John Cazale starred in five movies, three of which won the Best Picture Oscar
It is every actor’s dream to appear in a film that wins an Oscar for Best Picture, putting their names into cinema history books for all eternity. But forget one Best Picture win; how about three? This was the reality for the iconic 1970s American actor John Cazale, who entered the film industry in 1972 and tragically died in 1978, leaving behind a truly extraordinary filmography.
Born in Massachusetts in 1935, Cazale sought a career in film from an early age, studying drama at Oberlin College in Ohio before transferring to Boston University, where he studied under the American theatre actor and director Peter Kass. After graduating, the actor found a flourishing career on stage, appearing in several roles through the 1960s and early 1970s, including the Israel Horovitz play, Line.
His award-winning performance in the production would attract the attention of casting director Fred Roos, who gave the American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola a call, suggesting the actor for the role of Fredo Corleone in The Godfather. Becoming an international sensation, Coppola’s crime classic went on to gain three Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Leading Actor for Marlon Brando.
Impressing in Coppola’s film, Cazale was granted a role in the director’s Best-Picture-nominated follow-up film The Conversation two years later before he would return to the Godfather series with the sequel. Taking a more prominent role, Cazale helped the film reach enormous critical acclaim, appearing beside Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Robert Duvall in the Best-Picture winner.
Just one year later, he would leave the side of Coppola to collaborate with Sidney Lumet for the crime drama Dog Day Afternoon, a film which has since garnered love from across the board, particularly from the Academy, which handed the movie a Best Picture nomination.
Speaking about the actor, Lumet stated in the feature commentary for his 1975 film, “One of the things that I love about the casting of John Cazale was that he had a tremendous sadness about him. I don’t know where it came from; I don’t believe in invading the privacy of the actors that I work with, or getting into their heads. But, my God—it’s there—every shot of him. And not just in this movie, but in Godfather II also”.
Two years after the film’s release, and just one year before his final feature film, Cazale was diagnosed with lung cancer but refused his terminal condition from getting in the way of his career. Despite his state, Cazale continued to work with his romantic partner, Meryl Streep, collaborating with her as well as De Niro, Christopher Walken, and John Savage, in The Deer Hunter.
Though he completed the film, Cazale died shortly before its release with Streep by his side. As Al Pacino, a close friend of the actor, told the New York Times, “I’ve hardly ever seen a person [Streep] so devoted to someone who is falling away like John was. To see her in that act of love for this man was overwhelming”.
With five iconic films to his name, three Best Picture awards and an influential life on the silver screen, Cazale leaves a remarkable legacy.
