James Caan’s Legacy: The Intense Actor Saw Hollywood Change – and Change Again
Sanford Meisner.Television kept him busy through the early 1960s, but his breakthrough (not counting a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in Billy Wilder’s “Irma La Douce”) was in the exploitation film “Lady in a Cage.” He played one within a group of delinquents terrorizing de Havilland, who herself was a wealthy poet trapped inside an elevator during a blackout. It’s a lesser entry in the post–“What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” genre of Grand Dame Guignol horror movies, but Caan’s intensity and ferocity – less focused than it would be later – was already very much on display.Later in the decade, he made the decision to pivot from TV to movies, even turning down a series role, saying, “I want to be an actor, not a millionaire.” His early big-screen work included titles like Howard Hawks’ “Red Line 7000,” Robert Altman’s sophomore theatrical feature “Countdown,” Curtis Harrington’s “Games,” Coppola’s “The Rain People” and an adaptation of John Updike’s “Rabbit, Run.” Each film garnered varying degrees of cult success, but none made money at the time, giving Caan the dreaded “box-office poison” brand.After being offered the role multiple times, Caan finally relented to do another small-screen project: the 1971 football tear-jerker “Brian’s Song,” which earned him rave reviews and an Emmy nomination.