John Cazale, American actor (died 1978)

John Holland Cazale was an American actor. He appeared in five films over seven years. Cazale started as a theater actor in Boston, ranging from regional, to off-Broadway, to Broadway acting alongside Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, and Sam Waterston. Cazale soon became one of Hollywood's premier character actors, starting with his role as the doomed, weak-minded Fredo Corleone alongside longtime friend Pacino in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974). He also appeared in Coppola's The Conversation (1974) and Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon (1975), the latter of which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination. In 1977, Cazale was diagnosed with lung cancer, but chose to complete his role in The Deer Hunter (1978). Shortly after filming was completed, he died in New York City on March 13, 1978, aged 42. Archive footage of Cazale in the role of Fredo appears in The Godfather Part III (1990).