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