Tom Sizemore, star of ‘Saving Private Ryan’, dies aged 61
Famed for his roles in Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down, actor Tom Sizemore has died at the age of 61, having suffered a brain aneurysm in February, his manager has confirmed. Sizemore passed away on Friday, March 3rd, 2023, accompanied by his brother and twin sons.
Sizemore enjoyed a storied career on screen, performing alongside acclaimed actors such as Tom Hanks in Steven Spielberg’s war epic Saving Private Ryan but also held a pivotal role in Michael Mann’s heist masterpiece Heat, where he performed with both Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.
“The Sizemore family has been comforted by the hundreds of messages of support,” manager Charles Lago said. The actor left behind two teenage sons who asked for their privacy to be respected at this traumatic time.
Paul Sizemore, the actor’s younger brother, said: “I am deeply saddened by the loss of my big brother Tom. He was larger than life. He has influenced my life more than anyone I know. He was talented, loving, giving and could keep you entertained endlessly with his wit and storytelling ability.”
While Sizemore was often seen as the ‘tough guy’ in most of his roles, he studied hard to achieve his status in Hollywood. Born to a working-class family in Detroit, the actor worked to gain a master’s degree in theatre before finally getting his first shot at the big screen in Oliver Stone’s 1989 movie, Born on the Fourth of July. From then on, the roles continued to come in for Sizemore. He picked up a star turn in Stone’s Natural Born Killers before working as Robert De Niro’s muscle in Heat. But his biggest break would come when cast alongside Tom Hanks in Spielberg’s Oscar-winning war epic.
However, it was at this time that Sizemore’s personal issues began to hamper his career and personal life. With his drug abuse spiralling out of control, it would take a life-changing moment to put him on the right path as his friend, De Niro, finally refused to listen anymore and demanded he goes to rehab. “I didn’t wanna go,” Sizemore told The Independent, “But I couldn’t say no to him”.
Sizemore described himself as an “anomaly”, given that he was from a “kind of violent” neighbourhood but that his father was a “Harvard man” from “a family of poor people”, he said in quotes to The Guardian. “Although my mother and father were both completely legit, it was all around me”, he said, “this crime and licentiousness.”
This attitude sadly followed Sizemore, and in 1997, he was arrested on suspicion of assaulting his wife Maeve Quinlan. The pair soon divorced, but Sizemore’s issues with violence continued. In 2003, he was given a six-month prison sentence after assaulting his girlfriend Heidi Fleiss, with a subsequent order to both go back to rehab and take anger management classes. He went back to jail in 2005 for violating his probation, using a fake penis to try and skew his drug test results. He was sentenced to another 16 months just a few years later for driving under the influence.
Sizemore’s story is a sad one. An actor who, by his own admission, had “risen to the top” complete with all the trappings soon had “absolutely nothing”.
“I’ve led an interesting life,” he wrote in his 2013 autobiography. “But I can’t tell you what I’d give to be the guy you didn’t know anything about.”
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.