`Funny, loyal, caring' actor dies at 82
James Caan, the curly-haired tough guy known to movie fans as the hotheaded Sonny Corleone of The Godfather and to television audiences as both the dying football player in the classic weeper Brian's Song and the casino boss in Las Vegas, has died. He was 82.
His manager Matt Delpiano said he died on Wednesday.
“Jimmy was one of the greatest. Not only was he one of the best actors our business has ever seen, he was funny, loyal, caring and beloved,” Delpiano said. “Our relationship was always friendship before business. I will miss him dearly and am proud to have worked with him all these years.”
A football player at Michigan State University and a practical joker on production sets, Caan was a grinning, handsome performer with an athlete's swagger and muscular build. He managed a long career despite drug problems, outbursts of temper and minor brushes with the law.
Caan had been a favourite of Francis Ford Coppola since the 1960s, when Coppola cast him for the lead in The Rain People. He was primed for a featured role in The Godfather as Sonny, the No. 1 enforcer and eldest son of Mafia boss Vito Corleone.
Sonny Corleone, a violent and reckless man who conducted many killings, met his own end in one of the most jarring movie scenes in history. For decades after, he once said, strangers would approach him on the street and jokingly warn him to stay clear of toll roads.
Caan was already a star on television, breaking through in the 1971 TV movie Brian's Song, an emotional drama about Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo.
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, 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.