On the evening of July 6, local time, famous actor James Caan died at his Los Angeles home at the age of 82. Over the past sixty years, Ken has left behind more than 100 roles in film and television dramas, of which the most well-known is naturally Sonny, the hot-tempered elder brother of the Corleone family in "The Godfather", and Shen Shen in the thriller "Ten Days of Dangerous Love". Big-name writers in danger.

James Caan attends the 50th Anniversary Celebration of "The Godfather" at the Paramount Theater on February 22, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. People's Vision

“The most popular Italian”
In February, James Caan also attended an event marking the 50th anniversary of The Godfather, reuniting with a group of old friends. After the news of his death came out, many Hollywood filmmakers who had worked with him expressed their remorse and regret.

"The Godfather" stills

"The Godfather" director Coppola was one of the first to post, writing: "His influence on my life has been more lasting and important than any other filmmaker I've ever known, from our early collaboration on Rain Clan. ”, and then to the milestone works in my life, the roles he played will be remembered forever. For me, he will always be an old friend and partner, and one of the people I know. One of the funniest."

The man of the Corleone family, and now only Al Pacino (second from the right) who plays Michael is alive.

Later, Al Pacino, who played Michael Corleone, also said: "He's my brother in The Godfather and a friend for life. It's hard to believe that he's not in this world anymore because he's always been It's all so dynamic. He's a great actor, a great director, and a dear, dear friend of mine. I'll miss you." Also, "Ten Days" director Rob Reiner and the novel The original author Stephen King and others also posted messages of condolences on social media.

The opposite scene with Al Pacino in The Godfather.

James Caan was born on March 26, 1940 in the Bronx, New York, the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany and a meat business in Queens. While studying at Hofstra University, a prestigious private school in the suburbs of New York, he met Coppola, who was one year older than him, and had worked together in the school's drama club. After leaving school, he joined a professional theatre school off-Broadway in New York to study acting. According to his later recollections, the reason why he wanted to act was because otherwise he would have to go home to take over the family business, and he really didn't want to deal with raw beef all day.
In 1963, Ken first appeared on the screen, playing a sailor in Billy Wilder's "Lady Emma", and he did not have many roles. As for the first opportunity to act as a starring role, it will have to wait until 1965 by Howard Hawks directed "Dragon Tiger".
At the age of 29, Coppola, an old classmate who has made a name for himself in the New York film industry, started a new film "Rain Clan", inviting Ken to be the male No. 1, playing a physically and mentally injured football player. The film went back to the two's alma mater, Hofstra University, for filming. Back then, young Ken's first choice in life was to play professional football. Unfortunately, his height (1.75 meters) and weight were not very top-notch. He was able to be favored by the school team, so he moved to the drama stage.
However, including "Rain Clan", plus "Rabbit Run" based on John Updike's novel of the same name starring him in the following year, all of them are too experimental or for other reasons, the box office Not ideal. "No one asked me to make movies after that, because they were all saying, this guy's movies don't make any money," Ken said many years later when he recalled those years.
In 1971, his old friend Coppola called him again and pulled him into the "Godfather" crew that was still under construction. After several rounds of auditions, Paramount executives admired Kean's performance and planned to cast him in the key role of Michael Corleone. However, Coppola, who is knowledgeable and responsible, recommended Al Pacino to play the role; and Ken himself believes that regardless of his physical condition and emotional explosiveness, he is more suitable to play the eldest son Sonny. Although he is not the protagonist, Ken still performed his best. Just to make the scene where Sonny was assassinated in the film, he carried 147 blood plasma bags all over his body, which was really not easy.

For the scene in which Sonny was assassinated, Ken carried 147 plasma packs all over his body.

At the 45th Academy Awards held in 1973, Ken and Pacino, and Robert Duvall, who played the adopted son of Corleone's family, were nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the same time, but they all lost. People were taken by Joel Gray in "Cabaret."
However, the role of Sonny, played by Ken, really won the love of the audience, and people who were not familiar with him regarded him as a genuine Italian descendant. "They even thought I was a gangster in my life, and I won the title of the most popular Italian of the year in New York twice, even though I was actually Jewish from the Bronx, not Italian at all. I think I'm embarrassed, but they won't let me go unless I accept the award," Ken recalled later with a smile in an interview.

Young James Caan

I missed the hit works many times, but fortunately I didn't miss "Ten Days of Dangerous Love"
With the great success of "The Godfather", Kean finally ushered in the peak of his career, and starred in the action film "The End of the World", the drama "The Gambler", the comedy "Double Police", the musical "Pretty Beauty" and other works. . In the two blockbuster action films released in 1975, "Crazy Roller Skating" and "Killer Elite", Ken showed his athletic side, as if he had become one of Hollywood's top action movie stars at the time. In life, he is indeed an amateur karate master, and has been practicing martial arts with Takayuki Kubota, the founder of Japan's "Gangsuliu" for decades.
However, Ken himself was actually quite disgusted by the overly similar roles, and even relentlessly replaced the agent who had worked with him for many years because the agency had taken too many commercial films for him. "If I listen to them all, I guess I can only play Sonny Corleone all the way to death in my life. Usually, it's only the script where seven or eight people die in the first half of the story. , they will recommend it to me."

"Distant Bridge" stills

In the next few years, whether it was the war film "Distant Bridge", the romance film "Ten Thousand Miles of Love" that went to Europe to perform, or the experimental western film "Prancing Horse Villa" starring in the United States after returning to the United States, Kean deliberately stayed away from it. The attempt of a traditional Hollywood commercial film, and the reason why he will act in the commercial film "Chapter 2 of Love" later is also to make money to prepare his directorial debut "Tian Lun Jie", but unfortunately this attempt to act and direct the best, the box office is not good. unsuccessful. As an actor, he also missed out on "French Drug Network", "Flying Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "The Kramers", "Apocalypse Now", "Blade Runner" and "Love" because of his critical vision or misjudgment. Story" and "Superman" and other hits opportunities.
In 1981, he played the role of a professional thief in Michael Mann's "The Thief Walks Alone", which was a rookie director at the time. The film produced a rare new school noir flavor. Although it did not cause much repercussions in the year of its release, in fact, photography, editing, The soundtrack is well stylized. After Michael Mann's "Pirates of Fire" became a hit, "The Thief" was rediscovered by fans and held as a classic Hollywood work in the 1980s.
However, throughout the 1980s, Kean was mired in career and life troughs: losing a loved one, getting into a car accident, having money stolen by an accountant, and even getting addicted to drugs. In the end, it was "Ten Days of Dangerous Love" that brought him back to the Hollywood front line. He plays the best-selling novelist Paul, who is trapped in bed after his legs are broken by a crazy nurse, played by Cathy Bates. Before him, the producer had contacted many well-known Hollywood actors such as Dustin Hoffman, Michael Douglas, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, etc. to play this role, But after reading the script, they mostly expressed little interest because the character spent most of the time in bed. However, in Ken's eyes, he felt that this was a very challenging performance, so he accepted it.

"Ten Days of Dangerous Love" stills

Since then, he has acted in various roles, but mostly as a tough guy, such as the black comedy "Honeymoon Las Vegas" and "Hate Boys" starring his son Scott Caan, director Wes Anderson's debut film "Bottle Rocket" in the gangster, Schwarzenegger's senior detective in the action film "Evaporation Order", and the underworld father of Hugh Grant's girlfriend in the romance film "Blue Eyed Mickey".

"Evaporation Order" stills

After entering the new millennium, the quality of Kean's films has declined significantly. The high standards of the year seem to have disappeared. Most of the screen images left behind are not very bright, only a few works such as "Dog Town" and "Christmas Elf" are left for people. Impressed. After all, he left the deepest imprint on film history, or the role of Sonny Corleone. According to his own recollection, for many years, when he was walking on the road or hanging out in a bar, someone would rush into him and apologize to him and say, "Don't be angry, Sonny!"

"Dog Town" stills

"Christmas Elf" stills