A few words about Tom Sizemore
An actor's actor who took cinema's extremes to real life.
Tom Sizemore always seemed like more than just an actor. He seemed like a guy who climbed into that world of make believe and stayed awhile, bringing the highs and lows of Hollywood into his real life. Whether it be drugs or general chaos, he lived that life and the audience always felt it.
Michael Mann’s Heat and Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan aren’t the same without Sizemore. He played an integral part in each critically acclaimed film, dabbling in the good and bad sectors of character. In Mann’s classic cops/robbers saga, he was a member of Neal McCauley’s (Robert De Niro) crew of thieves, Michael Cheritto.
In Spielberg’s film, he was also Mike, the Lieutenant to Tom Hanks’ Captain John Miller. Part of a crew once again, but this time a small band of soldiers searching for a young man (Matt Damon) who doesn’t know he has lost all of his brothers in World War II. Supporting roles that took on higher ground due to Sizemore; he made both his own.
Sizemore’s gift was that crackle in his eyes when reading a line or staring directly into another actor’s eyes. When De Niro asks his guys if they want to take down a bank score with considerable heat on them, Cheritto’s retort is heightened by the actor.
“Well you know, for me, the action is the juice. I’m in.”
So were we.
Sizemore suffered a brain aneuyrism last month, and this week his family started discussing end of life matters. Life has seemingly caught up to a guy who lived it to the tilt, leaving some memorable roles and moments in his wake. The hardness that he tackled off screen experiences took a toll, and overwhelmed his brain and body.
61 years may not be a suitable run for most human beings, but it’s a lot more than most people get. After a great run of success in the 1990s and early 2000s, Sizemore continued to work. The notoriety of his roles and films weren’t as high as before, but he completed work on 260 different movies or television shows.
Sizemore has a one episode part in this year’s final season of Netflix’s Cobra Kai, as well as several other parts. Some actors continue to ascend, and others figure out how to stay active and keep working. Sizemore had his taste of each, leaving a sizable dent.
Two roles that I think don’t get discussed enough came in Tony Scott films. True Romance is the first. Granted, it was a small role and not one to tower over the other wonderful performances in that film--but it was still integral. Playing a DEA agent partnered up with Chris Penn, they hunted mafia families and unexpected drug runners (Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette).
Playing a wild badge who had more energy than most of the people in the movie, Sizemore made a small role sing, especially during his character’s demise. The other Scott film was Enemy of the State, where he played the head of a mafia family entangled with Will Smith’s unlikely protagonist.
Sizemore is only in one of the final scenes of the movie, a doomed meeting of the minds between rogue government agents and gangsters in the basement of a restaurant in Chinatown. But he leaves no doubt that he is the guy, which isn’t easy to do with a small part. Just ask Brad Pitt in True Romance. Make a mark, or blend into the background.
Sizemore rarely blended in. Whether it was playing a cop, criminal, or military, he convinced and left something with viewers as they walked back out into their lives. Now that he could be entering the graveyard on a one way trip, it’s a good time to appreciate what he put out.
Life isn’t easy for most, and there’s never a suitable explanation how one person stays away from chaos while others stand right in the middle of it. Sizemore took the extremes of his job into real life, and collected all the damage in the end.
Still, his two Mikes will live on forever. That’s the movies for you. They never go away.
Godspeed, Tom.