James Caan

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James Caan, 1976

James Edmund "Jimmy" Caan (born March 26, 1940 in New York ) is an American actor . He was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Sonny Corleone in the classic film The Godfather .

life and career

James Caan was born in the Bronx to the butcher Arthur and his wife Sophie Caan (nee Falkenstein) . The parents were Jewish immigrants from Germany. Caan grew up in Sunnyside in the borough of Queens . He graduated from Michigan State University and Hofstra University . His siblings are Ronnie and Barbara, who died of leukemia in 1981 . Caan played football for several years , earned a black belt in karate and also took part in rodeos .

After winning an acting education, Caan studied with Wynn Handman. After several theater roles, he received roles in television series such as Die Unbrechlichen . He had his first serious role in a movie in 1964 in the thriller Lady in a Cage , in which he tortured the defenseless Olivia de Havilland as a sadistic teenager . In 1966 he played alongside John Wayne in El Dorado . In the following years he worked in numerous Hollywood films. He received his first award in 1969 for his role as a football player in love never a stranger from Francis Ford Coppola . For his portrayal of "Sonny Corleone" in The Godfather , he received an Oscar and a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor.

James Caan (2013)

From 1982 to 1987 Caan lived in seclusion. The main reasons for this were the death of his sister, his problems with cocaine and the fact that he felt burned out overall. It wasn't until 1987 that he returned to the screen for the role of "Sergeant Clell Hazard" in the film The Stone Garden by his friend Coppola. He then took on roles in Alien Nation - Spacecop LA 1991 and Misery . He starred alongside Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid in Flesh And Bone - A Bloody Legacy and alongside Nicolas Cage and Sarah Jessica Parker in ... but not with my bride - Honeymoon in Vegas . In addition to films like Eraser , Poodle Springs (in which he played Philip Marlowe ), Mickey Blue Eyes , The Yards, and Dogville , Caan also appeared regularly on television.

From 2003 to the fall of 2007, Caan starred in the Las Vegas television series as Ed Deline, casino manager . A worldwide success, the series was discontinued after the fifth season due to falling audience ratings and in the wake of the writers' strike with a cliffhanger . Caan had already dropped out of the series at her own request after the fourth season; Tom Selleck was then introduced as the new main character AJ Cooper.

In 2004 Caan had a guest appearance in the animated series The Simpsons (Season 16, Episode 2: The Secret Ingredient) and in 2010 in the YouTube series The Annoying Orange (episode: Annoying Orange : Jalapeño). He made a guest appearance in the episode "Fireworks" of the Hawaii Five-0 series , in which his son Scott Caan plays a leading role. In 2009 he starred in a supporting role in the movie Mercy as the father of his real son Scott, who also wrote the screenplay for the film.

German voice actors

Until 1972 Caan did not have a regular German speaker, but was spoken several times by Michael Chevalier and Claus Jurichs . During the first high phase of his career from 1972 to 1982, Klaus Kindler Caans was the main German speaker. However, in The Godfather (1972), the film that initiated this phase of his career, Caan was voiced in the original cinema dubbing by Thomas Stroux , in the TV dubbing by Manfred Lehmann and in the later DVD dubbing by Oliver Stritzel . In the second phase of his career since the late 1980s, Caan is mainly spoken by Joachim Kerzel and Michael Telloke alternately .

Private

James Caan married Sheila Ryan in 1976, with whom he has a son, Scott Caan , who is also an actor. The marriage ended in divorce the following year. From 1996 to 2009 he was married to Linda Stokes, with whom he has two sons.

He has a daughter with Dee Jay Mathis and another son with Ingrid Hayjek.

Filmography (selection)

Director

  • 1980: The Trial of Power (Hide in Plain Sight)

Awards and nominations

Individual evidence

  1. Betsy Model: The Ultimate Caan . Cigar aficionado. Archived from the original on December 6, 2006. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 13, 2006. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cigaraficionado.com
  2. ^ James Caan profile at filmreference.com
  3. Stated on Inside the Actors Studio , 2000
  4. Source for the entire paragraph about Caan's German voice actors: James Caan in the German dubbing index

Web links

Commons : James Caan  - collection of images, videos and audio files