James Caan, the self-assured star who played Sonny Corleone in The Godfather and a rough-and-tumble athlete in Rollerball but had the self-assurance to showcase a sensitive side during his long career, has died. He was 82.
Caan died Wednesday night in Los Angeles, his rep Arnold Robinson told The Hollywood Reporter, confirming a post on the actor’s Twitter account. He nor the family would reveal a cause of death.
Caan will best be remembered for his explosive performance as Sonny in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972). Mesmerizing as the volatile and confrontational eldest son and heir apparent to his family’s criminal empire, he earned an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.
Caan almost didn’t get to play the part that would become his signature role. Paramount originally cast him as younger brother Michael and Carmine Caridi as Sonny. But Coppola, who had directed Caan in The Rain People (1969), insisted that only he could do justice to the character.
Once the studio agreed, the Bronx-born actor embraced the opportunity. “What f—ing transformation? Obviously, I grew up in the neighborhood. I didn’t have to work on an accent or anything,” he told Vanity Fair in a 2009 interview.
Caan admitted that the tone of a particular scene where Sonny confronted the family about its decision to get into the drug business was giving him trouble. The solution came to him out of the blue. “I was shaving to go to dinner or something, and for some reason I started thinking of Don Rickles,” he said. “I knew Rickles. Somebody was watching over me and gave me this thing: being Rickles, kind of say-anything, do-anything.”
Riffing off this newly found, insult-comic persona, Caan improvised a line during the scene that solidified the edgy gangster character. “What do you think this is, the army, where you shoot ’em a mile away?” Sonny yelled at his brother Michael (Al Pacino). “You gotta get up close, like this — and bada bing! You blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit.” (He appeared in a flashback scene in part two.)
Another performance that proved to be among his more popular came in Brian’s Song, a 1971 ABC Movie of the Week. Caan portrayed real-life Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer shortly after turning pro.
The story centered on the friendship between Piccolo and his teammate, future Pro Football Hall of Famer Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams). Despite vastly different temperaments and racial backgrounds, the pair formed a deep bond and became the first interracial roommates in NFL history.
Fueled by the stars’ sincere portrayals, Brian’s Song made it OK for tough guys to shed a tear over a football movie. Many critics consider it among the finest telefilms ever made, and both lead actors scored Emmy nominations.
