To many of the tough guy parts he played in the beginning of his career, Tom Sizemore brought a magnetic intensity. Rugged and green-eyed, Sizemore starred in many movies that are now regarded as classics, Saving Private Ryan from 1998 being possibly his most well-known. But, the actor's skill and career would be overshadowed by his battles with addiction and legal issues.
Sizemore was admitted to the hospital on February 18 with a severe condition due to a brain aneurysm. Sizemore passed away on Friday after spending his entire life in a coma. Age 61 was the actor's.
Sizemore's manager Charles Lago expressed his sadness over the loss of not only a client but also a dear friend and mentor of nearly 15 years in a statement. "Tom was one of the most sincere, compassionate, and giving people I've ever had the pleasure of getting to know. His resilience in the face of difficulty has always been an inspiration to me. He had a terrific couple of years, and his life was starting to turn around again. He cherished his family and his sons. My friend Tom Sizemore will be sorely missed."
Sizemore, a Detroit native, grew up with his mother watching movies. According to a 2022 interview with the website Decider, he was attracted by Robert De Niro's portrayal of the character in Taxi Driver.
I saw the movie every week for about two months when it was in theatres, he claimed. "11 weeks in a row I watched it. I initially began to consider, "Whatever that is they are doing up there, I want to be part of it," at that time. I wish to carry out that. I also began to research how to become an actor."
At Wayne State University and Temple University, Sizemore pursued a theatre degree. He spent some time in New York City waiting tables while he tried to establish a career before being cast in an impressive string of well-known movies.
Beginning in 1989, Sizemore made brief appearances in Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July and two of Kathryn Bigelow's early films, Point Break and Blue Steel. Sizemore gradually progressed into more significant roles in Natural Born Killers, Passenger 57, True Romance, and Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man.
He supported his hero Robert De Niro as a member of a criminal gang in Heat and took Harvey Keitel's place in Devil in a Blue Dress. Sizemore then uttered the phrase in Saving Private Ryan that persuades his troop of traumatised Army soldiers that looking for their missing buddy might be the last honourable thing they do throughout the brutality of World War Two.
Yet after playing in a few more significant Hollywood war movies, such as Black Hawk Down and Pearl Harbor, Sizemore's life spiralled out of control. In 2003, he was found guilty of assaulting Heidi Fleiss, the "Hollywood Madam," who was then engaged to him. He was detained several times for domestic abuse, drug possession, and driving while intoxicated. Also, he allegedly engaged in inappropriate behaviour with an 11-year-old child while working on a movie set, though the allegation was later disproven in 2020.
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