"It is with great sadness that we inform you of Jimmy's passing on the evening of (Wednesday) July 6th," his family said in a tweet posted on Caan's account.

His manager, Matt DelPiano, confirmed the news to AFP.

Born in New York, in the Bronx district, in 1940, into a family of Jewish immigrants from Germany, James Caan had started his career with small roles in Hollywood in the 1960s, notably in "Irma La Douce " by Billy Wilder (1963), or "The People of the Rain", by Francis Ford Coppola (1969).

Three years later, the great American director will give him one of his most famous roles, in the first part of the trilogy "The Godfather", epic saga on the Italian-American mafia which marked the history of cinema and celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.

James Caan plays Sonny Corleone, the eldest son of "don" Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), and his brutal assassination in a hail of bullets at a toll booth has become one of the film's most defining moments.

The role earned him an Oscar nomination.

"Old friend"

"I still think if I had the change that day I could have gotten a lot richer," he joked years later, referring to his death at the toll while waiting for his change.

"If I had known that they were going to shoot + The Godfather 2 + (in which he had a small role for a flashback), I would have refused to die", he had quipped, judging that this film had was a "blessing" for him.

"Jimmy was someone who was part of my life longer and more closely than any other cinematic figure I have ever known," reacted Francis Ford Coppola, welcoming in a statement to AFP his "old friend and "one of the funniest people I've ever known".

As an echo of this role in "The Godfather", James Caan had been summoned for the first time as a witness in 1985 at a mafia trial in New York, because he had known one of the defendants, a member of the Colombo family. , in his childhood.

Then, he testified, still in New York, in 1992 in another trial, where he presented himself as the best friend of a reputable member of the Bonanno mafia family still in the dock.

Prolific

After "The Godfather", his career continued with roles in other films that remained classics, such as "Rollerball" (1975), named after this violent sport practiced in a futuristic society, or "Le Solitaire" ( 1981) by Michael Mann.

One of his other great roles is offered to him in "Misery" (1990), a grueling camera, adapted from the novel by Stephen King.

He masterfully embodies the writer Paul Sheldon, kidnapped in the mountains of Colorado by an evil fan played by Kathy Bates.

"His movies were the best of the best," New York actor and screenwriter Adam Sandler tweeted.

"I loved him very much. I always wanted to be like him. I'm so happy to have known him. I never stopped laughing when I was with this man," he added.

Prolific actor, who had acted in several dozen films over six decades, including "The Yards" by James Gray (2000), "City of Ghosts" by Matt Dillon (2002), or who had lent his voice in "Tempest of Meatballs giantess" (2009), James Caan had been married four times and had five children.

© 2022 AFP