James Caan, a Hollywood leading man of the 1970s who memorably displayed his tough-guy screen presence as the trigger-happy Mafioso Sonny Corleone in The Godfather – but who also proved, beyond his macho exterior, a versatile performer of wry expressiveness and unexpected vulnerability – has died aged 82.
The son of a butcher who had fled Nazi Germany, Caan grew up in the 1940s and Fifties on the knockabout streets of New York’s outer boroughs. A wiry boy, he was dubbed “Killer Caan” for his use of his fists in self-defence, and he prided himself on never losing his street-wise edge or raspy Queens accent. He remained, he said, just a “punk from Sunnyside”, even as his enigmatic smile and aura of danger propelled a Hollywood career lasting six decades and spanning more than 130 credits.
