American actor James Caan, best known for his role as Sonny Corleone in director Francis Ford Coppola's legendary film The Godfather, died on Wednesday at the age of 82.
This was announced by his family via the news service Twitter.
Caan was born on March 26, 1940 in the Bronx in New York as the eldest son of a Jewish family originally from Germany.
In his youth he distinguished himself with his sporting talent.
He practiced karate, played football, and rode rodeos.
After high school in New York, he studied economics at Michigan State University, but quickly switched to the drama school "Neighborhood Playhouse" in New York.
He earned his living as a waiter, bouncer and worker in the meat market.
Caan had his first role in 1960 in an off-Broadway production of "La Ronde" based on Arthur Schnitzler.
In 1962 he starred on Broadway in Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper.
He had various television roles.
He made his cinema debut in 1962 as a sailor in Billy Wilder's Irma la Douce.
In 1968 he got his first expressive role in Francis Ford Coppola's The Rain People.
Caan played a brain-injured, mildly mentally challenged former athlete.
He starred in the TV drama Brian's Song as an acclaimed football player who is terminally ill with cancer.
James Caan's breakthrough role came in 1972, when he played the mob boss's (Marlon Brando) uncontrolled, unstable eldest son in Coppola's mob epic The Godfather.
Caan was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his role.
It continued with dangerous, failed characters.
In Karel Reisz' melodrama The Gambler (1974), Caan played a literature lecturer whose gambling addiction takes his life.
Caan made his directorial debut in 1980 with Hide in Plain Sight.
He himself played a father in the film who finds himself in a battle with the authorities in a year-long search for his children.
After a personal and career downturn, James Caan resurfaced in Coppola's 1987 war-critical film Gardens of Stone.
Three years later, Caan impressed in the role of best-selling author Paul Sheldon, who falls into the power of a tormenting, fanatical female fan (Kathy Bates) in the eponymous film adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel "Misery" (directed by Rob Reiner).
Appearances followed in Andrew Bergman's comedy Honeymoon in Vegas and alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in Chuck Russell's action thriller Eraser.
In 2003, James Caan played an important supporting role in Lars von Trier's Dogville, as well as in Jon Favreau's blockbuster Elf.
From 2003 to 2007, Caan played the head of security at a hotel on the NBC series "Las Vegas".
At an advanced age, he was able to convince in Amanda Sthers' tragic comedy "Holy Lands" in 2017, in which he played a New York doctor who wants to spend his retirement raising pigs in Israel.
That same year he starred in Eric Canuel's action comedy Undercover Grandpa.
In 2019 he finally shot the comedy "Never Too Late" with director Michael Lembeck.