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James Caan, star of ‘The Godfather’, dies aged 82, manager confirms

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<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="US actor James Caan arrives for the 62nd Annual Directors Guild of America DGA Awards in Los Angeles, January 30, 2010. Paul Buck, EPA/file" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/entertainment/07/07/20220707-james-caan.jpg"/><figcaption>US actor James Caan arrives for the 62nd Annual Directors Guild of America DGA Awards in Los Angeles, January 30, 2010. Paul Buck, EPA/file</figcaption></figure></div>James Caan, the US actor best known for playing Sonny Corleone in &quot;The Godfather,&quot; has died aged 82, his manager said Thursday.Caan, who also had roles in &quot;Misery,&quot; &quot;Thief&quot; and &quot;Rollerball,&quot; received an Oscar nomination for his tragic portrayal of a mafia family&#x27;s eldest son in Francis Ford Coppola&#x27;s 1972 classic &quot;The Godfather.&quot;&quot;It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Jimmy on the evening of July 6,&quot; Caan&#x27;s family said in a tweet posted to his account.Caan&#x27;s manager confirmed the news to AFP.&quot;Jimmy was one of the greatest. Not only was he one of the best actors our business has ever seen, he was funny, loyal, caring and beloved,&quot; wrote Matt DelPiano.&quot;Our relationship was always friendship before business. I will miss him dearly and am proud to have worked with him all these years.&quot;<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/03/23/22/how-coppola-nearly-refused-godfather-offer-50-years-ago">How Francis Ford Coppola nearly refused &#x27;Godfather&#x27; offer 50 years ago</a></li></ul>Caan started working as an actor in 1960s Hollywood, with small roles in films by acclaimed directors including Billy Wilder (&quot;Irma La Douce&quot;), Howard Hawks (&quot;El Dorado&quot;) and Coppola (&quot;The Rain People.&quot;<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/11/26/19/from-godfather-to-irishman-mafia-is-gift-that-keeps-on-giving">From &#x27;Godfather&#x27; to &#x27;Irishman&#x27;, Mafia is gift that keeps on giving</a></li></ul>But his turn as hot-tempered Sonny Corleone, whose slaying in a hail of bullets at a toll booth became one of the defining scenes in &quot;The Godfather,&quot; established him as a major actor with an Academy nomination.He briefly reprised the role in a small cameo for &quot;The Godfather Part II.&quot;Later standout roles included a violent athlete in Norman Jewison&#x27;s &quot;Rollerball,&quot; a jewel thief in Michael Mann&#x27;s &quot;Thief&quot; (1981) and a kidnapped writer in Rob Reiner&#x27;s &quot;Misery&quot; (1990).&quot;So sorry to hear the news. I loved working with him,&quot; tweeted Reiner.Caan&#x27;s publicist also confirmed his passing, but declined to provide any further details including cause of death.His family signed off their tweet &quot;End of tweet,&quot; emulating Caan&#x27;s habit of doing so while he was alive.

Caan, best known for playing Sonny Corleone in ‘The Godfather,’ received an Oscar nomination for his tragic portrayal of a mafia family's eldest son.