I'm so spoiled by the fact that my parents are still around and active -- at 93 and 95 -- that it shocks me to hear of deaths at ages like this. In the grand scheme, I suppose 82 isn't "too young to die" range...but Caan always seemed so vigorous that this feels like it comes from nowhere. (His repeated co-star Robert Duvall is almost a decade older, and wouldn't have been nearly as much a surprise.)
As far as career, Caan was a good actor, with more range than is commonly known -- he had an engaging comic presence in Funny Lady and Elf, which are miles away from Sonny Corleone. And he was effective in things like Misery or Thief. But, if you really want to accurately describe his career, you'd say he was a solid, mostly journeyman actor who had the good fortune to appear in a blockbuster film and a ratings-hit TV movie at roughly the same time...which gave him a shot at being a movie star -- one that yielded some respectable credits (The Gambler and Thief, most notably), but a bunch of misfires, as well...and that he retreated, afterward, to the character actor career that had always been his best shot, and worked creditably in that vein for the remainder of his life.
R.I.P. James Caan
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Re: R.I.P. James Caan
It's not portending well for the major male stars of the 70s.
Caan was younger than contemporaries Nicholson, Hoffman, Redford and Beatty, and only a couple of weeks older than Pacino.
Caan was younger than contemporaries Nicholson, Hoffman, Redford and Beatty, and only a couple of weeks older than Pacino.
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R.I.P. James Caan
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