James Caan, one of America’s great film actors, has passed away at the age of 82. His family used his popular Twitter account to announce the sad passing: “It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Jimmy on the evening of July 6.The family appreciates the outpouring of love and heartfelt condolences and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time.” They finished with Caan’s trademark social media sign-off, “End of Tweet.”
Caan is most likely remembered for his portrayal of the fiery Santino “Sonny” Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, for which he received an Oscar nomination. There is a generation of people who know him as the father of Will Ferrell’s human-elf character in the Christmas perennial hit film Elf. In fact, I would argue that the only reason that film continues to have success year after year is because of James Caan and Mary Steenburgen’s very authentic portrayals of parents.
And that was the key to James Caan: He could play a tough, a hot head, and add a layer of real heart that you believed. He could find a thing to love and make you respect his love for it.
Caan had well over 100 credits over a 60-year career in television and film. Some of the highlights include:
1966’s El Dorado
1972’s The Godfather
1975’s Funny Lady and Rollerball
1977’s A Bridge Too Far
1981’s Thief
1990’s Misery
1993’s The Program
1996’s Bottle Rocket
2003’s Elf
Caan had five children and once said, “I never saw my dad cry. My son saw me cry. My dad never told me he loved me, and consequently I told Scott I loved him every other minute. The point is, I'll make less mistakes than my dad, my sons hopefully will make less mistakes than me, and their sons will make less mistakes than their dads. And one of these days, maybe we'll raise a perfect Caan.”
Obviously, we all have our own favorite performances by Caan and our own memories, and many were shared online as news spread of his passing.
If you haven’t seen it. You gotta see it.
He was all over social media.
And he could do it with just his voice.