You recognized his mug, but didn’t know his name. Seemingly a player in every relevant work during the motion picture golden age of the seventies, the character actor and his quirky ad-libbed ticks did not steal scenes from the background; rather the scenes had a way of wrapping themselves around him. This was the essence of John Cazale.
He was featured in five films, each nominated for an Academy Award. Three would emerge victorious. Graced with a soulful vulnerability that leaves a tear to the eye, Cazale simply did not know how to play a role. He needed to become the character. Iconic in his portrayal of Fredo Corleone in The Godfather I & II, along as the melancholic force in The Conversation, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Deer Hunter, the thespian retains an undying reverence amongst titanic contemporaries.
Al Pacino, with whom Cazale shared an early gig as messengers for Standard Oil, recalls “When I first saw John, I instantly thought he was so interesting...Everybody was always around him because he had a very congenial way of expressing himself.” Christened as one of the greatest actors that ever was by notables such as Robert Deniro, Gene Hackman, and former fiancée Meryl Streep, Cazale has largely influenced future generations of the craft, such as Steve Buscemi and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Succumbing to bone cancer in 1978, with Streep by his side, John Cazale leaves a tragically unrealized body of work and an appreciative grin on the face of his fans. It’s a surreal testament to a man when a contingency of celebrated cinematic royalty fawn in awe at the exploits of a stage actor who chased not stardom, but substance.
Monomaniacal in his approach and seamless on camera, John Cazale, the exalted anti star has since leaped from background player into a phenomenon.
Pacino once commented, “All I wanted to do was work with John for the rest of my life. He was my acting partner.” A sentiment echoed by all he touched, I break neutrality, as from this writers vantage, John Cazale was the greatest actor of his era.
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