Growing up on the streets of Sunnyside, Queens in the 1950s, Caan made a name for himself—two names, by the way—with his physical prowess.
After a year at Michigan State, James Caan returned to New York and enrolled at Hofstra University on Long Island.
While Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Duvall and James Caan were working on "The Rain People," author Mario Puzo released his bestselling crime novel "The Godfather."
Playing Sonny Corleone in The Godfather earned James Caan a Golden Globe nomination and his only Academy Award nomination.
James Caan was a bona fide A-lister in the 1970s, but in the years following "The Godfather" he took a more eclectic path to stardom.
"The Godfather" will sit atop almost any actor's resume, and rightfully so, but James Caan has other, lesser-known favorites.
But even an artistic performance like "The Thief" could not keep the actor forever, and at some point in the early 1980s, James Caan left the movie business, apparently for good.
James Caan hasn't stopped working after his stint in the proverbial desert in the 1980s, and in fact, there are many projects in the works that are now being released posthumously.