, telling people he preferred to coach his son Scott’s Little League games. Cash-strapped, Caan was hired by Coppola for the lead role in the 1987 film “Gardens of Stone.” The film, about life at Arlington National Cemetery, proved too bleak for most audiences, but it revived Caan’s acting career. He returned to full stardom alongside Kathy Bates in “Misery” in 1990. In the film, based on Stephen King’s novel, Caan is a writer held captive by an obsessive fan who breaks his ankles to keep him from leaving. Bates won an Oscar for the role. Once again in demand, Caan starred in “For the Boys” with Bette Midler in 1991 as part of a song and dance group that entertained American soldiers during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. The following year he played an unusual version of Sonny Corleone in the comedy Honeymoon in Vegas, tricking Nicolas Cage into betting his girlfriend Sarah Jessica Parker into a high-stakes poker game so he could win her over. try to convince 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, stone-faced father of Buddy’s Will Ferrell in ‘Elf’. Caan didn’t play a leading role in a TV series until 2003, but his first effort, “Las Vegas,” was an instant hit. When the series debuted, he was a casino surveillance chief dealing with crooks and competitors at the fictional Montecito Resort and Casino. His character became the boss of Montecito, but remained the tough guy who had learned judo in a secret department of the US government. Caan left the show during the fourth season and it was later cancelled. 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 the Theater under Sanford Meisner. After a brief stage career, he moved to Hollywood. He made his film debut in a brief uncredited role in 1963 in Billy Wilder’s Irma La Douce, and then had a role as a 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.” Married and divorced four times, Caan had a daughter, Tara, and sons Scott, Alexander, James and Jacob.
It is with great sadness that we inform you of Jimmy’s passing on the evening of July 6th. The family appreciates the outpouring of love and sincere condolences and asks that you continue to respect their privacy at this difficult time. End of tweet — James Caan (@James_Caan) July 7, 2022
