The Godfather’s Sonny Corleone, played by the well-known American actor James Caan, died at the age of 82. Four Golden Globes, one Emmy, and the Oscar were among his nominations. Throughout the 1970s, he played a significant role in Hollywood. On Thursday, Caan’s family thanked the public for its outpouring of support and sincere sorrow. The well-known party animal from New York was married four times and leaves behind five children.
A fellow actor named Gary Sinise paid tribute to Caan on Twitter and called him a friend. The director Rob Reiner also said he enjoyed working with Caan. A comedian named Andy Richter claimed he had the good fortune to work with [Caan] after a lifetime of admiring his work and that working with him made him even more of a person. He busted the fallacy that says you shouldn’t ever meet your heroes. After being born to a butcher in the Bronx, Caan originally wanted to play American football for a living.
Following his enrollment at Hofstra University, he began acting. It was there that he first met Francis Ford Coppola, who would go on to direct him in The Godfather.
After a string of unmemorable TV and film parts, Caan finally scored his big break in 1965 with performances in Howard Hawks’ films Red Line 7000 and El Dorado.
He became well-known, nevertheless, thanks to the 1972 crime thriller epic The Godfather.
It is reported that the studio executives favored him for the role of Michael Corleone when he first went in for the audition.
Al Pacino was however cast in that role because Coppola insisted on it.
Caan was given around 140 exploding blood pellets to use in the death scene in which he played Michael’s older brother Sonny.
For this performance, he received his lone nomination for an Academy Award for best supporting actor.
During what he has described as “a fairly awful phase” brought on by drug use and the death of his sister in the early 1980s, Caan briefly disappeared from the public eye.
But he managed a comeback with enduring roles in movies like Elf and Misery.
In comic films like the 2009 cartoon film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, he would play characters that would temper his portrayal of a tough guy.
In addition to his employment in Hollywood, Caan spent close to three decades perfecting his karate techniques