BLUE COLLAR HERO (REMEMBERING JAMES CAAN)

James Caan was one of those Hollywood actors you cannot help thinking should have been more appreciated.

Women loved his rugged good looks.

Men loved his earthy, blue collar screen persona.

In interviews, Caan was honest, likeable, naturally funny and self deprecating.

And while he certainly had his personal struggles, he was nevertheless a much better actor than he was often given credit for.

Instead of being taken for granted, he deserved accolades from his peers but they never really materialised.

Born in the Bronx in March 1940, his parents Sophie and Arthur Caan were Jewish immigrants from Germany. 

His dad was a butcher who raised the family in Sunnyside in the New York borough of Queens.

As a kid, when he was not boxing, he flogged meat on street corners with his dad.

During high school and university years, he first set his heart on becoming an American football player.

Caan lined out for Michigan State University where he was also a member of the Alpha Epsilon P fraternity.

He was a quarterback for the Spartans, playing for them for two seasons before transferring to Hoffstra University where his classmates included Francis Coppola and Lainie Kazan.

It was there where Jimmy, as his friends liked to call him, started to dabble in acting.

He secured a place at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater where he studied under the tutelage of the legendary Sanford Meisner.

"I just fell in love with acting," he told the New York Times in 2004.

"Of course, all my improvs ended in violence."

Upon graduation, he started to appear in off-Broadway productions before landing a role in James and William Goldman's Broadway play 'Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole' in 1961 which had Peter Fonda in the lead.

He continued to cut his teeth in theatre and also in bit parts in movies and on TV.

There were small screen appearances in episodes of TV shows like CBS's adventure drama 'Route 66,' as a Naxi soldier in ABC's Second World War series 'Combat!,' in ABC's series 'The FBI' and NBC's 'Get Smart'.

Caan's debut appearance in a movie was as a soldier with a radio in Billy Wilder's 1963 romcom 'Irma La Douce' which started Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon.

His first substantial film role was in Walter Grauman's 1964 thriller 'Lady In A Cage' with Olivia de Havilland in which he played one of three young hoodlums who terrorise her wealthy widow during a power cut.

The film was lambasted by critics who accused Caan of trying to mimic Marlon Brando.

Sam Peckinpah directed him in the 1965 movie 'The Glory Guys' - a Western about the Battle of the Little Big Horn with Tom Tyron and Harve Presnell.

Now firmly on the radar of Hollywood casting directors, he given the lead in Howard Hawks' 1965 stock car racing movie 'Red Line 7000,' starring alongside Laura Devon and Marianna Hill.

A favourite film of Quentin Tarantino's, Hawks would later claim it was a mistake to work with so many newcomers and James was not a huge fan of it despite it getting decent reviews.

Hawks, however, worked with him again - casting him as John Wayne's naive sidekick Mississippi in the critically acclaimed 1967 Western 'El Dorado' with Robert Mitchum, Charlene Hilton and Ed Asner.

In Curtis Harrington's 1967 psychological horror film 'Games,' Caan played a New York businessman qnd socialite married to Katharine Ross's character who encounter Simone Signoret's German and draw her into their manipulative games.

The film received lukewarm reviews.

Robert Altman directed him, James Caan and Michael Murphy in the 1967 astronaut drama 'Countdown' which the critics blasted and the directed later disowned after its ending was changed.

Altman was fired from the production after Warner Brothers studio executives balked at the overlapping dialogue which would become his signature style but was unusual for a studio film.

There was also a lead in William Graham's 1968 British war film 'Submarine X-1' and in William Hale's critically derided Western 'Journey to Shiloh' with Michael Sarazzin.

However it was a collaboration with his old Hoffstra University contemporary Francis Coppola that was to earn him some of the best notices of his career in the road movie 'The Rain People'.

James was cast as Killer, a college football star who sustained a brain injury who is picked up by Shirley Knight's pregnant married woman.

Also starring Robert Duvall who Caan had been living with at the time and Marya Zimmit, it is regarded as one of Coppola's best film and drew comparisons to 'Easy Rider' and 'Huckleberry Finn'.

Caan had a colourful private life and was married four times.

In 1961, he wed Dee Jay Mattis in the first of those marriages which lasted only five years.

The couple produced a daughter Tara who was born in 1964.

He married again in 1976 - this time taking a former girlfriend of Elvis Presley's, Sheila Marie Ryan as his bride.

Their marriage only lasted a year but they had a son, Scott who would go on to carve out his own career as an actor.

In 1990, James married Ingrid Hajek but was later forced to deny claims by the infamous Hollywood madam, Heidi Fleiss that they were involved in a relationship during his third marriage.

Ingrid and James divorced in 1994.

A year later, he married Linda Stokes with whom he had two sons, James Arthur and Jacob Nicholas Caan.

Linda and James were together for 18 years, with him divorcing her and citing irreconcilable differences.

He had a reputation in Hollywood for partying - even spending a year in the Playboy Mansion after one of his divorces.

In the 1990s, he also hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons when he was alleged to have been involved in a Mob plot to kidnap fellow actor Joe Pesci over an unpaid bill.

Caan would admit that his colourful private life often detracted from his career.

In a typically frank interview with the British newspaper The Independent in January 2021, Caan recalled meeting the Hollywood Foreign Press Association but being struck by the fact that they weren't really interested in the movie he was promoting.

"A bunch of these guys had trash magazines at their houses and all they'd want to know was what was I drinking? 

"Who was I screwing? Anything but the movie!" 

Jack Smight directed Caan, Carrie Snodgress, Ken Kercheval and Jack Albertson in the 1970 indie drama 'Rabbit, Run' which saw him cast as a former Pennsylvania high school basketball star who struggles to shine in adulthood and gets involved in a relationship with a prostitute while trapped in a loveless marriage. 

Based on a 1960 John Updike novel, the release of film, however, hit the buffers after Smight clashed with Warner Brothers executives over the final cut and it tested poorly with audiences.

Updike lobbied for scenes to be reshoot while Smight sought to have his credit removed and eventually it wound up on television, airing on NBC's 'Monday Night at the Movies' slot.

In 1971, Caan and Billy Dee Williams landed Emmy nominations for Outstanding Single Performance By An Actor in A Leading Role for playing the real life Chicago Bears halfback Brian Piccolo whose career was ended by terminal cancer in Buzz Kulik's acclaimed ABC TV movie 'Brian's Song'.

Fresh from the successbof 'Brian's Song', Caan earned his first and only Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor as Sonny Corleone, Marlon Brando's hot headed, womanising son in Francis Coppola's iconic gangster film 'The Godfather'.

Nominated in the category alongside co-stars Al Pacino and Robert Duvall, much to his chagrin they lost out to Joel Grey for his performance as the MC in Bob Fosse's 'Cabaret' while Brando would win and famously refuse to accept the Best Actor statuette.

Caan clashed with Coppola, though, over one substantial scene of his that was cut but was proud of the film.

Also nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance, he regretted never winning an Oscar.

"I really do wish I had an Academy Award," he lamented in the 2021 interview with the Independent.

"But listen, here's what you gotta know. Number One: anybody who gets cancer [in a movie] automatically wins the Academy Award that year.

"Number Two: I sound like I'm bitter and I am!"

That year Herbert Ross also directed him, Candice Bergen and Peter Boyle in the drama 'T.R. Baskin,' playing an d friend who arranges a rendezvous between a businessman and a prostitute but the film received mixed reviews. 

He scored a commercial and critical hit playing a car thief trying to get his hands on stolen money in Howard Zieff's 1973 caper movie 'Slither' with Sally Kellerman, Louise Lasser and Peter Boyle.

Caan later admitted he took on the role of Dick Kanipsia for the money but it was a gamble that paid off.

In Daniel Ponicsan's 'Cinderella Liberty,' he was a US Navy sailor who falls for Marsha Mason's prostitute and becomes a surrogate father to her 10 year old son.

Also starring Eli Wallach, Bruno Kirby and Dabney Coleman, the well received comedy earned Oscar and Golden Globe nominations and would be remembered fondly by Caan while he lamented other films he made after 'The Godfather'.

Caan picked up a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Drama for playing an English professor with an addiction to gambling in Karel Reisz's 'The Gambler'.

Written by James Toback, Reisz's hugely admired film with Paul Sorvino, Lauren Hutton and Burt Young was also one of his favourites.

He found himself also co-starring with Alan Arkin in Richard Rush's black comedy action film 'Freebie and the Bean' in a role originally offered to Al Pacino.

What was originally intended as a drama developed into an action comedy during pre-production improvisation sessions between the two actors who enjoyed each other's company but found themselves bemused by Rush's 'Tom and Jerry' directing style 

While most critics hated Rush's tale of two bickering detectives, it was a big box office success with Loretta Swit and Valerie Harper co-starring.

Quentin Tarantino would later champion the film, praising its daring mix of humour and violence while Stanley Kubrick also claimed it was the best movie of 1974.

There was a brief appearance too in one scene in Francis Coppola's respected Oscar winning sequel 'The Godfather Part II'.

In 1975, Caan joined Stefanie Powers, Sammy Davis Jr and Aldo Ray in Bernard Giraud's so-so Western 'Gone With The West' (also known as 'Little Moon and Jud McGraw') and picked up another Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for playing the husband and manager of Barbra Streisand's Fanny Brice in 'Funny Lady' - Herbert Ross's sequel to 'Funny Girl' with Omar Sharif and Roddy McDowall.

Critics hated the film which was a hot with audiences but Caan, while happy enough with his performance, would later claim there were too many cooks involved in the production.

That year saw him star in Norman Jewison's sci-fi movie 'Rollerball' with John Houseman, Maud Adams and Ralph Richardson.

A big hit, it drew some unenthusiastic reviews from critics but has grown in stature over the years.

Caan's next project in 1976 was Sam Peckinpah's intelligence thriller 'The Killer Elite' which co-starred Robert Duvall and Burt Young.

It again drew mixed reviews and performed below expectations at the box office, with James claiming he took the lead role because his agents felt he should work with Peckinpah.

And while Caan was unimpressed with the film, the Japanese director Shinji Aoyoma cited it as one of the greatest movies of all time, claiming no other film had taught him more about human dignity.

In Mark Rydell's period comedy 'Harry and Walter Go To New York,' he and Elliott Gould played struggling Vaudevillians who wind up in jail after his character is caught robbing audience members and end up befriending Michael Caine's businessman and hatching a plot to rob a bank.

However the film with Diane Keaton, Lesley Anne Warren, Burt Young and Charles Durning tanked with audiences and critics and Caan would later claim he was loathe to make it but did so because he was advised it would be a commercial success.

There was an appearance as himself in Mel Brooks' star studded hit comedy 'Silent Movie' with Brooks, Dom DeLuise, Bernadette Peters and Marty Feldman and other cameos from Paul Newman, Liza Minnelli, Anne Bancroft, Marcel Marceau and Burt Reynolds. 

The following year saw him join an all star cast that included Sean Connery, Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, Michael Caine, Liv Ullmann, Laurence Olivier, Dirk Bogarde, Anthony Hopkins, Ryan O'Neal, Maximilian Schell and Edward Fox in Richard Attenborough's epic Second World War tale 'A Bridge Too Far'.

Along with Anthony Hopkins, Caan was singled out for praise by critics for his performance as a US staff sergeant involved in Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands and while many felt the film was impressive in scale but too long, it performed well at the box office.

French director Claude Lelouch directed him and Genevieve Bujold in 'Another Man, Another Chance' which fused the Western with a romance about a woman who flees the Franco Prussian War to America and ends up crossing paths with a married veterinarian who also suffers a terrible tragedy.

1978 saw him star alongside Jane Fonda, Jason Robards and Richard Farnsworth in another Western, Alan J Pakuka's 'Comes A Horseman' in which he and Fonda played ranchers threatened by a land baron.

Most critics loved the film which performed decently at the box office.

In 1979 Steven Spielberg cast him as a fighting sailor in a cameo role in his box office dud '1941' which starred John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Nancy Allen, Treat Williams, Ned Beatty, Toshiro Mifune, Christopher Lee and Mickey Rourke.

He joined Marsha Mason, Joseph Bologna and Valerie Harper in the Robert Moore directed, Neil Simon romantic comedy 'Chapter Two' which fared decently at the box office despite mixed reviews.

Caan made his directorial debut in 1980 legal drama 'Hide In Plain Sight' which he started in alongside Jill Eikenberry, Josef Somner and Danny Aiello but it failed to connect with audiences or critics.

James earned some of the best reviews of his career for his performance as a jewel thief battling corrupt cops in Michael Mann's 1981 thriller 'Thief'.

With Tuesday Weld, Robert Prosky, Dennis Farina and Willie Nelson also on board, the film has become something of a cult classic.

In the same year, however, his younger sister Barbara died as a result of leukemia, triggering a battle with drug addiction.

"Barbara was like my best friend," he explained to the Independent.

"She was the only person I was afraid of in the world.

"When she died, passion became this whole thing with me.

"That's what I loved about my sister: she was just so passionate about whatever she did.

"I started doing cocaine which is like a death sentence. That lasted a while."

Caan had also become disaffected with the movies he was making - describing the making of the Golden Globe nominated Robert Mulligan directed 1982 romcom 'Kiss Me Goodbye' as one of the most unpleasant experiences he had ever had on a film set.

Co-starring Sally Field, Jeff Bridges and Claire Trevor, it was a minor hit but Can clashed with Mulligan, describing him as incompetent and denouncing the film as mediocre.

He also teamed up with Claude Lelouch again in another epic drama 'Les Uns et Les Autres' with Fanny Ardant, Geraldine Chaplin and Richard Bohringer which was an epic tale of four families - French, American, Russian and German set against the backdrop of the Second World War.

A huge hit in France, it was made in 1981 but premiered at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival where it won a technical prize.

Caan, however, had stepped away from making movies after 'Kiss Me Goodbye'.

In a bid to get clean, he dropped out of acting for five years - coaching children's baseball.

However it was Francis Coppola who coaxed him back onto the big screen in the military drama 'Gardens of Stone'.

"That was when I came back with hunger and thirst!" he acknowledged.

A drama about soldiers training for deployment in Vietnam, he joined a cast that consisted of Anjelica Huston, James Earl Jones, DB Sweeney and Dean Stockwell and while it neither stirred audiences or critics, Caan's return to film acting was welcomed.

He scored a minor hit with Mandy Patinkin and Terence Stamp in Graham Baker's 1988 sci-fi action film 'Alien Nation' which drew a cult following and spawned TV spin-offs and a comic book franchise.

Caan appeared as a Mafia hood Spud Spaldoni in Warren Beatty's visually impressive, enjoyable star studded 1990 blockbuster 'Dick Tracy' with the director in the lead role, Madonna, Glenne Headley, Charlie Korsmo, Al Pacino, Seymour Cassel, Mandy Patinkin, Charles Durning, William Forsythe, Catherine O'Hara, Kathy Bates, Paul Sorvino, Dick Van Dyke and Dustin Hoffman.

That year, Caan scored one of his biggest box office hits with Rob Reiner's taut screen adaptation of Stephen King's 'Misery'.

While his co-star Kathy Bates would capture a Best Actress Oscar and Golden Globe as his tormentor, Caan's excellent performance as the injured and imprisoned novelist Paul Sheldon was largely ignored during awards season.

His role had originally been offered to William Hurt, Robert Dr Niro, Al Pacino, Harrison Ford, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Kline, Michael Douglas, Gene Hackman, Richard Dreyfuss, Warren Beatty and Robert Redford.

However Caan, who also got to work with Lauren Bacall on the film, was attracted to the role because it was purely reactionary, although he later found the concept of him taking on the role funny.

"It was a private joke," he quipped.

"Let's get the most neurotic actor in Hollywood and put him in a bed for 15 weeks."

After an appearance as a character called Doctor Scurvy in a satirical comedy 'The Dark Backward' that bombed, Caan landed a lead alongside Bette Midler in Mark Rydell's 1991 comedy drama 'For the Boys' which earned her Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, in spite of mixed reviews and disappointing box office sales.

In Andrew Bergman's acclaimed hit 1992 indie comedy 'Honeymoon in Vegas,' he joined Nicolas Cage and Sarah Jessica Parker, playing an unscrupulous gambler.

There was a college football drama 'The Program,' directed in 1993 by David S Ward, in which he played a coach among a cast that included Omar Epps, Halle Berry, Kirsty Swanson and Craig Sheffer which was a minor hit.

He also played a villain in Steve Kloves' thriller 'Flesh and Bone' with Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid which drew decent reviews.

In Mitch Marcus' 1995 crime drama 'A Boy Called Hate,' Caan acted alongside his son Scott in a young lovers on the run take with Missy Crider and Elliot Gould which got a mixed response from critics and a low key theatrical release.

In 1996, Caan appeared in Wes Anderson's acclaimed and typically quirky debut picture 'Bottle Rocket' with Owen and Patrick Wilson, stepping into the role of a landscaper and criminal that was originally pitched to Bill Murray.

There was a rare small screen role in an episode of the NBC sitcom 'News Radio' in which he played himself.

He also played the corrupt mentor of Arnold Schwarzenegger's US Marshall in Chuck Russell's box office smash 'Eraser' - later taking the mick out of the Austrian born star's accent.

"Our first scene, he goes: 'Get in the am-boo-lance'," he mischievously recounted.

"I said: 'What the f**k's an am-boo-lance? Speak English, ya bastard, they're paying you a fortune!"

There was another villain's role as a drug lord in Ernest Dickerson's cop buddy comedy 'Bulletproof' with Adam Sandler and Damon Wayans which drew audiences despite awful reviews.

In 1999, Caan played an Irish American returning to the old country who learns the terrible truth about his dad in Paul Quinn's well received tearjerker 'This Is My Father' with Aidan Quinn, Moya Farrelly, Jacob Tierney, Colm Meaney, John Cusack, Brendan Gleason and Stephen Rea.

He was a Mob boss in the comedy 'Mickey Blue Eyes' with Hugh Grant, Jeanne Trippelorn, James Fox, Burt Young and 'The Sopranos' stars Aida Turturro, Vincent Pastore, John Ventimiglia and Tony Sirico.

Attracting mixed reviews, it struggled to make a profit.

There was, however, a blistering performance in James Gray's acclaimed 2000 indie political corruption drama 'The Yards' as a businessman, alongside Mark Whalberg, Joaquin Phoenix and Charlize Theron. 

That year also saw arguably one of his best performances as a money launderer's right hand man in Christopher McQuarrie's hugely admired indie thriller 'The Way of the Gun' with Ryan Philippe, Benicio del Toro, Juliette Lewis, Taye Diggs and Scott Wilson.

While not a massive hit, the film has deservedly acquired a cult status over the years.

In 2001, Caan took on the role of an Arizona Prison Warden in Stephen Gyllenhaal's 'Warden of Red Rock' who discovers one of his inmates was a former partner in crime.

Co-starring David Carradine, Rachel Ticotin and Brian Dennehy, the Showtime Western was well received.

Mikael Salomon also directed him in a Canadian TV movie 'A Glimpse of Hell' - a US Naval drama with Robert Sean Leonard about the cover-up of an explosion on the USS Iowa.

Broadcast on the FX channel in the US, it was critically lauded and ended up being one of its most watched TV movies for seven years.

There were lots of roles in direct to video and DVD dramas and thrillers like Paul Nicolas' 'Luckytown' with Kirsten Dundst, Jason Bloom's 'Viva Las Nowhere' with Daniel Stern, Ric Roman Waugh's 'In the Shadows' with Matthew Modine, Adam Rifkin's 'Night at the Golden Eagle' with Natasha Lyonne and Matt Dillon's 'City of Ghosts' which also starred Natascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgard and Gerard Depardieu.

There was another TV movie in 2002, with Caan starring as a Sheriff in William A Graham's thriller 'Blood Crime' for the USA Network but it took a bit of a critical hammering.

However that year also saw him work with the controversial Danish director Lars Von Trier on 'Dogville' in which he played a gangster at the end of the movie known as "The Big Man" in a film starring Nicole Kidman, Paul Bettany, David Spade, Lauren Bacall, Chloe Sevigny, Philip Baker Hall, Ben Gazzara, Patricia Clarkson, Jeremy Davies, Stellan Skarsgard and as the narrator, John Hurt.

Typically for a Von Trier film, the movie divided critics but Caan was amused by the Dane's eccentric approach to filmmaking, describing him as a f**king wacko".

Describing the shoot as bleak, especially for older members of the cast like Bacall and Gazzara, he recalled how Von Trier mounted a camera on his shoulder and run back and forth through a set dressed to look like a street in Colorado, insisting the cast stay in character.

His scene was inside a Cadillac which he was left sitting in for hours, smoking a cigarette.

"Nicole finally comes in with Von Trier, we play this long scene and then they go out and back up the street," he recalled.

"I'm sitting there waiting. I'm literally in there for three or four hours.. more and Nicole is exhausted.

"After a while I say to the [assistant director], 'Go tell Nicole if she needs me, I'm still in the damn car'.

"The guy runs off and tells her and she just starts laughing, hysterically.

"Next thing you know, Von Trier is calling me 'Laughing Boy'."

One of the best loved film roles was as a straight man biological father to Will Ferrell in Vince Vaughn's cult 2003 Christmas movie 'Elf' with Zooey Deschanel, Mary Steenburgen, Daniel Tay, Bob Newhart, Peter Dinklage and Ed Asner.

In a surprise career move, Caan took on his first regular lead role in a TV series 2003, playing Ed Decline, the head of security in a casino in NBC's comedy drama 'Las Vegas'.

A surprise ratings hit that was warmly received by most critics, the series with Nikki Cox and Josh Duhamel originally aired on a Monday before NBC scheduled it on a Friday primetime slot - a decision that irked Caan who believed the slot was a death sentence.

However it was also popular in Australia, France and Spain.

Caan remained a series regular throughout its five season run, with Tom Selleck joining the cast in the final season.

There would be another small screen appearances - guest starring as himself in Fox's animated comedies 'The Simpsons' in 2004 and 'Family Guy' in 2010 and in roles in shows like 'Hawaii-Five-O' on CBS, 'Magic City' on Starzand as a Jalepeno in the 'Annoying Orange' web series.

He continued to work in movies, playing the President of the United States in Peter Segal's 2006 big screen version of the espionage comedy 'Get Smart' with Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Alan Arkin and Terence Stamp which was a big hit despite underwhelming reviews.

In Brett Rayner's contribution to the multi director anthology film 'New York I Love You,' he joined Anton Yelchin, Blake Lively and Olivia Thirlby in a tale about a pharmacist whose daughter is going to the prom.

There was a role in 'Mercy,' a 2008 Patrick Hoelk indie drama penned by and starring Caan's son Scott and also starring Erika Christensen, Dylan McDermott and Troy Garrity which attracted little attention.

Much more successful was his performance as a father unable to express his feelings in Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's hugely successful 2009 Sony Pictures Animation 'Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs' with Bill Hader, Anna Farris, Andy Samberg, Mr T, Neil Patrick Harris, Lauren Graham, Will Forte, Benjamin Bratt and Al Roker.

He signed up for the sequel 'Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2' which was also a hit, even if the critical reception was more lukewarm.

Caan voiced The Bamboo Cutter in the English language version of Isao Takahaya's 2013 Studio Ghibli Japanese animated film 'The Tale of Princess Kaguya' with Chloe Grace Moretz, Mary Syeenburgen, George Segal, James Marsden,Lucy Liu, Beau Bridges and Oliver Platt also among the voice cast.

In 2013, James took on the role of a former baseball manager in the family sitcom 'Back in the Game' on ABC but despite decent reviews, it was not renewed.

He joined Francesca Eastwood and Paloma Kiawatowski in Anthony DiBlasi's 2015 TV movie 'Wuthering High School' on Lifetime but this contemporary Californian take on Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights' underwhelmed audiences and critics.

In 2016, Robert Carner directed him, Jon Voight, Teri Polo and Melanie Griffith in the well received Hallmark Western 'JL Ranch' and appeared four years later as the rival of Voight's sheriff in the sequel 'JL Ranch: The Wedding Gift'.

Other films in this period included a Brian A Miller crime action thriller 'The Outsider' with Craig Fairbrass, Damian Lee's boxing drama 'A Fighting Man,'  Jacob Tierney's Canadian comedy 'Preggoland,' Frank D'Angelo's horror flick 'Sicilian Vampire and hid Canadian American crime drama 'The Red Maple Leaf' and Erik Canuel's comedy 'Undercover Grandpa'.

Away from acting, Caan, who described his politics as conservative, publicly backed Donald Trump's successful bid for the US Presidency in 2016.

An avid viewer of Fox News, he also befriended the disgraced businessman Barry Minkow and was linked to a biopic.

He socialised with Andrew Russo, a boss of the Colombo crime family in New York who he asked to be his son Scott's godfather.

A martial arts enthusiast, he was a Master (6 Dan) in Gosoku-ryu Karate and trained alongside the Japanese-American Master Takayuki Kabota.

In his spare time, Caan also liked in his younger days to steer rope in rodeos, quipping that he was "the only Jewish cowboy from New York on the professional rodeo cowboy circuit".

During the COVID pandemic, he developed something of a cult following on Twitter for his tendency to treat the platform like Instagram with images from his career and brief captions.

After an appearance in Carol Morley's quirky 2018 crime drama 'Out of the Blue' with Patricia Clarkson, Toby Jones, Mamie Gummer and Jacki Weaver, he took on one last film role.

In Michael Lembeck's 2021 romcom 'Queen Bees,' Caan played an elderly man who falls for Ellen Burstyn's fellow resident in a retirement community in a low key release that co-starred Ann Margaret, Jane Curtin and Christopher Lloyd which earned mixed reviews.

One of Caan's most notable acts in the final weeks of his life was a brief but heartfelt tweet expressing his shock at the death of Ray Liotta.

Caan received equally warm tributes from Al Pacino, Rob Reiner, Adam Sandler, Barbra Streisand and Francis Coppola on his passing.

And while there is a nagging feeling that Hollywood missed a trick in failing to honour an actor of his talent and charisma during his lifetime even with a lifetime achievement Oscar, there is no doubt his electric performances will continue to blaze onscreen for years to come.

(James Caan passed away at the age of 82 on July 6, 2022)