Straight talk from James Caan

what are you gonna do nice college boy yeah they want to get mixed up in the family business now you want to gun down a police captain one because he slapped you in the face a little bit huh it's sunday morning on cbs here again is jane pauley he may be best known as sunny corleone the hot-headed mobster from the godfather but now 81 actor james kahn is still practicing his craft and speaking his mind to our man in hollywood ben mankiewicz [Music] james khan says he doesn't like to curse so let me ask you a question that i don't know you've been asking me questions all day long he swears it's true the only four-letter word he really objects to i'm really late his fame we're rolling we're starting we're rolling buddy stop screwing around what james khan wants is respect what does that do pump shot man i want a little respect i play ball i wanted respect that's all had journeyed long singing a song in search of el dorado over a 60-year career james khan has definitely earned it playing one memorable role after another and managing not to be typecast sunny don corleone's hot-head son and the godfather a dying football player in brian's song a novelist held captive in misery will ferrell's absentee father in elf i fought to always never be the same person i mean the fun of being an actor is being somebody else for three months you know jimmy khan has played some memorable parts but spend some time with him and you get the sense the most interesting character is right in front of you this new yorker born in 1940 in queens where are you from sunny side where's sunnyside queens right over 59th street bridge little waves what kind of place is this well let me tell you something there's a tree over there and we used to say i'll meet you at the forest okay that was the forest one tree school gave khan an education the street taught him lessons he's remembered all his life the most important thing is you learn how to win and you learn how to lose and you learn who to push and who not to push he pushed a lot of people including himself as a 16 year old freshman football player at michigan state homesick and too little for the big ten he transferred to hofstra less than 40 miles from queens where the acting bug struck i went to the neighborhood playhouse and i got accepted there he took me right away i was supposed to have three interviews i only had one at 20 he was landing guest roles on tv dramas shows like the alfred hitchcock hour then a big break at 26. what kept you talking to a girl she said she saw her girl well don't you think i can know a girl playing a cocky sidekick to a couple of men he looked up to literally john wayne and robert mitchum in the 1966 western el dorado first of all i had lifts in my name shoes i mean mitchell six two wayne six four so i have these lips in my shoes five years later came brian's song the tv movie with khan is brian piccolo a terminally ill football player billy dee williams played gail sayers piccolo's best friend i'll see you tomorrow yeah you say something 36 million people tuned in my guess is that you have been approached by 175 men between the ages of let's say 55 to 75 who come up to you and say i've only cried in one movie in my life oh here's brian not a lot of movies in the early 70s where you got the white character and black character in a totally equal friendship it was good it was very rewarding because hopefully a lot of kids pick that up you know [Music] in 1972 director francis ford coppola called and made khan an offer he couldn't refuse word is on the street he's already dead playing sonny the quick-tempered oldest corleone son in the godfather khan's inspiration came from an unlikely source and i was thinking of my friend don rickles i told everybody italians are fantastic people really they can work you over in an alley while singing an opera you ever watch them what did he say i started laughing like don rico's yeah no it wasn't like imitating don rick no i got you it was having that drive that thing you know i just was locked into that he also did a lot of improvising like the way sonny deals with an fbi photographer on the day of his sister's wedding come here come here i grabbed that camera smashed the camera and i looked and in my neighborhood i realized i did wrong and i i took out 20 and i threw it on the street i paid for it after the godfather khan was in demand and he earned high praise for cinderella liberty the gambler rollerball and his favorite thief but by the early 1980s a decade of stardom had taken its toll khan's behavior was erratic he was addicted to drugs and fell into depression after the death of his sister from leukemia i had a bad bout with cocaine for a little while i lost my sister what happened and she was like uh i don't know and when i lost i couldn't i couldn't handle it i didn't know what to do khan didn't care much for hollywood after thief he made one movie over the next six years he coached his son scott's little league team when he wanted back in his friend rob reiner threw him a lifeline late in 1989. reiner was set to direct a film version of a stephen king story starring kathy bates is this what you're looking for i had some wonderful people like rob reiner and those guys god bless them those they were big time winners for me that movie that that let everybody know oh yeah wait james kahn i don't know you were great yeah with cathy misery was a big hit for khan i want an underrated comedy honeymoon in vegas came two years later your girlfriend for the weekend it proved khan had a lighter side which led to elf a decade after that with will ferrell dad elf elf so i told will he says you want to do help i said can't do it i'll do a picture called elk but i won't i don't do it you said no just on just on the title yeah come on it's lovely it's me thankfully farrell eventually talked him into it his son scott talked his dad into a guest role on scott's hit tv show hawaii 5-0 would you mind fetching that for me khan who's been married and divorced four times loves to work not as much though as he loves his five children would you want your other kids to go into it's a creed that has paid off for khan and this tough guy with a tender heart is not yet ready to say goodbye to hollywood but i want to do a good piece of work i'm frustrated i'd love to do a real character thing so why do you want to keep working like take it easy what what you're james kahn i can't take it easy but to me i enjoy working i love to work with good people i have more fun when i'm working and i have a lot of laughs and i get respect too sometimes

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 358,956

Keywords: James Caan, Ben Mankiewicz, The Godfather, Brian's Song, Thief, Elf, Misery

Id: gLBFE8KuIig

Length: 8min 22sec (502 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 12 2021