Happy Birthday: James Caan

James Caan

Born: March 26, 1940 in The Bronx, New York, USA

Married to: Linda Stokes (7 October 1995 – present) (filed for divorce) (2 children)
Ingrid Hajek (9 September 1990 – 29 March 1995) (divorced) (1 child)
Sheila Ryan (12 January 1976 – 7 December 1976) (divorced) (1 child)
Dee Jay Mattis (8 July 1961 – 1966) (divorced) (1 child)

[on figuring out how to play Sonny Corleone] I didn’t have to work on an accent or anything, but I couldn’t quite get a grasp. I was shaving to go to dinner or something, and for some reason I started thinking of Don Rickles. Because I knew Rickles. Somebody was watching over me and gave me this thing: being Rickles, kind of say-anything, do-anything.

I won’t mention names, but in my career, the most talented people invariably are the easiest and nicest to get along with. The ones that are difficult try to camouflage the fact that they haven’t got shit to offer. So they complain about frilly things that really don’t mean a shit, like their dressing rooms, makeup.

(On turning down One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)) Four or five different directors came to me with that at different times. I go, ‘It’s not a movie. Who wants to look at four institution walls?’ Milos Forman made it great. Jack was great in it. I made a flat-out, fucking mistake.

(On turning down Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)) I was first, Dustin [Hoffman] was last on the list of five guys they wanted. The director [Robert Benton] kept it up with me for three months. I said, ‘This is middle-class, bourgeois horseshit.’ I mean, ‘Cut to kid crying.’ Oh, please. Fuck you!

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