Random Thoughts
A successful acting career – Part 1
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November 17, 2017
In a previous article, we looked at the career of Teresa Wright, an underappreciated actress who was nominated for an Academy Award (or “Oscar”) for each of her first three film roles. That feat, which occurred in the early 1940s, has – so far – not been duplicated.
Another talented performer has a similar claim to fame that is likely never to be matched. This actor’s name is John Cazale.
Cazale was born in 1935 and, unfortunately, died at the relatively young age of 42 years in early 1978. He did lots of acting in plays, made one “short” movie, and did very limited work in television.
But his stature as an excellent character actor rests upon the five (and only five) feature-length movies in which he acted. All five received Academy Award nominations for “best picture!”
While Cazale was a wonderful actor, he nevertheless had to audition for all of the roles he played. He was, fortunately for him, aided in this endeavor by some of the other struggling artists he met while trying to get parts in movies.
Cazale’s most important aspiring actor friend early on in his career was Al Pacino. Pacino’s recommendation led to Cazale auditioning for a part in a movie Pacino was scheduled to make. The year was 1972 and the movie was “The Godfather.”
In that classic film, Cazale plays Fredo Corleone, the untalented brother of Pacino’s character, Michael Corleone.
The movie, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, received 11 Oscar nominations but only three wins: for best picture, actor (Marlon Brando), and adapted screenplay.
When Coppola decided to make “The Godfather: Part II” in 1974, Cazale again played Fredo. This film also received 11 Academy Award nominations but doubled its predecessor’s win total – taking home six Oscars.
These victories included: best picture, director (Coppola), adapted screenplay, and supporting actor (Robert De Niro).
Cazale made another movie with Pacino and one more directed by Coppola before filming another classic (the latter, while he was dying) as we will see in Part 2 of this article.
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