John Cazale (kah-ZALE, kah-ZAHL-ay in Italian) August 12, 1935 – March 12, 1978), was an American actor in film and theatre, whose career included five widely acclaimed films including the first two Godfather movies. They were all nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture (the other three being Dog Day Afternoon, The Conversation and The Deer Hunter).
From his start as an acclaimed theater actor, he became one of Hollywood's premiere chara...
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John Cazale (kah-ZALE, kah-ZAHL-ay in Italian) August 12, 1935 – March 12, 1978), was an American actor in film and theatre, whose career included five widely acclaimed films including the first two Godfather movies. They were all nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture (the other three being Dog Day Afternoon, The Conversation and The Deer Hunter).
From his start as an acclaimed theater actor, he became one of Hollywood's premiere character actors, starting with Coppola's The Godfather, in which he played Fredo, the weak link in the Corleone crime family. "Cazale broke hearts on screen with portrayals of volatile, vulnerable, vacillating men, including Pacino's tragic bank-robbing partner in Dog Day Afternoon," writes David Germain, of the Associated Press. He is described as an actor "whose intense face is known to just about any serious cinema fan but whose name often escapes them." In his final film, The Deer Hunter, he chose to continue acting despite being diagnosed...
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