The Godfather Started The Greatest 5-Movie Acting Streak In Cinema History:John Cazale’s acting debut in The Godfather started a hot streak in which he starred in five of the finest films. Cazale began acting in regional and off-Broadway companies in New York before joining Al Pacino and Meryl Streep on Broadway. Due to his selflessness and belief that “acting is reacting,” Cazale never received an Oscar nomination,
Presumably because he played off his co-stars and highlighted their abilities.In 1962, Cazale played a beatnik in Marvin Starkman’s short film The American Way, and in 1968, he guest-starred in N.Y.P.D. season 2, episode 8, “The Peep Freak,” his only television performance. After Francis Ford Coppola cast him in The Godfather,
Cazale became one of Hollywood’s most popular character actors. He had a perfect track record and possibly the best filmography in cinema history after The Godfather, but his career was sadly cut short.Explaining John Cazale’s Godfather RoleCazale played dim-witted Fredo Corleone in The Godfather and its first sequel.Fearful Fredo in The Godfather
Coppola cast one of the greatest ensembles in film history in his Godfather adaption. He cast Marlon Brando as Vito, the strong patriarch of the Corleone criminal family, and cast up-and-coming actors who would become cinematic legends. Al Pacino, a budding star, played Vito’s youngest son Michael, who gets drawn into the family business.
James Caan played his hot-headed eldest son Sonny.
Diane Keaton played Michael’s girlfriend, Kay. Robert Duvall played Vito’s lawyer, Tom Hagen.Coppola cast Cazale in his feature debut as Fredo, Vito’s middle son, who is well-meaning but too dim-witted and fearful to run the firm. Cazale was a natural at transitioning from theater to film,
which requires distinct acting styles. He rapidly adjusted to the camera and performed well opposite Brando. Cazale played Fredo, the Corleone family’s joker, with enough sincerity to win over the audience.John Cazale’s 1970s acting streak from Godfather to Deer Hunter was amazing.
Cazale appeared in five of the greatest films consecutively.
The Godfather began Cazale’s impressive sequence of staring in five of the finest films back-to-back: The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Deer Hunter, released posthumously. All five Cazale films were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, a phenomenal run. No other actor has only appeared in Best Picture-nominated films. Additionally
Cazale excels in all of those flicks, creating a lasting impact.
After The Godfather, Coppola cast Cazale in 1974’s paranoid post-Watergate thriller The Conversation. As Stan Ross, an associate of Gene Hackman’s surveillance expert Harry Caul, Cazale suspects a government conspiracy after hearing something he shouldn’t.
Cazale then reprised Fredo in The Godfather Part II with Coppola. Fredo betrays his brother Michael in the sequel, and Cazale’s on-screen relationship with Pacino made it all the more painful.
The 1975 crime drama Dog Day Afternoon, based on the true story of a first-time robber who held up a bank with his companion to pay for his lover’s gender confirmation surgery, stars Cazale and Pacino. Amid the stress, Cazale and Pacino’s performances maintain their characters sympathetic as the cops press in and the hostage scenario drags on.
Their unmatched on-screen chemistry helps sell the characters’ ride-or-die friendship.Cazale’s final film role was a draft dodger in Michael Cimino’s 1978 Vietnam War epic The Deer Hunter. To his friends’ dismay, Cazale’s Stosh stays behind with his wife and child while Robert De Niro’s Mike, Christopher Walken’s Nick, and John Savage’s Steven fight in Vietnam.
Mike returns from Vietnam outraged by Stosh’s nonchalant attitude toward gun violence because he wouldn’t be so careless if he’d been deployed and had to play Russian roulette.