Background and career
John Holland Cazale ( kə-ZAL; August 12, 1935 – March 13, 1978A) was an American actor. He appeared in five films over seven years. Cazale started as a theater actor in Boston, ranging from regional, to off-Broadway, to Broadway acting alongside Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, and Sam Waterston. Cazale soon became one of Hollywood's premier character actors, starting with his role as the doomed, weak-minded Fredo Corleone alongside longtime friend Pacino in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974). He also appeared in Coppola's The Conversation (1974) and Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon (1975), the latter of which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination. In 1977, Cazale was diagnosed with lung cancer, but chose to complete his role in The Deer Hunter (1978). Shortly after filming was completed, he died in New York City on March 13, 1978, aged 42. Archive footage of Cazale in the role of Fredo appears in The Godfather Part III (1990). Theatrical producer Joseph Papp called Cazale "an amazing intellect, an extraordinary person and a fine, dedicated artist". David Thomson writes, "It is the lives and works of people like John Cazale that make filmgoing worthwhile." A documentary tribute to Cazale, I Knew It Was You, was screened at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival featuring interviews with Pacino, Streep, Robert De Niro, Gene Hackman, Richard Dreyfuss, Francis Ford Coppola, Sidney Lumet, and Steve Buscemi. Cazale starred in five feature films in his career, with each film being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
John Holland Cazale was born in Revere, Massachusetts, to John Joseph Cazale and Cecilia Holland. He had an older sister, Catherine, and a younger brother, Stephen. He grew up in Winchester and attended high school at the Buxton School in Williamstown, where he joined the drama club. He studied drama at Oberlin College in Ohio, transferring to Boston University, where he studied under Peter Kass.
Upon graduation, Cazale worked as a cab driver, as he started his theatrical career at the Charles Playhouse in Boston, appearing in Hotel Paradiso and Our Town in 1959. Reviewing his performance as George Gibbs in Our Town, critic Jean Pierre Frankenhuis said: "[Cazale's] portrayal is absolutely stupendous, hilarious, touching, thrilling. We found ourselves wishing that there were more scenes with him, such is the enjoyable performance he gives: a comedian of the first order!". Cazale moved to New York City and supported himself as a photographer while looking for acting work. He made one of his first appearances there in the Equity Library's production of Sidney Howard's Paths of Glory. An off-Broadway production of Archibald MacLeish's J.B. by the Equity Library Theatre followed on March 17, 1962, at the Master Theater. He also acted in a 1962 short film titled The American Way, directed by Marvin Starkman. In 1965, Cazale was part of the National Tour of Lorraine Hansberry's The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window. He worked as a messenger at Standard Oil, where he met Al Pacino, another aspiring actor. Pacino recalled: "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." In 1966, the two were cast in a play by Israel Horovitz, The Indian Wants the Bronx, playing at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, Connecticut. They reprised their roles in 1968 at the off-Broadway Astor Place Theatre, for which they both won Obie Awards. That same year, Cazale won another Obie for his role as Dolan in Horovitz's Line. In 1968, Cazale appeared in his only television role, playing Tom Andrews in the episode "The Peep Freak" on the cop drama N.Y.P.D.. In 1969, Cazale joined the Long Wharf Theatre Company, where he appeared for the next three seasons in a number of productions, including Tartuffe, The Country People, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Iceman Cometh, and You Can't Take It With You. Cazale reprised his role in Line in a 1971 production at the Theatre De Lys. Appearing with him were Richard Dreyfuss as Stephen, Barnard Hughes as Arnall, John Randolph as Fleming, and Ann Wedgeworth as Molly. During this run, Cazale was spotted by casting director Fred Roos, who then suggested him to director Francis Ford Coppola for the role of Fredo Corleone in The Godfather (1972).
A character actor, Cazale holds the unique distinction of only appearing in feature films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. After appearing in a short film and an episode of the television series N.Y.P.D., Cazale made his feature film debut as Fredo Corleone in the Francis Ford Coppola-directed The Godfather (1972). Two years later, he reprised the role in The Godfather Part II. In 1974, he appeared in The Conversation, also directed by Coppola. In 1975, he starred as Salvatore Naturile opposite Pacino in the bank robbery film Dog Day Afternoon. His performance garnered him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
The Godfather was Cazale's feature-film debut. The film's star, Marlon Brando, was one of Cazale's idols. The film broke box-office records and made Cazale and several other previously unknown co-stars famous. Coppola, impressed with Cazale's abilities in the small role, wrote the part of Stan for him in his next film, The Conversation (1974), in which he co-starred with Gene Hackman. In 1974, he reprised his role as Fredo Corleone, now significantly expanded, in The Godfather Part II. Bruce Fretts, in Entertainment Weekly, wrote, "Cazale makes his character’s wounded pride hauntingly palpable".
He again starred alongside Pacino in Sidney Lumet's 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon. The film's screenwriter, Frank Pierson, said, "the film had been cast with many of the actors that Al Pacino had worked with in New York, including John Cazale, who was a close friend and collaborator in The Godfather". For his role as Sal, he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. Lumet declared:
