The actor who only appeared in ‘Best Picture’ nominees: “He was great in all of them”
When most actors look back upon their careers, they’re happy to see a handful of genuinely great movies in their filmographies. Being part of a film nominated for ‘Best Picture’ at the Academy Awards is one of the best indicators that you’re making quality work, so having a few of them under your belt is pretty good going. No one in the history of Hollywood can hold a candle to the record of the actor who only starred in ‘Best Picture’ nominees, though – five of them, to be exact. Sadly, though, his name isn’t nearly as well-known as it should be.
In truth, this star’s unique time in the movie business lasted a scant six years between 1972 and 1978. During that period, he was a part of The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather: Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Deer Hunter. All of these stone-cold classics were up for ‘Best Picture’ at their respective ceremonies, with the two Godfathers and The Deer Hunter taking home the trophies. He wasn’t personally nominated for his performances in any of the films, though, which led contemporaries and friends to lament how underappreciated he was in his time.
Al Pacino, who first met this understated performer when they were both aspiring theatre actors, starred alongside him in three of his five films. He once told The New York Times that his friend “was one of the great actors of our time. That time, any time. I learned so much from him.” The iconic Scarface star added, “He was inspiring. He just was. And he didn’t get credit for any of it…He was particularly great in Godfather II, and I don’t think he got that kind of recognition.”
Pacino wasn’t the only close connection this enigmatic star had to another icon of our time, though. In 1976, 27-year-old Meryl Streep was cast in a ‘Shakespeare in the Park’ production of Measure for Measure in Central Park. This is where she met Pacino’s pal John Cazale, a haunted, soulful-looking actor 14 years her senior who was already a legend among his peers in New York theatre. “He wasn’t like anybody I’d ever met,” Streep said of Cazale. “It was the specificity of him, and his sort of humanity and his curiosity about people, his compassion.”
By that point, Cazale had already made four of his five films and was well-known in the industry, but by no means was he a movie star. He always went back to his first love of theatre, though, and soon, he and Streep fell for each other. Before long, they lived together in Cazale’s Tribeca apartment, regularly eating at restaurants in Little Italy for free because the proprietors were so excited to have ‘Fredo Corleone’ in their establishments. Soon, the unusual couple became the envy of the theatre world, and it seemed like they had a bright future together – until it all came crashing down.
In May 1977, Cazale was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, more than likely a cruel result of his history of chain smoking. Streep was with him in the doctor’s office when he was told it was only a matter of time because the cancer had spread throughout his body. She tried her best to act like everything would be OK, and Pacino regularly took his friend to radiation treatments. After a while, he started to think more positively, and decided he wanted to go back to work.
In truth, getting Cazale cast in The Deer Hunter was no easy task. Director Michael Cimino discovered that no insurance company wanted to back a movie with a terminally ill star, and he soon found himself on the phone with irate producers. “I was told that unless I got rid of John, [they] would shut down the picture,” Cimino admitted. “It was awful. I spent hours on the phone, yelling and screaming and fighting.” Ultimately, star Robert De Niro supposedly footed the bill for the insurance costs himself, though he has always kept the truth of that arrangement close to his chest.
Fascinatingly, Streep accepted a role in The Deer Hunter that she hated, primarily to be with Cazale, and when she finished shooting the NBC miniseries Holocaust, she returned to New York to be by his side for the last five months of his life.
Cazale died on March 12th, 1978, with Streep at his bedside. He was 42 years old, and he left behind a short but incredibly meaningful body of work – and a record that will likely never be broken.
