Overview (4)

Mini Bio (1)

Trade Mark (6)

Playing deadbeat, loser characters



Vibrant voice



Often played depressed characters



Subtle but emotional performances



Expressive eyes



Trivia (35)



Was in a relationship with Meryl Streep at the time of his death.



Was dying of cancer while filming Die durch die Hölle gehen (1978) and ultimately passed before the film actually premiered.

Cazale appeared in only five feature films in his career, and all of them were nominated for Best Picture.



Graduated from the drama school at Boston University.



His father, John Cazale, was of Italian descent. His mother, Cecilia (Holland), was of Irish ancestry.





Years after his death he appeared in a sixth feature film, Der Pate 3 (1990) in archive footage. That film, like all of the films Cazale appeared in, was nominated for Best Picture.



Was friends with Al Pacino when they both were working as messengers in New York in their 20's.



In spite of the desperate, violent characters he played in a handful of films, he was by all accounts an enormously kind and gentle person off screen, having been a close personal friend of most of the actors he had worked with. Among his greatest achievements was that he helped the discovery of childhood friend Al Pacino , fellow, actor Robert De Niro , and his girlfriend at the time of his early death, Meryl Streep

Has a theater named after him, the McGinn/Cazale Theatre, located at 2162 Broadway at 76th Street, NY, NY above the former Promenade Theatre (now closed) on the fourth floor. The theater sits from 99 to 108 people. The "McGinn" in the theater's title is for actor Walter McGinn.





Cited as a "Distinguished Performance" by the Off-Broadway Obie Awards for the 1967-1968 season for his performance in Israel Horovitz 's play "The Indian Wants the Bronx".



Close friend and frequent co-star, Al Pacino , referred to Cazale as his "acting partner", the guy he could've acted with his entire life.



Unlike most of the casting of the film, Cazale easily won his part as Fredo Corleone in Der Pate (1972) after being seen in the play 'Line' by producer of the film, Al Ruddy , who was invited to see the play by Cazale's co-star Richard Dreyfuss . He was an obvious choice to both Ruddy and Coppola for Fredo.



Friend Al Pacino requested him to audition for the role of Sal in Hundstage (1975). Director Sidney Lumet was, however, unsure, with Cazale not being anything like the real-life counterpart (the real Sal was eighteen, while Cazale was in his late thirties). Cazale immediately won over the part with the audition.



Ad-libbed his famous "Wyoming?" line in Hundstage (1975). Director Sidney Lumet laughed so hard that he feared he had ruined the take. It wasn't ruined, however, and was used in the final cut.

All of his films involved either Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, or Robert De Niro. Or, in the case of the Godfather Part II, all three.



Of the five films he appeared in, three also featured Robert Duvall, three starred Al Pacino, three were directed by Francis Ford Coppola, two starred Bobby DeNiro, and three won the Oscar for Best Picture.



Worked as a messenger, photographer, and taxi driver in his early days as a struggling actor.



His father was a wholesale coal salesman and his mother was a homemaker.



Was the middle kid of three children.



Was an avid fan of baseball.





He and Meryl Streep met during a "Shakespeare in the park" stint, acting in a production of "Measure for Measure".



Of the four actors who played Vito Corleone's children in the Godfather films, he was the only one not nominated for an Oscar for doing so. Al Pacino and James Caan were nominated for Best Supporting Actor for the first film. Al Pacino was nominated again, this time for Best Actor, for the second film, in which Talia Shire was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

Every feature film that he starred in would later be selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, a record no other actor in film history has and likely ever will match.



He is the only actor whose entire filmography of feature films were all nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.



Many actors such as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Steve Buscemi, Sam Rockwell, and Michael Fassbender have all named Cazale as a major influence.



He was of Irish and Italian descent.



Despite his acclaim and incredible track record, he only ever received one award nomination for his acting.

