James Caan, who played the fiery Sonny Corleone in 1972’s The Godfather and was the boss of a Las Vegas casino 30 years later, has died at the age of 82.
Posted 1:42pm Updated 3:01pm
Lindsey Bahr Associated Press
His manager, Matt DelPiano, said he died Wednesday without giving a cause.
A football player at Michigan State University – and also a tireless prankster on film sets – James Caan was a handsome actor with an athletic build. Despite drug addiction, temper tantrums, and minor run-ins with the law, he had a long and distinguished career.
He has been a favorite of Francis Ford Coppola since the 1960s, when the director cast him in the lead role in People in the Rain (1969), before playing Santino “Sonny” Corleone, the eldest son of band leader Vito Corleone Mafia.
PHOTO RICHARD SHOTWELL, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
James Can in 2016
The Godfather (1972) offered Oscar nominations for supporting actors James Caan, Robert Duvall and Al Pacino.
James Caan was already a television star, having appeared in the 1971 TV movie Brian’s Song, a moving sports drama about the return of Chicago Bears’ Brian Piccolo, who died of cancer the previous year at the age of 26.
After “Brian’s Song” and “The Godfather”, James Caan has become one of the most sought-after actors in Hollywood. Notably, he starred in Impossible Witness (Hide in Plain Sight, 1980), which he also directed, Funny Lady (1975) opposite Barbra Streisand, Sam Peckinpah’s Elite Killer (1975) with Robert Duvall and Chapter Two (1979). , based on a screenplay by Neil Simon.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY PARAMOUNT PICTURES
Al Pacino and James Caan in The Godfather.
But his star faded in the early 1980s: he had begun to struggle with drug use and he was devastated by the death in 1981 of his sister Barbara, who had by then been a beacon in his career.
In 1990, he returned to his own fame opposite Kathy Bates in Misery, an adaptation of a Stephen King novel.
In demand again, he starred alongside Bette Midler in 1991, most notably in For the Boys. He also introduced himself to a new generation by playing Walter, Will Ferrell’s petrified, workaholic father in Elf (2003).
Then, from 2003 to 2007, he starred in the television series Las Vegas in the role of Big Ed, a former CIA agent-turned-casino owner.
James Caan was married and divorced four times and had one daughter, Tara, and four sons: Scott, Alexander, James and Jacob.