Film Career
Cazale made his feature film debut, alongside his old friend Al Pacino, playing the role of Fredo Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather. The film broke box office records and made Pacino, Cazale and several previously unknown co-stars famous, and earned Cazale a Golden Globe nomination.
Cazale reprised his role as Fredo Corleone in 1974 in The Godfather Part II. Bruce Fretts, in Entertainment Weekly, wrote, "Cazale's devastatingly raw turn intensifies the impact of the drama's emotional climax."
"John could open up his heart, so it could be hurt," said Godfather Part II co-star Dominic Chianese. "That's a talent few actors have."
Twelve years after his death, Cazale appeared in a sixth feature film, The Godfather Part III (1990), in archive footage. The Godfather Part III was also nominated for Best Picture. This marks the unique achievement of John Cazale having every feature film in which he appeared be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Also in 1973, he co-starred with Gene Hackman in Coppola's The Conversation.
Cazale again starred alongside Pacino in Sidney Lumet's 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon. The film's screenwriter, Frank Pierson, said "the film had been cast with many of the actors that Al Pacino had worked with in New York, including John Cazale, who was a close friend and collaborator in The Godfather." For his role as Sal, he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor .
- Sidney Lumet commentary
"In the screenplay, Cazale's role was written to be a smart-ass street kid. But Al came to me and said, 'Sidney, please, I beg you, read John Cazale for it.' And when John came in I was so discouraged and thought 'Al must be out of his mind.' This guy looks thirty, thirty-two, and that’s the last thing I want in this part. But Al had great taste in actors, and I hadn’t yet seen him in The Godfather. And Cazale came in, and then he read, and my heart broke. . . . "One of the things that I love about the casting of John Cazale ... was that he had a tremendous sadness about him. I don’t know where it came from; I don’t believe in invading the privacy of the actors that I work with, or getting into their heads. But my God - it’s there - in every shot of him. And not just in this movie, but in Godfather II also.
"When Al asked him during a scene, 'Is there any country you want to go to?' Cazale improvised his answer by saying, after long thought, 'Wyoming.' To me that was the funniest, saddest line in the movie, and my favorite, because in the script he wasn’t supposed to say anything. I almost ruined the take because I started to laugh so hard... but it was a brilliant, brilliant, ad lib."
- Al Pacino commentary
"It's great working with John because he has a way of getting involved - in the whole thing, in the characters. He asks so many questions - he was just brilliant. It was tough to sell Johnny, but once Sidney got to see him read, and work with me, it turned out great."
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