At the time, 27-year-old Heidi Fleiss was accused of being Hollywoods top madam. However, the ambitious TV series didn't appeal to him enormously. Caan may have been a great actor and his roles may be long-remembered. Let's put it that way. But when we chatted via Zoom on Monday . But the role also followed him around in a more unusual way: Caan, who was of Hungarian Jewish descent, was often mistaken for Italian, if not an actual wiseguy. Enter your email below to sign in or become a 4W member and join the conversation. Market data provided by Factset. Unfortunately, he passed [] In search ofsomething good to read? He was 82. Before he can escape he is cut down by a seemingly endless fusillade of machine-gun fire. After attending various schools, he entered two universities, Michigan State University, at which he was a football hero, and Hofstra University, Long Island, but failed to graduate from either. He married and divorced four times. 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." Caan explained that some jerk at MGM altered the movie. In the late 1990s and early 2000s Caan would act as a kind of good luck charm to other young directors, appearing in Christopher McQuarrie's debut "The Way of the Gun" and James Gray's sophomore effort "The Yards," both in 2000. He reportedly had back surgery last . Caan died from a heart attack in early July. Im very pleased and very honored by the fact the Actors Studio, the kids there have picked that scene to do quite a lot, said Caan. His official Twitter account confirmed the American actor's passing in a brief message posted to the social media platform on July 7. FILE - James Caan attends the 2016 Summer TCA "Hallmark Event" on July 27, 2016, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Caan, whose roles included "The Godfather," "Brians Song" and "Misery," died Wednesday, July 6, 2022, at age 82. Caan was four times divorced, had a cocaine addiction, used prostituted women, was accused of beating his ex-wife and ex-girlfriend and of involvement in multiple violent assaults on other men, he had mobster friends whom he defended, and once lived at the Playboy Mansion, and apparently terrified his co-stars on multiple sets. 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. I mean, I woke up and this whole thing had happened while I was asleep. This will never happen with my son. breaking through in the 1971 TV movie "Brian's Song," an emotional drama about Chicago Bears running back Brian . In 1981, Caans sister Barbara, to whom he was very close and who ran his production company, died of leukaemia, aged 38. I'm frustrated. Seldom unemployed, he traded happily on his 70s persona, particularly playing older and wiser versions of Sonny Corleone, either as mafia bosses, louche gamblers or businessmen with mafia connections in films such as Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Mickey Blue Eyes (1999), with Hugh Grants British art auctioneer getting mixed up with the mob, City of Ghosts (2002) and Dogville (2003). During his fallow period between 1982 and 1987, he spent his days coaching his son Scotts soccer and basketball teams, and his nights at the Playboy Mansion (There were tons of girls over there and, call me sick, call me crazy, but I liked em!) and taking cocaine. 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." Theres no isnt or wasnt with this guy. Like our work? After the death of his sister, Barbara in 1981 from leukemia, Caan fell into a deep depression that plagued him for most of his life. There was something really strange and enticing about the script for Thief, James Caan now recalls. ", "I will miss him dearly and am proud to have worked with him all these years. On July 6, 82-year-old American actor, James Caan, best known for his roles in The Godfather, Misery, and Elf, died from causes that have not yet been made public. So happy I got to know him. He was most known for playing the "tough guy" character, with notable examples in films like "Mickey Blue Eyes," where he starred alongsideHugh Grant, and "Honeymoon in Vegas," where he appeared oppositeSarah Jessica Parker. 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. Caan was asleep when this happened . The second nickname, Killer Caan, came from his skills as a teenage boxer. Fourth Wave. "When all is said and done, that's the most important thing. How rare. It was not a box office smash, grossing $31 million in todays dollars, but has become revered as a classic of the genre and a major influence on films from Manns own Heat (1995) to Nicolas Winding Refns 2011 classic Drive., Click here for behind-the-scene gems from the making of Thief and Caans great story about the aftermath of Brians Song.. 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 Buddys Will Ferrell in Elf., Adam Sandler, who acted with him in Bulletproof and Thats My Boy tweeted that he, Loved him very much. But when we chatted via Zoom on Monday, helooked strong and healthy, was brimming with good spirit and was hurling enough expletives to make Sonny Corleone blush. Los Angeles benefit at Paramount Studios on April 22, 2017 in Hollywood, California. First among those was "Thief," the 1981 debut feature of writer-director Michael Mann, who would go on to revolutionize the crime drama on television and film with "Miami Vice," "Manhunter," and "Heat," among many others. However, the many superb portrayals he gave in scores of films and TV episodes will. I had a couple of guys show me all the stuff, it was unbelievable, the stuff these guys could do, said Caan And I pulled it off and [made a convincing thief] and I was really proud of myself and so were my parents.. James Caan counted a lot of Hollywood celebrities as close friends, including Don Rickles and Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner. Las Vegas provided him with an exceptional opportunity to experience an aspect of film production he was more or less unacquainted with before. With all due respect to Sonny Corleone, "Thief" is arguably Caan's finest performance. Born March 26, 1939, in New York City, Caan was the son of a kosher meat wholesaler. 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. While studying at Hofstra, he became interested in acting and was soon taken on by the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York, where he studied under Sanford Meisner, whose technique was allied to the method. Is Scott Caan Still on Hawaii Five-0? Caan was also the first significant film star to admit to being friends with the Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss, although he said the relationship was platonic. Caan's injured arm brought back memories of his knee injury, back in the first season in 2010. Caan arranged to meet and pay the kidnappers, then arrived with Fiato and his crew with guns and baseball bats. He has the pedigree, too: his grandfather Bob was a left tackle and offensive captain on Packers teams that won five NFL championships from 1961-67. I spend most of my time upstairs in my bedroom, wearing out one spot on the bed where I sit when Im making phone calls. When he had not appeared in a film for four years, people in Hollywood were beginning to ask, What ever happened to ?. One of Caans fellow students was Robert Duvall, with whom he was to co-star in The Godfather, as well as in Robert Altmans moon-landing drama, Countdown (1967), Coppolas The Rain People (1969) and The Killer Elite. An acquaintance of Caan, Schwartz fell while attempting to reach the unit. James Caan, right, with Al Pacino, as brothers Sonny and Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972). 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. Misery helped put Caan's career back on track. Caan never admitted to hurting his co-star, claiming that he worked with a stunt double . Las Vegas had practically reignited the actor's career, and through it, James garnered an armada of new fans. As in The Gambler, in which he brings to life screenwriter James Toback's fantasy/projection of a lit professor who can show up to class after an overstimulated night at the craps tables and. The fun of it was taken away, he told an interviewer in 1981. Caan, for all his iconic roles, was also emblematic of the violent male misogynist that has plagued film since its inception. He earned one nickname, Shoulders, due to his broad physique. "I won Italian of the Year in New York twice," he told Vanity Fair in 2009, and was once even denied a country club membership on grounds that he was a mafioso. He was 82. As the actor described in a previous interview with Today, the creators were very open to his suggestions granting him plenty of opportunities to get involved in the creative process. We had a scene where he goes to Malibu [to be with his family] at the end, but Michael decided against it, said Caan. For Women. Frank is a hard-talking tough guy, pressed into one last job by a dangerous mobster (Robert Prosky), but Mann and Caan give him vast reserves of pain and trauma just under the surface. You can bull---t your way around it, but it is there, you know?" This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. "The Godfather" would sit at the top of nearly any actor's resume, and rightly so, but James Caan had other, less heralded favorites. Legal Statement. 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's character spends the film searching for his wife and children, who have entered the witness protection program after Jack testifies against the Mafia.