James Caan

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 ...

Once again in demand, Caan starred in “For the Boys” with Bette Midler in 1991 as part of a song-and-dance team entertaining U.S. soldiers during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. He had begun to struggle with drug use and was devastated by the 1981 leukemia death of his sister, Barbara, who until then had been a guiding force in his career. Born March 26, 1939, in New York City, Caan was the son of a kosher meat wholesaler. Caan didn’t take a starring role in a TV series until 2003 but his first effort, “Las Vegas,” was an immediate hit. He also made a brief appearance in a flashback sequence in “The Godfather, Part II.” Caan left the show during the fourth season and it was later canceled. 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, who had died of cancer the year before at age 26. For much of the 1980s he made no films, telling people he preferred to coach his son Scott’s Little League games. Despite Coppola’s fears he had made a flop, the 1972 release was an enormous critical and commercial success and brought supporting actor Oscar nominations for Caan, Duvall and Al Pacino. I just walked out of a picture at Paramount. I said you haven’t got enough money to make me go to work every day with a director I don’t like.” He managed a long career despite drug problems, outbursts of temper and minor brushes with the law. Al Pacino wrote in an emailed statement that, “Jimmy was my fictional brother and my lifelong friend.

Drama, comedy, suspense, action, kids' movies — there was truly nothing he couldn't do. Who else could star in both “The Godfather” and “Elf”?

Caan spent much of the ’80s in a self-imposed exile, burned out from his busy ’70s, battling addictions and caring for his children. Caan may have had visions of John Travolta’s “Pulp Fiction” comeback when he accepted a supporting role in the up-and-coming Wes Anderson’s debut feature, a cockeyed caper picture about a crew of incompetent criminals. Set in the then-distant future of 2018, it’s a prescient warning of the dangers of corporate overreach, overt violence and class warfare in sports entertainment — and society in general — and Caan conveys both the character’s fierce physicality and his intellect with ease. On paper, the character is reprehensible — but Caan invests him with a lovelorn sweetness that lends the picture, and its central conflict, some unexpected ripples. As with most of the actors associated with “The Godfather,” Caan was quickly elevated to leading roles in the wake of its astonishing success. Caan wears the heaviness of the character like a winter coat; he does what he has to do to get by, forever grasping for the last big score that always seems just out of reach. Caan’s breakthrough role came the following year in Francis Ford Coppola’s sensational adaptation of the best seller by Mario Puzo. The director — who had used Caan to great effect, in a much gentler role, in “The Rain People” (1969) — cast the actor as Sonny, the hot-tempered oldest brother in the Corleone clan. Caan and Williams’s easy rapport sells the relationship, and Caan is truly heartbreaking in the closing scenes, which prove a too-rare showcase for his tenderness and warmth. More than that, he had maintained an active presence on Twitter, frequently sharing images from his films and memories of his collaborators and always concluding his messages with the phrase “End of tweet.” Few actors understood that character like Caan, who plays the safecracker, jewel thief and ex-con Frank as a man who will break the law but not his moral code, and who so longs for the fruits of his labor that he carries around a collage of his imagined perfect, suburban life like a mobile vision board. But just the year before, he had starred in a film still remembered for its ability to make men cry. The best of that bunch may well have been this spiky tale of a privileged English professor who finds that his high-society pedigree and formidable intellect are no match for a spiraling gambling addiction.

Caan attended Michigan State for 2 years during the late 1950s, playing QB on the football team. However, he later transferred to Hofstra University to pursue ...

“The family appreciates the outpouring of love and heartfelt condolences and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time.” The family appreciates the outpouring of love and heartfelt condolences and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time. Caan attended Michigan State for 2 years during the late 1950s, playing QB on the football team.

James Caan, the veteran screen actor known for his work in such films as "The Godfather," "Misery" and "Elf," has died, his family said in a statement on ...

Coppola gave him one of his first roles, as a drifter in the 1969 drama "The Rain People." "Very sad to hear the news that James Caan has died. He played football at Michigan State and later began studying acting as a student at Hofstra University, where one of his classmates was "Godfather" director Francis Ford Coppola. I was just locked into that," he said of his performance. Caan first found fame playing Chicago Bears halfback Brian Piccolo in "Brian's Song," a widely seen 1971 TV movie. "The family appreciates the outpouring of love and heartfelt condolences and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time."

Following actor James Caan's death, celebrities including Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Adam Sandler and more paid tribute to the "Godfather" star.

"Wonderful to know him & call him a pal," Sinise wrote alongside a photo of the two. "He was always supportive of my career. A highlight of my career," he added. "James Caan always had the funniest stories," Jennifer Tilly tweeted. "Always wanted to be like him. "Jimmy was my fictional brother and my lifelong friend," said Pacino in a statement to The Associated Press. "It's hard to believe that he won't be in the world anymore because he was so alive and daring.

James Caan was a legendary actor and brilliant guy. But, his passing is also depressing because now, the world will be robbed of his brilliant dad tweets.

End of article. Caan’s engagingly dorky, dad-like Twitter feed was also a way of remembering and celebrating the countless acting legends that the actor worked with who are no longer with us. He will live on forever through his unforgettable performances and films, in his interviews and talk show appearances but also, weirdly enough, through his Twitter feed. The adorable thing about Caan’s Twitter game is that you do not, of course, have to officially end tweets. Reading Caan’s Twitter, it feels like one of his children introduced him to the concept of micro-blogging and he decided to become a prolific Tweeter despite seemingly not understanding the nature of social media. The genius of Caan’s Twitter feed lies in its artlessness, or rather its apparent obliviousness.

The details of a prank the Sonny Corleone star played on director Francis Ford Coppola were shared to Twitter by Jennifer Tilly.

"He was the quintessential tough guy, but also so kind and funny." It came from his time filming 1972's The Godfather and centered around Francis Ford Coppola and a sandwich. He will always be my old friend from Sunnyside, my collaborator and one of the funniest people I've ever known."

"Is this...the greatest movie ever made?????" the man tweeted, after being inspired to watch Francis Ford Coppola's epic film after James Caan passed away.

Taylor also raved about the dialogue and the depiction of Sicilians in America, however, there was trouble to come for Taylor and his viewing experience. Recently it had an entire Paramount+ series made in its honor, with The Offer dramatizing the making of The Godfather. Movies like Paddington 2 and The Godfather Part II came up. As many will have expected, his initial reaction to The Godfather was glowing. "Is this...the greatest movie ever made?????" Celebrities and admirers of Caan's work have been paying tribute to him online.

The late Hollywood legend James Caan, star of The Godfather, has had a superb movie career that extends well beyond his most famous role as Sonny Corleone.

Caan never winks or acts like he’s in a comedy; he’s bewildered and even a little afraid of Buddy and (reasonably) wants nothing to do with him, but once he realizes the truth that he’s his son, he takes him in anyway … and learns to love him, just like the rest of us. “Oh, he’s a fucking wacko!” Caan would later say of von Trier, recalling that his big scene in the car with Kidman required him “sitting in the back of this thing for hours. Lars von Trier’s poisonous diatribe on the hypocrisy of small-town American “values,” Dogville builds to its final revelation, which is that Nicole Kidman’s innocent victim Grace is, in fact, the daughter of a powerful mobster, identified in the credits only as “the Big Man.” When the character arrives, Caan plays him with a mixture of menace and parental tough love — not that he entirely enjoyed the experience of making the film. Of all the gangsters Caan would play after The Godfather, this one is the best. It was a good reminder of the soulfulness he could locate in even the most dishonest of individuals. In this James Gray drama, James Caan starred alongside Mark Wahlberg, who would remake one of Caan’s own films, The Gambler, more than a decade later. (His one Emmy nomination was for this film.) It is virtually guaranteed that an older male member of your family has cried watching Brian’s Song; the one-two punch of this and The Godfather made Caan a huge, huge star. Caan was in Texas for only two weeks to film Wes Anderson’s first movie, and Anderson would later wonder if Caan entirely understood what he was doing there with all those amateurs. (This was an ABC Movie of the Week.) But the power of Piccolo’s friendship with Hall of Famer Gale Sayers (played by Billy Dee Williams), along with the weepie script, won him over, and Brian’s Song was such a hit it was the highest-rated-ever TV movie at the time. What’s heartbreaking about Axel is that he’s smart enough to know better, but what The Gambler illustrates so convincingly is that “knowing better” means nothing to an addict, and Caan captures both the character’s confidence and despair, the roller coaster of emotions that feed him, even if self-destruction is the only possible outcome. Mann brought out a precision in Caan, who got a rare opportunity with Thief to enjoy a star vehicle, one that catered to his steely strengths. Anyone wanting to understand Caan’s appeal should start with Caan’s obvious highlight, 1972’s The Godfather, in which he plays Sonny, the volcanic eldest son in the Corleone family, whose graphic death is one of the most famous and harrowing in all of cinema.

Al Pacino, Francis Ford Coppola and Robert De Niro lead the tributes to the late Godfather actor.

"A great actor, a brilliant director and my dear friend," he added. "Jimmy was not just a great actor with total commitment and a venturesome spirit, but he had a vitality in the core of his being that drove everything from his art and friendship to athletics and very good times," he said in a statement. Filmmaker Michael Mann, who directed Caan in the 1981 heist thriller Thief, described his death as a "terrible and tragic loss". Joe Mantegna, who appeared in the third film in the Godfather series, paid his respects over Twitter. "One of the great gifts in being part of The Godfather family was becoming friends with James Caan. Rest In Peace Jimmy," he posted. Pacino, who starred as Michael Corleone, described him as a "great actor" and a "dear friend". Speaking of his "fictional brother and lifelong friend", Pacino said: "It's hard to believe that he won't be in the world any more because he was so alive and daring.

Everybody's got a favorite James Caan performance. You could fill a pool with the tears spilled over Brian's Song, especially when Brian Piccolo succumbs to ...

Hot off his success writing The Usual Suspects, Christopher McQuarrie wrote and directed this convoluted and ultra-violent but engrossing thriller The Way Of The Gun. Benicio del Toro and Ryan Phillippe play criminals who see a big payday in kidnapping a woman (Juliette Lewis) who’s carrying a baby for an older man (Scott Wilson) and his much younger trophy wife (Kristin Lehman). Hmmm, bad idea. The trio connect with Mr. Henry (Caan), a more established criminal who sees the humor in everything and uses a semi-legit gardening business, Lawn Wranglers, as a front for his operations. Caan breezes through most of the movie looking stylish and oozing charm (especially in his scenes with the effervescent Parker) … until a character shift that Caan can’t sell because it just feels so wrong. It’s more of the same in the sequel, though in the second go-round, Tim teams up to help his son—a transformation that Caan makes us believe for more reasons than the script says so. Mr. Henry is a hero to the boys, and Caan delivers the character’s humor, tough love, and affection in equal measure. Misery runs 107 minutes, and Caan spends most of it confined to a bed, as his character, bestselling author Paul Sheldon, contends with unhinged fan Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates). Bates won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance, and deservedly so, while Caan, who completes and complements her performance, didn’t even receive a Best Actor nomination. Every step of the way, Freebie and Bean are at each other’s throats (literally), wreaking havoc across San Fran in the process, as cars (lots of them) crash, guns are fired, and things go boom. Caan reunited with Francis Coppola for Gardens of Stone, a Vietnam War drama that as a whole ranks as a well-intentioned misfire. Caan was 25 years old when director Howard Hawks tapped him for a supporting role in El Dorado, a Western starring John Wayne and Robert Mitchum. His character, Alan Bourdillon Traherne, better known as Mississippi, is out for vengeance, a quest that catches the attention of Cole Thornton (Wayne) Sheriff Harrah (Mitchum). Thornton takes a liking to Mississippi, and they form a bond, though it’s not quite father-son. Oh, and the film is set deep in the future … 2018. His 137 acting credits date back to 1961, when he guest starred, credited as Jimmy Caan, on the TV shows Naked City and Route 66, and continued to the 2021 release Queen Bees (it includes a couple of upcoming films as well). In Caan’s honor, The A.V. Club takes a look back at 15 of his finest performances, listed in chronological order. He earned—and never lost—his tough-guy reputation as Sonny Corleone in The Godfather. You hated him, but still feared for his Paul Sheldon in Misery. And you just knew he’d come around in time to boost the Santa-meter in Elf. Caan could—and did—do it all in his long and varied career.

Benicio del Toro paid tribute to James Caan at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

“I hear he used the hotel as a model, which is pretty funny.” And yet, it could have all gone very differently, as casting director Bonnie Timmermann reportedly considered the young actor for the lead role in Dirty Dancing. “I didn’t audition but what I understand is that she suggested me,” he said. “I call him The Dream,” he said of his The Way of the Gun co-star, who died this week at age 82. I had the opportunity to spend time with him, to work with him, to be with him; we went to Cuba together. There’s a lot more chance for actors and I think at the same time Latin actors. America has evolved a little bit, become more politically correct over the last 50 or 60 years — a big leap, not only for Latinos but for many other minorities.”

James Caan, the actor best known for his roles in “The Godfather” and “Elf” died at the age of 82 on the evening of July 6.

I won Italian of the Year twice in New York, and I’m Jewish, not Italian.” He appeared in the 1962 romantic comedy “Irma La Douce” and earned roles in hit TV series at the time. The Film Curator at the Museum of the Moving Image, Eric Hynes, said that Caan lent “incomparable magnetism” in all his roles. There are a thousand kids outside; you know who to push and who not to push. “With his broad-shouldered athleticism and a granite-cut jaw, Caan brings a frank physicality to the screen, making even mild-mannered performances seem subtly threatening,” Hynes said. The actor has previously said that Sunnyside shaped him into the rough and rugged actor he was known to be in most of his roles.

Caan was best known for playing Sonny Corleone in “The Godfather.” But to me, he'll forever be the tragic footballer of “Brian's Song.”

“Brian’s Song” came at the start of a decade of magnificent filmmaking, but it was not a great movie. It was an argument in favor of caring, the case for giving a damn. Here’s a commercial for coffee at Christmas. Here’s a sappy old song on the radio. Caan went on to play Sonny Corleone in arguably the best of those 1970s masterpieces, “The Godfather.” His performance earned an Oscar nomination. It was a statement of intense feeling that neither hid nor apologized for its heart. “Brian’s Song” was a love story to the sound of crashing shoulder pads and trilling whistles, with a haunting theme song that soon filled the radio airwaves. It was a shocking statement to the wartime generation and its sons, boldly naming a feeling we craved despite its fearsome power. Even the Bible pauses for this two-word verse: “Jesus wept.” But there was a damming of the tear ducts among men who knew the love and loss of comrades from Ypres to Iwo Jima to Ia Drang. Sayers was Black. Piccolo was White. Their brief and glorious friendship suggested that healing might be possible, even as Piccolo’s death at 26 warned of its evanescence. The literature of past ages is full of tears of joy, of sorrow, of pride, of wonder. “I love Brian Piccolo,” Sayers declared — in life and in the movie. But we had no words for such a concept because we weren’t in touch with our feelings.

Caan, who died Wednesday at 82, according to a post from his family to his Twitter account, staked out rare ground in Hollywood as a Jew known for blockbuster ...

He also played Barbra Streisand’s love interest in “Funny Lady” (1975), a sequel to the Fanny Brice story in “Funny Girl.” One of his earliest roles, in the 1966 Howard Hawks classic western “El Dorado,” also gave him a longtime cowboy moniker. He played football for two years at Michigan State University, where he was a member of the Jewish Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.

Al Pacino and Robert De Niro paid tribute to their late "Godfather" franchise co-star James Caan, who died July 6 at age 82.

The family appreciates the outpouring of love and heartfelt condolences and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time,” the announcement said. It’s hard to believe that he won’t be in the world anymore because he was so alive and daring," said Pacino. Caan was a father to five children, including actor Scott Caan of “Hawaii Five-0.”

The Godfather” helped open up a range of roles for the actor that allowed him to play against type and expectation in wonderful ways.

As Caan’s reputation grew (he was a longtime favorite of this paper’s film critics) and a range of roles opened up to him, he played to and against type and expectation, becoming one of the defining faces of New Hollywood. By the time Caan made “The Godfather,” he had established his range in movies as different as Coppola’s directing debut, “The Rain People” (1969), and the 1971 made-for-TV movie “Brian’s Song,” a wildly popular melodrama in which he played the N.F.L. halfback Brian Piccolo, who died young of cancer. With his thick neck and trapezoidal torso, Caan looked like the athlete he plays, but little about the performance in “The Rain People” is obvious. It was Howard Hawks, one of the geniuses of the old studio system, who shortly thereafter set Caan on his way by casting him first in “Red Line 7000” (1965) and then, more important, in “El Dorado,” a western headlined by John Wayne and Robert Mitchum. “I was this little punk working with Wayne and Mitchum,” Caan said later, recalling how, during the shoot, he and Wayne almost got into it on set. And while the film doesn’t end happily — though maybe it does — it ends happily for any viewer who’s open to it, its deep humanity and to Caan’s transcendent performance. Given how aggressively male-dominated so many 1970s classics were, it’s worth remembering that Caan was good with women in more ways than were hinted at in “The Godfather.” It’s an action film with guns and violence, blowtorches and lots of tough guys, but because this is quintessential Michael Mann, it’s also a romance. Caan, who died on Wednesday at 82, has two supreme masterpieces in his filmography: “The Godfather” (1972) and Michael Mann’s “Thief” (1981). We can argue about the sweep of his career, but there’s no debating the greatness that he brought to it. Caan may not be the actor you first think of in relation to “The Godfather,” with its astonishment of legends, but the film is impossible to imagine without his volatile, kinetic performance. “Lady in a Cage” is ridiculous, but it helped set Caan’s career in motion. Following what was then a familiar career trajectory, he started in TV before moving into film, and was soon terrifying Olivia de Havilland in the schlocky 1964 thriller “Lady in a Cage.” Looking at the film now (don’t bother), their roles are almost comically emblematic of the era’s upheavals. I remember racing through the passage (“her legs were wrapped around his thighs”). It’s no wonder that when I saw Francis Ford Coppola’s film, I was more than ready for James Caan.

"The Godfather" star James Caan, who died this week, had infamous antics and "excess" — namely cocaine benders and feuds with John Wayne — were ...

And I’ll make sure I slap the f- -k out of you before I’m done,” he told the Guardian. “What can I say? I’m happy, I’m here, and I ain’t going back there.” However, Caan’s marriage to Hajek was possibly his most controversial, as he was accused of having an affair with madame Heidi Fleiss, who claimed she had a relationship with the actor in a 1994 Vanity Fair article. “There’s all this blowing and sucking at the beginning; and at the end, you always lose your house. “I apparently don’t know the difference.” “I haven’t got the patience for that, and who’d believe it anyway? Getting high and partying seemed like the best option,” he told the Guardian. The pair share a child, Caan’s only daughter, Tara Caan, who was born in 1964. A decade later, the actor married former Playboy cover girl and Elvis Presley’s ex-girlfriend Sheila Marie Ryan in January 1976. Number two: I sound like I’m bitter, and I am!” “I was on an extremely destructive kick. Who was I screwing?

He also starred in the TV drama “Brian's Song” and proved, beyond his tough-guy exterior, a versatile performer of wry expressiveness and unexpected ...

James Edmund Caan was an athletic kid from the Bronx, the son of German-Jewish immigrants who grew up to play tough movie guys: sailors, football players, ...

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James Caan, who portrayed Sonny Corleone in "The Godfather" and Paul Sheldon in "Misery," died Wednesday at 82.

Rob Reiner, who directed Caan in "Misery," wrote in a tweet Thursday that he was "so sorry to hear the news. RIP Jimmy," with a broken heart emoji. Caan previously worked with Coppola in 1969's "The Rain People." Williams tweeted Thursday: "Team Mates and friends until the end. Although known for that passion, Caan had a decidedly down-to-earth demeanor. Piccolo was close friends with NFL legend Gale Sayers, who was played by Billy Dee Williams. He navigated a long career despite drug problems and minor brushes with the law. "He's very fidgety. This release." They say never meet your heroes, but he proved that to be very very wrong." I loved working with him. He was always kind to me.

A Bronx native, he starred in countless movies and TV shows, but was most closely identified with the volatile character Sonny Corleone.

But he bounced back, starting in 1987 with the Vietnam War drama “Gardens of Stone,” another collaboration with Mr. Coppola, in which he played a tough sergeant. Among his roles were a love-struck sailor in “Cinderella Liberty” (1973), a self-destructive professor in “The Gambler” (1974), an anti-authority athlete in “Rollerball” (1975), a fierce World War II sergeant in “A Bridge Too Far” (1977) and a not-too-bright ex-con in “Thief” (1981), a favorite movie of his. Along the way, he checked into a rehab center for an addiction to cocaine that began after his sister, Barbara Licker, died of leukemia in 1981. The police questioned him at length in 1993 after a man fell to his death from the fire escape of a Los Angeles apartment where Mr. Caan was staying. He barely worked for the next six years and wound up deep in debt. “Everybody wants to do ‘Rocky 9’ and ‘Airport 96’ and ‘Jaws 7,’ ” he said in 1981. “I won ‘Italian of the Year’ twice in New York, and I’m not Italian.” But he did so only once, with “Hide in Plain Sight” (1980), in which he also acted, playing a man searching for his children after they and their mother are brought into the government’s witness-protection program. By the time “The Godfather” was released in 1972, Mr. Caan had established himself as a young actor worth keeping an eye on. He threw himself into the role so fully that for years, he said, strangers would say things to him like “Hey, don’t go through that tollbooth again.” “Brian’s Song” (1971), an early made-for-television movie, brought him to the attention of a wider audience. “I’ve been accused so many times,” he told Vanity Fair in 2004.

James Caan, who was Oscar-nominated for playing Sonny Corleone in 'The Godfather,' has died.

The young Caan first worked on the stage and made his Broadway debut in “Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole,” starring Peter Fonda, in 1961. In 2006 and 2007 Caan lent his voice to several “Godfather” videogames. Lars von Trier cast Caan in his avant-garde film “Dogville,” but he cast him as the gangster. The actor played another Mafioso in the Hugh Grant comedy “Mickey Blue Eyes” and must have been growing tired of such roles at this point. The series was a moderate success and ran through 2007. Caan next took a turn into sci-fi with a helping of social satire in “Alien Nation,” whose backstory involved the integration of aliens (the outer space kind) into human society. Both Bates and Caan were roundly commended for their performances in this terrifying thriller, and Bates won the best actress Oscar. He gave an interesting performance as the superintendent of an apartment building seeking the murderer of an occupant in the paranoid mystery “Jericho Mansions.” And the actor got to show a different side of himself in the Christmas comedy “Elf.” “The family appreciates the outpouring of love and heartfelt condolences and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time.” Caan presides over several festive scenes with a lunatic bonhomie that lights a welcome spark.” But in his directorial debut, James Caan never musters the energy or emotion needed to break the unbearably slow, dismal tone.” But we see him differently, as a lonely, unloved kid who is hiding out inside an adult body.”

James Caan has died. He scored an Oscar nom as mafioso Sonny Corleone in 'The Godfather' and an Emmy nom for playing Brian Piccolo in Brian's Song.'

“The family appreciates the outpouring of love and heartfelt condolences and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time.” “It’s for the best.” Among Caan’s most popular 21st century roles was in Elf, the 2003 Christmas movie starring Will Ferrell as Buddy, an orphan who is raised by elves at the North Pole and experiences culture shock — and romance — when he ventures to New York City to find his biological parents. “Trust me,” she says before doing the deed. Those roles sent Caan into Hollywood’s stratosphere, and he followed up with star turns in such films as Slither, Freebie and the Bean, Funny Lady, Rollerball, A Bridge Too Far, Chapter Two, Harry and Walter Go to New York, Comes a Horseman, Hide in Plain Sight, Misery, Honeymoon in Vegas, Mickey Blue Eyes, For the Boys Elf and many more. Edgy, in the best sense of the word. But he’s a guy with all the pluses and minuses you can have.” He toplined the 2003-08 NBC drama Las Vegas, playing a hard-driving ex-CIA agent who runs security at a glamorous casino resort. He earned an Emmy nom as the real-life cancer-stricken Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo in ABC’s Brian’s Song, alongside Billy Dee Williams as fellow Bears running back Gale Sayers. The heart-rending tale of the hard-forged friendship among the NFL’s first interracial roommates was the most-watched TV movie ever at that point, with a 32.9 rating/48 share and went on to win five Emmys including Outstanding Single Program – Drama or Comedy. In a 2011 interview with the Television Academy Foundation (watch it here), Emmy-winning Brian’s Song screenwriter William Blinn said: “Jimmy’s Jimmy. He always had a cockiness, a confidence. “Jimmy was one of the greatest,” his rep Matt DelPiano said today. His family confirmed the news on Caan’s Twitter page but gave no other details.

James Caan, the legendary actor who starred in films including "The Godfather," "Elf" and "Misery," died at age 82 on Wednesday evening, July 6.

Love to the family.” A highlight of my career. He even did a cameo in my tv special and got Robert Duvall to be in it. He was always supportive of my career. And the only Jew I knew who could calf rope with the best of them. “I was lucky enough to work with him & be friends,” the comedian added.