Want to know the best James Caan movies? How about the worst James Caan movies? Curious about James Caan’s box office grosses or which James Caan movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which James Caan movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
The other day I received a comment on my Al Pacino page talking about James Caan (1940-2022). After reading the comment it occurred to me that although James Caan was one of my favorite actors, I had yet to do a movie page on him. So this page was written to correct that horrible error I have been making for the last 10 months.
I think the first three movie stars I became aware of as a kid were, John Wayne, Michael Caine and James Caan. Four Caan movies from the 1970s really caught my attention as a kid…..Brian’s Song (one of the best television movies ever), The Godfather (I was not allowed to watch it….but all kids knew about the toll booth scene), Rollerball (I never really understood the movie as a kid, but it was a superbcool movie), and Freebie and the Bean (it seems this movie played on ABC’s Sunday night at the movies every 6 months).
As I got older I tried to watch as many of his movies that I could get my hands on….so far I have seen 45 of his movies. My favorite James Caan movies (not already mentioned) are A Bridge Too Far, Kiss Me Goodbye, Bottle Rocket and The Gambler (not the Kenny Rogers TV movie).
His IMDb page shows over 137 acting credits since 1961. This page will rank James Caan movies from Best to Worst in five different sortable columns of information. Television appearances, shorts, cameos and straight to DVD movies were not included in the rankings.
James Caan Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
James Caan Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort by James Caan’s co-stars of his movies.
- Sort James Caan movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
- Sort James Caan movies by yearly box office rank
- Sort James Caan movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or highis should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each James Caan movie received.
- Sort James Caan movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About James Caan
1. 1971’s Brian’s Song was originally a made for television movie, but was such a popular hit on television that the producers actually released Brian’s Song to theaters…..it did perform well when people had to pay to watch the movie. James Caan received an Emmy® nomination for his role.
2. James Caan played football at Michigan State University back in 1956 before transferring to Hofstra University. Caan was also a rodeo performer for many years and has a black belt in karate.
3. During his long career, James Caan has only received one Oscar® nomination (The Godfather) but he has helped numerous actresses receive Oscar® nominations…Marsha Mason in 1973’s Cinderella Liberty and 1980’s Chapter Two, Bette Midler in 1991’s For The Boys, and Kathy Bates in her Oscar® winning performance in 1990’s Misery.
4. James Caan has received more love from the Golden Globe® people as he has received 4 Golden Globe® nominations. Those four movies are 1965’s The Glory Guys, 1972’s The Godfather, 1974’s The Gambler, and 1975’s Funny Lady …he has yet to win one.
5. James Caan has directed one movie in his career….1980’s Hide in Plain Sight…a forgotten gem of a movie that is based on a true story. In the movie Caan’s children go into the Witness Protection with their mom and stepfather….leaving the real father with no way to see or contact his children.
6. James Caan has been married four times. Those four marriages have given Caan a daughter named Tara, and four sons named Scott, Alexander, James, and Jacob. Caan is currently not married. His son Scott Caan is also an actor, he can be seen on the CBS show Hawaii Five-O as well as the Oceans Eleven trilogy.
7. During one of his divorces, James Caan moved into one of his good friend’s house….that friend was Hugh Hefner and the house was the Playboy Mansion.
8. James Caan has turned down some very famous roles….some of these roles include….Blade Runner, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Kramer vs Kramer, MASH, Star Wars, Superman, and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.
9. From 1982 to 1987 James Caan briefly retired from the movie business, during this time frame he coached a Little League baseball team, there was one incident where his team’s weakest player hit a home run that won a game. Caan claims this is one of the greatest moments of his life.
10. Check out James Caan’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
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Well!! My husband is sending you a check for being the first Human being to render me speechless!! He’s been praying for this for years and says he’ll have a wonderful Thanksgiving thanks to you! (He should know better)…..I recover quickly. I’ll be my Jabber-jaw self by tomorrow. I am humbled by your lavish compliment. I had a LOT of fun putting that thing together! I don’t know what got into me…the devil made me do it! lol
Excellent Fpherj48, I am glad you read my compliment to your comment. You can tell your husband that he is welcome….lol. I glad you had as much fun writing the comment as I had reading the comment.
You have assembled another teriffic movie page. James Cann surely does not get the attention he deserves. My favorite ‘A Bridge Too Far’. I think it is the ‘best’ war movie and Caan did a great job in his role.
Hey mckbirdbks…I am right there with you about A Bridge Too Far…I actually saw that movie in the theater when I was 10 years old….I remember in the movie that Caan’s character dropped the f-bomb in the movie…I could not believe he said the f-word…and the fact that my grandmother took me to movie that had the f-word. All this talk about A Bridge Too Far has me thinking I should watch it again.
Jonathan! Jonathan! Jonathan-E was James Caan’s name in Rollerball. Cogerson and the Rule of Yankees knew the answer, please accept this smiley 🙂 as a reward, used only once.
While I’m here I want to mention another Jimmy Caan fave from the 70’s, The Killer Elite, which co-starred Robert Duvall. The recent Jason Statham movie has no connection to this film except the title as far as I know, haven’t seen it yet.
Hey Steve…I figured it had to be Rollerball and I was correct. As for the Killer Elite I used to remember watching that movie on television in the late 1970s…the last of 5 movies he made with Robert Duvall…so have you put Elf on your list of movies to watch yet?…. Caan is pretty good in the movie…you should check it out during this Christmas season.
I like James Caan, and he’s a talented actor but I was surpirsed that he let his career flame out at the height of his popularity. After his oscar nominated role in “the Godfather” he had a popular run for the next few years in good films like “Rollerball” and “A Bridge too Far”. But after disappearing for much of the 80s, he never regained the red-hot popularity he had before he left.
I think he’ll always be remembered by most people as Sonny Corleone.
Hey Robwrite I agree with you about his career, he seemed to have the ability to pass on a screen classic and pick the screen dud…which is not a good trait to have…but I think he still managed to make lots of quality films…and he might still have one or two gems left in him….not the I am thinking his new Adam Sandler movie will fit that mode. I think you also very correct about people will always remember him as Sonny…which will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year…wow 40 years..time flies. Thanks as always for your comments…they are always greatly appreciated.
James Caan…Now there’s a man who seems to hide in plain sight. I saw his movie, “Chapter Two,” on my honeymoon in Vegas when I married the gambler. That didn’t work out, so I moved to the city of ghosts in an alien nation, to give another man another chance. That was Henry, but he was a thief who stole an El Dorado. He had to kiss me good-bye and leave me in misery while the cops worked on Henry’s crime. I was turning to flesh and bone and had to get smart like Dick Tracy. I got with the program and hired T.R. Baskin whose middle men he called the glory guys. They were clever men who knew the way of the gun and were said to be bulletproof. I’m kind of a funny lady so when I saw Harry & Walter go to New York, I started the countdown to the end of the game. I was as nervous as a lady in a cage because this thing of ours showed me no mercy. When you mention James Caan, I remember what I went through for the boys.
A round of applause to you Fpherj48….I love your comment, I have been sitting here looking at your comment for awhile, and I have concluded this is the best comment I have ever gotten during my movie writing time.(So far my comment total is approaching 6000…so your comment is even more impressive) I have counted a few times and I come up with 29 of his movies in your comment…very impressive….and the comment flows very well. Thanks so much for the taking the time to write the comment…it is greatly appreciated.