American actor John Cazale - biography, filmography and interesting facts

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

From the very beginning of his career, American actor John Cazale has been considered one of the main stars of Hollywood, starting with his role as the doomed, weak-willed and not very smart Fredo Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather and its 1974 sequel. Casale decided to continue acting, despite the fact that he was given a terrible diagnosis - lung cancer. It was he who caused the death of John Cazale, and the most recent tape with his participation was the Oscar-winning military drama "The Deer Hunter". Theatrical producer Joseph Papp called Casale an amazingly intelligent, extraordinary person and a wonderful, dedicated artist.

Biography of John Holland Cazale

The future actor was born in Revere, Massachusetts. His mother, Cecilia Holland, was of Irish American descent, while his father, John Cazale Sr., was of Italian ancestry. AtCazale had an older sister Catherine (May 28, 1931 - February 2, 2000) and a younger brother Stephen (born 1937). He attended Buxton High School in Williamstown, Massachusetts where he joined the acting club. He studied acting at Oberlin College in Ohio, later transferring to Boston University where he studied with Peter Kass.

Theatrical period

After leaving school, Cazale worked as a taxi driver and later began a theatrical career at the Charles Playhouse, appearing in plays such as Hotel Paradiso and Our City in 1959. Critic Jean Pierre Frankenhuis, reviewing Cazale's performance as George Gibbs in "Our City", already noted his very powerful and expressive technique.

John Cazale moved to New York and worked as a photographer while constantly looking for acting jobs. But for a long time he suffered setbacks and could not break out on the big screen.

For a while, John Cazale worked at Standard Oil, where he met Al Pacino, a similarly driven actor. In 1966, they performed in Israel Horowitz's Indians Need a Bronx at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut. They were active in theater until 1968 and even won Obie awards. In the same year, Cazale won another similar award for his role as Dolan in Horowitz's The Line.

The beginning of a film career

In 1968, John Cazale showed off his acting prowess in his only television role, playingTom Andrews in The Peep Freak episode of N. Y. P. D.

In 1969, Cazale joined the Long Wharf Theater Company, where he played for the next three seasons in a number of productions such as Tartuffe, The People of the Country, The Skin of Our Teeth, and Icy sword.”

Cazale again played in "Line" in a 1971 production at the Theater of Lilies (now the Theater Lucille Lortel). His co-stars were Richard Dreyfuss as Stephen, Barnard Hughes (Arnall), John Randolph (Fleming) and Ann Wedgeworth as Molly. While working on this production, John was spotted by costume designer Fred Rose, who then suggested him to director Francis Ford Coppola for the role of Fredo Corleone in The Godfather (1972).

Appearing in "The Godfather" and great fame

"The Godfather" was John Cazale's big screen debut. Marlon Brando, who played Vito Corleone, was one of Casale's idols. The film broke all box office records and made John Cazale and several other previously unknown actors real stars. Coppola, impressed by our hero's abilities in a small role, specifically for him introduced a character named Stan in the script of his next film, The Conversation (1974), in which John starred with Gene Hackman. He reprized his role as Fredo Corleone, now greatly expanded, in 1974's The Godfather Part II. Bruce Frett, editor of Entertainment Weekly, wrote that Casale's performance lends a special charm to the emotional drama inmovie climax. John's colleague Dominic Chianze thought that what makes Casale so special is his ability to open up on screen even when he's in pain.

Further career

He starred again with Pacino in "Day of the Dog" and "Sidney Lumet" in 1975. For his portrayal of a character named Sal Casale, he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. Famed director Sidney Lumet, when discussing the films of John Cazale, said that his performance looks so believable because John had the same sadness in his soul as his on-screen characters. This helped him to get used to the role more strongly.

Having achieved success in the cinema, Casale did not forget about his native theater. In addition to his work with the Long Wharf Theatre, he has appeared in several plays by Israel Horowitz. In May 1975 he returned to the Charles Playhouse to support Pacino in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Ross Wetzston of The Village Voice, in his review of this play, called Casale the best actor in modern America. In 1976, ten years after their first collaboration, Casale and Pacino decided to form a joint theater company, The Local Stigmatic. In the summer of that year, Casale signed a contract with the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, playing with Sam Waterston in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.

John Cazale and Meryl Streep

The main and only love of the actor's life was Meryl Streep - at that time a recent graduate of the Yale Drama School. Inwhile working together in the cinema, Cazale and Streep suddenly began to approach each other, confessed their feelings to each other and, in the end, moved in together. Streep was next to the actor until his death in 1978 and continued to mourn her lover throughout her life. Later, she repeatedly stated that all her subsequent relationships were only needed in order to ease the pain of losing John.

Sickness and death

Cazale's last theatrical work was the production of "Agamemnon" on April 29, 1977 at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre. He only appeared in the first production of the play. After the performance, he fell ill and left the show. It was his only Broadway play. Soon after, he was diagnosed with lung cancer.

Despite his terminal diagnosis, Cazale continued to work with his fiancee Meryl Streep, as well as Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Savage in The Deer Hunter. According to author Andy Dugan, director Michael Cimino rescheduled the filming with the consent of Cazale and Streep so that all their scenes were filmed first. Casale managed to film all the scenes, but died before the film was finished.

Cazale found out about his illness in 1977. Despite the fact that he tried many procedures and medicines, the cancer metastasized to his bones. On March 12, 1978, John Cazale died. Meryl Streep was by his side all the time and saw how he was fading away. His close friend and colleague Al Pacino later said thatI have never seen a person as dedicated to acting as John Cazale.

Twelve years after his death, Cazale appeared in the third film of the Godfather series (1990) through archival footage editing. The final part of the legendary trilogy was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture. This nomination marked Cazale's unique achievement in the film world: every feature film in which he appeared was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.