John Cazale
John Cazale ( born August 12, 1935 in Boston, Massachusetts, † 12 March 1978 in New York City ) was an American actor. Cazale, who died of bone cancer at the age of 42 years, had earned a reputation as a leading character actor during his short film career. A wide audience was Cazale known by the presentation of Fredo Corleone in two Godfather films.
Life and work
The Italian -born Cazale began after studying acting in Boston his career as a stage actor and was by his performance in the play The Indian Wants the Bronx (1967 ) a celebrated Broadway star. In this production, he met Al Pacino know, who persuaded him to audition The Godfather (1972 ) Francis Ford Coppola's film. Pacino and Cazale remained close friends.
Director Coppola gave Cazale actually the role of Fredo - the schwächlichsten and unreliable son Godfather Don Corleone. Al Pacino took on the role of Fredos brother Michael Corleone. The Godfather was an international success and made Cazale and Pacino abruptly as a film actor known. Cazale assumed the role of Fredo, 1974 in The Godfather - Part II again.
Another role assumed Cazale in Coppola's The dialogue, which in 1974 won the award for Best Film at the Cannes Film Festival. 1976 Cazale engaged to his acting colleague Meryl Streep and was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in dog days. In addition to his film career Cazale played continuously theater.
At the age of forty years, the actor fell ill from bone cancer, but accepted a role in The Deer Hunter ( The Deer Hunter). His health forced the director Michael Cimino, turn off the scenes with him first. When the production company Universal learned of Cazales disease, they first planned to replace him. However, after protests from the crew they rejected this possibility. Meryl Streep, who also participated in The Deer Hunter, took care of him after that until his death.
Cazale was - even by the relatively short period in which he worked in movies - a legendary star of American cinema. His representations were almost unanimously praised by critics, a long career as one of the leading character actors of Hollywood seemed predestined. In the 1970s, he appeared in five films, all of which were classics and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture, it won The Godfather, The Godfather - Part II and The Deer Hunter the award. About him a documentary called I Knew It Was You was filmed. The film includes interviews with Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, Gene Hackman, Richard Dreyfuss, Francis Ford Coppola and Sidney Lumet.