https://www.thewrap.com/james-caan-godfather-and-thief-actor-dies-at-82/
James Caan, best know for playing tough guy roles like Sonny Corleone in “The Godfather” and Frank in “Thief,” has died. Caan was 82.
The Oscar-nominated performer’s other memorable roles include “Misery,” “Brian’s Song” and “Elf”.
Honeymoon in Vegas is a classic
shareR.I.P.
shareI liked him in many movies.
He was in the best scene of Santa's Slay
https://youtu.be/FKrsAFWPnl4
Goddam... I hate when I come on this site and see a trending thread for some older actor. It's almost always bad news.
Who's old enough to remember the original Rollerball?
Loved the original Rollerball.
shareIkr, I saw him trending in mchat but didnt think anything of it , then went on twitter and saw his name trending and realised it must be bad news
shareI AM NOT OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER IT...BUT I AM SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW IT...GREAT FLICK.
shareRIP
Awesome actor..
Sopranos: Knowing that Iron Eyes Cody isn't an Indian is like knowing James Caan isn't Italian
Don Rickles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY0Ia8WdOxQ&t=100s
R.I.P.
RIP Caan. One of the greats!
I never saw Thief but now I'll have to!
RIP
shareDon't forget about Vegas.
shareCertain 70's blockbusters made stars of the "tough guy" in the movie or mini-series:
Nick Nolte (Rich Man Poor Man) -- Peter Strauss (the weaker brother) got a TV career.
Harrison Ford(Star Wars) -- Mark Hamill got the "cute boy man" movie roles, and faded to other acting jobs.
James Caan(The Godfather) -- SURPRISE! Two stars were born -- Al Pacino was tough enough(in a different way) and actor enough to become a young movie star, too. Still, "Sonny Corleone" is the tough guy in The Godfather , and is sorely missing in Godfather II (we had to settle for weak Fredo and business-like Tom Hagen backing Pacino.)
Pacino lasted longer in movies, I'm not sure if he has lasted longer in life.
But James Caan stayed a big, bankable star in the 70's and had a surprising number of box office hits and/or cult hits:
The Godfather AND TV movie tearjerker Brian's Song in 1972
Godfather Part II (he's only in it for a few minutes at the end, in a flashback, but the audience applauded when he first appeared on screen -- his macho had been MISSED)
Slither(weird, a lot of fun)
The Gambler (playing a college professor?!!)
Freebie and the Bean (totally un-PC, a BIG hit, hilarious car chases, Caan and Arkin are hilarious together and Alex "Moe Greene" Rocco does a short bit as a crazed SF DA.)
Rollerball(the original -- macho, macho, macho)
Funny Lady(singing and dancing with Babs)
The Killer Elite(for Peckinpah -- director and star were coked up but its a wild ride, and The Consigliere Robert Duvall was along for it.)
Harry and Walter Go to New York(Gould and Caan -- a "young Jewish star buddy team is born" -- but so were Caan and Arkin. Michael Caine and Kay Corleone(Diane Keaton) join them.
A Bridge Too Far(with 30 some other big stars...but Caan gets the most emotional episode.)
..and other seventies movies
Came the 80's, Caan opened strong with:
Hide In Plain Sight (Caan directed this suspenseful "based on a true story" piece about a divorced man whose wife disappears with their kids and a new Mafia dad into witness protection.)
Thief (Michael Mann introduces his color scheme and Tangerine Dream -- Caan kills as a pro on one last job...)
CONT
CONT
And then, slowly at first...but suddenly pretty quickly...Caan's star career collapsed. Drugs and bad work habits, they said. His dear sister died young of cancer an that put him way down emotionally.
There are other 80's movies for Caan(one for Godfather director Francis Coppola) but it took until 1990 and one ironic movie to bring him back:
Misery. As a crippled man trapped in a bed and tortured by a psychotic fan (Kathy Bates.)
Caan got the role only after every other known Hollywood male star turned it down (from big ones like Warren Beatty and Robert Redford to smaller fish like Richard Dreyfuss and William Hurt.) Misery won Kathy Bates an Oscar and brought Caan back ...at least for 'name" character star cameos.
Overall, a very good "survivors" career for Caan (up to and through "Elf") but ...look at those 70's and early 80's. For ahile there, Caan hung with the biggest and best of them.
RIP
Good review of his career. I had forgotten some of those gems.
shareYou forgot about his finest role of all-- Walter Hobbs in Elf!!
I kid, of course. Just the other month, I saw a very young Caan in Lady in a Cage, an oddball 1960s thriller in which the psychopathic Caan terrorizes Olivia de Havilland in a rather Brando-esque manner. Not his best role by a long shot, but a great prefiguration of his 1970s stardom.
RIP.
You forgot about his finest role of all-- Walter Hobbs in Elf!!
--
By sheer -- and somewhat scary -- irony, I just this past week showed The Godfather to some young relatives.
They were impressed by the movie and the entire cast, including Caan.
But one of them said, "I only know this guy from Elf."
I think now that he is gone, Caan may well be known mostly for The Godfather, Misery(his "comeback" and a fine horror role) and ..."Elf." And Elf plays every year at Christmas, so he'll be known by that forever.
---
I kid, of course.
--
Not necessarily, I'm telling you, these young people seemed to know him ONLY from "Elf."
---Just the other month, I saw a very young Caan in Lady in a Cage, an oddball 1960s thriller in which the psychopathic Caan terrorizes Olivia de Havilland in a rather Brando-esque manner. Not his best role by a long shot, but a great prefiguration of his 1970s stardom.
---
Caan...rather like Robert Redford(I'm serious), spent the 60's as a young actor not quite in the right movies(not "A" enough) and not quite with his best looks yet(both men had to age a bit into greater handsomeness) and then...a big hit made a star out of each of them. Butch Cassidy in 1969 for Redford; The Godfather in 1972 for Caan(with Brian's Song the same year as one of those "one-two punches" that REALLY brings stardom.)
Caan is quite the villain in "Lady in a Cage," and meets quite a grisly end for a 60's movie. "Lady in a Cage" was one of the nastily -named "hag movies" of the 60's, in which old stars like Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead and Olivia de Havilland took on horror and melodrama parts to keep their careers going.
Cary Grant retired at 62 in 1966, and one of the reasons he did so was that he was very upset to see his old co-stars(especially the females) in these nasty horror movies. "Lady in a Cage" particularly infuriated him because of the on-screen sadistic mistreatment of De Havilland.
Cary Grant retired at 62 in 1966, and one of the reasons he did so was that he was very upset to see his old co-stars(especially the females) in these nasty horror movies. "Lady in a Cage" particularly infuriated him because of the on-screen sadistic mistreatment of De Havilland.
--
It's so weird how controversial that movie was. It is pretty nasty, though even De Havilland's character is a pretty nasty number herself (possessive of her son, to the point where he wants to kill himself to escape her; quite snobby in regards to social class). The whole film is an interesting reflection of the socio-political turbulence of the 1960s, which makes that nastiness seem so vital. It reminds me a little of Don't Breathe from 2016 in that regard. Those would make an interesting double feature, though you'd probably need a bleach shower afterwards!