James Caan, an onscreen tough guy and movie artist, has died at 82

 James Caan, an onscreen tough guy and movie artist, has died at 82

James Edmund Caan was an athletic youngster from the Bronx, the son of German-Jewish immigrants who grew up to portray tough movie guys: sailors, football players, gangsters and was one of the most famous cinema performers of his day.

He died on July 6, according to a statement on his official Twitter account. No more information were provided.

Best renowned for his explosive portrayal as Sonny Corleone in The Godfather and as a dying professional football player in the made-for-TV-movie Brian's Song (which won him Oscar and Emmy nominations, respectively), Caan offered an easily watchable machismo to scores of films and series. In Misery, he was a renowned novelist kept hostage by Kathy Bates. In Gardens of Stone, he was a heartsick Vietnam vet unwillingly guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In Elf, he acted against type as a struggling children's book publisher who is also the main character's dad.

After beginning in theater and television, Caan exploded into Hollywood like a comet, acting in films by some of the most recognized auteurs of the age, including Howard Hawks (El Dorado), Robert Altman (Countdown) and Francis Ford Coppola (The Rain People) (The Rain People). His explosion of early success led to a time of turmoil, both personal and professional. Caan married and divorced multiple times, got into on-set conflicts and openly suffered with drug addiction and depression.

He rejected down multiple films that would prove to be significant for other performers, notably Kramer vs. Kramer, Apocalypse Now, M*A*S*H and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, selecting projects instead that were disasters.

"There are photos I produced that I still haven't seen," he told The New York Times in 1991. "I was sad while I was producing them. In the midst of several of these shots, I kept wondering, 'What am I doing here?' It's like you're in a corridor and you can't go out."

Misery helped turn things around. The former athlete spent most of the 1990 movie chained to a bed. Caan also anchored the movie emotionally. His actorly versatility was great; he acted in song-and-dance films such as Funny Lady and For The Boys but also in dark, serious pictures such as Dogville by Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier.

Caan worked consistently up to the end of his life, portraying grandparents, colonels and ultimately, himself, in animated cameos on Family Guy and The Simpsons.