The Godfather, Misery, The Solitaire… the brilliant James Caan is dead

Comedian James Caan revealed in The Godfather died at the age of 82. He leaves behind him a great career and several unforgettable roles.

The family of actor James Caan announced on Twitter his death, which occurred on July 6. He was 82 years old and leaves behind him a long and beautiful career which he however began a little out of spite, after having vainly tried to break into sport. In the early 60s, he chained the punctual roles in TV series episodes at a rather impressive rate before taking his first horror film spotlight A Woman In A Cage and to return more triumphant to the small screen with Vegas in 2003.

The revelation

The actor then crossed several other registers and sub-genres of fiction: the western (Eldorado, Companions of Glory, The Cowboy Brigade), the motor racing film with Red line 7000science fiction with Objective moonthe thriller with The Devil at Three or the submarine movie with The X1 Submarine Suicide Raid. But it was when he met director Francis Ford Coppola on the set of the drama The Rain People that his career took a major turn.

The filmmaker then entrusted him with the mythical role of Sonny, one of the Corleone sons in The Godfather in 1972 alongside Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and Robert Duvall (whom he had already met for Objective moon and rain people). It is for this secondary role that he was nominated for the Oscars for the first and last time. The actor then established himself as a recurring name and face in New Hollywood.

James Caan: photography, MiseryMisery sums up the week well

He notably shot for Claude Lelouch in Another man, another chance and One and the otherbut also for Mel Brooks in The Last Madness of Mel BrooksSam Peckinpah in elite killer, Richard Attenborough in A bridge too far or even Michael Mann in The solitary. The actor also had a stint behind the camera as a director in 1980 with The impossible witnesswhere he also played the lead role.

James Caan had memorable roles in the sci-fi movie roller ballthe biopic funny lady with Barbra Streisand, without forgetting Misery, the adaptation of Stephen King’s novel in which he is kidnapped and mutilated by Kathy Bates. After The Yards by James Gray, The Eraser with Arnold Schwarzenegger or comedy Elf by Jon Favreau, the aging actor lent himself to the game of Robbery in New York or even of Blood Ties by Guillaume Canet. His latest released film is Queen Bees where he surrounded himself with Ellen Burstyn, Jane Curtin, Christopher Lloyd and Loretta Devine before reappearing post-mortem one last time in the film Gun Monkeys expected in 2023, alongside Morena Baccarin, Fredric Lehne and Pierce Brosnan.

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The Godfather, Misery, The Solitaire… the brilliant James Caan is dead