After some stage experience, James Caan began his film career with an uncredited bit part in "Irma La Douce" (1963). Tall and curly-haired, with a ruddy complexion, Caan gained prominence in the early 1970s with two powerful performances: as the cancer-stricken football player in the made-for-TV-movie "Brian's Song" (ABC, 1971) and as the hot-tempered eldest son Santino "Sonny" Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" (1972). He used the stardom he derived from playing Sonny Corleone in the latter to star in Karel Reisz's "The Gambler" (1974). That same year, he co-starred with Alan Arkin in "Freebie and the Bean" before moving on to play a sailor who falls for Marsha Mason in "Cinderella Liberty" (1975). He oozed charm (and displayed a passable singing voice) as Billy Rose opposite Barbra Streisand's redux as Fanny Brice in "Funny Lady" (1975), but most of Caan's films had neither box office success nor prestige. He had a good turn, again opposite Mason, in the film version of Neil Simon's autobiographical play "Chapter Two" (1979), although it was not a hit, and suffered the flop of playing the ghost of Sally Field's lovable but philandering choreographer husband (modeled on Bob Fosse) in "Kiss Me Goodbye" (1982).
After a five-year absence from features, Caan reteamed with Coppola to play a hard-bitten career officer in "Gardens of Stone" (1987) and followed as a world-weary cop partnered with Mandy Patinkin's space visitor in "Alien Nation" (1988). His later features, though, had a hit-or-miss record with the public and critics alike: "Misery" (1990), in which he was the writer held captive by a deranged fan (Kathy Bates) was a huge success but a pairing with Bette Midler as a song and dance team in "For the Boys" (1991), despite finding some admirers, mostly failed to win public or critical approval. The engaging, if silly "Honeymoon in Vegas" (1992), with Caan spoofing his gangster image, was a modest hit.
Caan starred as a football coach in David S Ward's controversial sports drama "The Program" and won critical plaudits for his turn as Dennis Quaid's cranky father in "Flesh and Blood" (both 1993). He took a featured role in 1995's "A Boy Called Hate", which marked the film acting debut of his son Scott in the title role, and subsequently appeared as a gangster in "Bottle Rocket" (1996). Caan co-starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the actioner "Eraser" and appeared opposite Adam Sandler and Damon Wayans in the comedy "Bulletproof" (both 1996).
Like many actors, Caan is also noted for the many film roles which he turned down as much as for those he did choose. His rejections have included "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975) and "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979), which earned Best Actor Oscars for Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman, respectively, "Love Story" and "M*A*S*H" (both 1970) and Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" (1979).
Instead, Caan's disappearance from the scene for several years in the 80s triggered rumors of drug use and worse. Caan was said to be a loose cannon, a wild man, a self-destructive tragic could-have-had-it-all, not unlike Sonny Corleone. Other camps said Caan was merely raising his son, Scott, of whom he had custody and who would eventually become an in-demand actor in his own right. Still, Caan was often surrounded by controversy. In 1980, Caan was charged with beating his ex-wife Sheila Ryan after she told him she planned to remarry. The actor admitted to a "platonic" friendship with Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss in 1993. Also that year, Caan was crashing on the sofa of a friend's apartment (during his separation from his third wife), when a 25-year old aspiring actor fell to his death from the fire escape. The police ruled the incident accidental. In 1994, Caan was arrested for flashing a gun at rapper Derek Lee in public, although the charges were dropped for insufficient evidence. Also in 1994, Caan was charged with battering a woman named Leesa Anne Roland, though the matter was dismissed without trial. In August 1995, Caan checked into the Exodus Recovery Center in Marina Del Rey.
Whether their was anything behind the rumors and arrests or not, Caan's star in Hollywood had been slightly tarnished. He did land a co-starring role with John Cusack and Stephen Rea in the period drama "This Is My Father" (1998), and delivered a winning performance as an aging Phillip Marlowe in HBO's cable adaptation of "Poodle Springs" (1998), an unfinished Raymond Chandler tale ended by contemporary novelist Robert B. Parker. Having appeared to put controversy in his private life behind him , Caan continued to turn in a number of fine, jouneyman performances in a series of films that would have been lesser without him, including the Hugh Grant Mafia comedy "Mickey Blue Eyes" (1999), The Yards" (2000), "Luckytown" (2000), "The Way of the Gun" (2000), "Warden of Red Rock" (2001) and "City of Ghosts" (2002).
And even as the still high-profile actor opted for the seemingly easy paycheck of series television when he accepted the role of tough-as-nails casino security chief Big Ed Deline in the NBC drama "Las Vegas" (2003 - ), which debuted to strong ratings and favorable reviews, Caan also showed he had a few tricks left in his movie career when he turned in a nicely played tough-comedic performance as the flumoxed birth father of a man raised by North Pole elves (Will Farrell) in the holiday charmer "Elf" (2003).
Caan joined his co-stars Marlon Brando and Robert Duvall to reprise their famous roles for the video game "The Godfather: The Game," released in 2005.