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Tom Sizemore, ‘Saving Private Ryan’ actor, dies after brain aneurysm
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Thomas Edward Sizemore Jr. (/ˈsaɪzmɔːr/; November 29, 1961 – March 3, 2023) was an American actor. He is known for his supporting roles in Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991), Passenger 57 (1992), True Romance (1993), Natural Born Killers (1994), Strange Days (1995), Heat (1995), The Relic (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), Black Hawk Down (2001), Pearl Harbor (2001) and the revival series of Twin Peaks (2017). He is also known for voicing Sonny Forelli in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002).
Sizemore was born on November 29, 1961,[2] in Detroit, Michigan. His mother, Judith (née Schannault), was a member of the city of Detroit ombudsman staff, and his father, Thomas Edward Sizemore Sr., was a lawyer and philosophy professor. He was raised Roman Catholic.[3][4]
Sizemore stated that his maternal grandfather was of French and Native American ancestry, and also that his grandfather was African-American.[5][6]
One of Sizemore's earliest film appearances was in Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July (1989). His other early roles included Lock Up (1989), Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991), Point Break (1991), True Romance (1993), Natural Born Killers (1994), and Strange Days (1995). Sizemore starred in the independent drama film Love Is Like That (1993) with actress and model Pamela Gidley and had a supporting role in Kevin Costner's Wyatt Earp (1994) as Bat Masterson. For his performance in Heart and Souls (1993), he was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor.[7]
A succession of well-received supporting parts followed, beginning with his portrayal of Michael Cheritto in the heist film Heat (1995). Sizemore's first major leading role was as Vincent D'Agosta in The Relic (1997). Sizemore had a recurring role on the television series China Beach (1988–1991) as an enlisted man named Vinnie who was in love with Dana Delany's character. Sizemore continued to play leading and character parts in Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), and Witness Protection (1999). Saving Private Ryan (1998) proved to be his most commercially successful project, bringing in $217,000,000 at the box office.[8]
In the early 2000s, Sizemore appeared in the action films Pearl Harbor (2001) (starring Ben Affleck) and Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down (2001). He had a voice role as Sonny Forelli in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Sizemore starred in Ticker (2001), an action film directed by Albert Pyun, with Steven Seagal and Dennis Hopper. He also starred in the well-reviewed but short-lived television drama series Robbery Homicide Division (2001) (the program was canceled midway through its first and only season). He appeared in the Mel Gibson-produced Paparazzi (2004) and played an undercover cop in Swindle (2006), opposite Sherilyn Fenn.[citation needed]
That same year, he starred in The Genius Club (2006), playing a terrorist who taunts seven geniuses into solving the world's problems in one night. He went on to a leading role in the action/thriller film Splinter (2006) with Edward James Olmos. The next year, television network VH1 aired a six-episode reality TV series called Shooting Sizemore (2007), depicting the actor's life as he struggled to regain his career in the midst of battling long-standing addictions to methamphetamine and heroin.[9] The series also covered an ongoing legal appeal of his conviction for an assault of former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss.[10] In the same year, the actor starred in the indie drama film Oranges (2007) with Tom Arnold and Jill Hennessy, which was directed by Syrian director and producer Joseph Merhi.[citation needed]
Sizemore performed in two films that screened at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Red (2008) and American Son (2008). He was highly prolific that year, starring in The Last Lullaby (2008), The Flyboys (2008) with Stephen Baldwin, action film Stiletto (2008) with Tom Berenger and Michael Biehn, drama film Toxic (2008) with Costas Mandylor, and the Canadian drama A Broken Life (2008) with Ving Rhames.[citation needed]
He went on to appear in five episodes of the television series Crash (2008–2009) with Dennis Hopper and the comedy film Super Capers (2009). Sizemore starred in the indie horror film Murder 101 (2014) and co-starred with Kyra Sedgwick and Vincent D'Onofrio in the comedy-drama film Chlorine (2013).[11] Sizemore starred alongside martial arts actor Mark Dacascos in the action film Shadows in Paradise (2010), followed by an appearance as a trucker in an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.[citation needed]
Sizemore appeared alongside the Insane Clown Posse in the comedy film Big Money Rustlas (2010) and the drama 513 with Michael Madsen. Sizemore has roles in the films Suing the Devil (2011) and White Knight (2011), as well as the adventure film The Age of Reason (2014). He saw a career resurgence when he was cast as a series regular in the USA Network action program Shooter (2016), starring Ryan Phillippe. He went on to receive positive notices for the drama thriller Calico Skies (2016).[12][13] In 2017, he appeared as insurance agent Anthony Sinclair in David Lynch's revival miniseries Twin Peaks,[14] and portrayed FBI Agent Bill Sullivan in the drama film Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House.[15]
In 2020, Sizemore appeared in C.L.E.A.N., a thriller/horror indie film and won a Vegas Movie Award[16] and in 2021 won another Vegas Movie Award for his supporting role in indie film The Electric Man with Vernon Wells and Eric Roberts.[17][18] In 2022 Sizemore won also an IndieFEST Film Award and Accolade Competition Award for his supporting role in The Electric Man.[19]
In January 2022, Sizemore joined the cast of The Legend of Jack and Diane, a feature film described as a female-fronted revenge thriller, directed and written by Bruce Bellocchi.[20][21] The same year he was the lead star of the comedy series Barbee Rehab, alongside Bai Ling and Janice Dickinson.[22]
Sizemore fronted the Hollywood rock band Day 8. Formed in 2002, the band recorded a four-song EP produced and recorded by Bradley Dujmovic and former Snot/Soulfly guitarist Mike Doling. Originally called "The Bystanders", the group included guitarist and co-writer Rod Castro, Alan Muffterson, Tyrone Tomke, and Michael Taylor.[23]
Sizemore married actress Maeve Quinlan in 1996 but divorced in 1999 because of issues associated with his drug problems. In 2010, Sizemore appeared as a patient/castmember on VH1's third season of Celebrity Rehab.[24]
In July 2005, Sizemore became a father when Janelle McIntire gave birth to twins.[25] Sizemore and McIntire eventually ended their relationship.[26] On October 19, 2005, Vivid Entertainment released The Tom Sizemore Sex Scandal, a sex tape featuring Sizemore and multiple women.[27] In the video, Sizemore claimed to have had sex with Paris Hilton, an allegation that she later denied, claiming it was a ploy by Sizemore to increase sales.[28]
Sizemore, who battled drug addiction from age 15,[29] was convicted in 2003 of domestic violence against his girlfriend, the former "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss.[30] Sizemore was sentenced to seven months in jail and four months in drug treatment for repeatedly failing drug tests while on probation on March 25, 2005.[31] Sizemore was caught attempting to fake the urine test using a Whizzinator.[32][33][34] Fleiss's restraining order against him had lapsed by the time they appeared together in the third season of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew in 2010.[35]
On May 8, 2007, while still on probation for a previous drug conviction, Sizemore was arrested outside the Four Points Sheraton hotel in Bakersfield, California, for possession of methamphetamine.[36]
In 2013, Sizemore appeared on an episode of the talk show Dr. Phil, titled "Explosive Relationships", where he discussed his rise to stardom and the subsequent fallout after his years of struggling with substance abuse and run-ins with law enforcement, as well as his relationship with Heidi Fleiss. Season 11 Episode 138 aired on April 18, 2013.[citation needed]
In early 2014, a recording emerged of Sizemore alleging that former girlfriend Elizabeth Hurley had an affair with Bill Clinton in 1998.[37] Under threat of legal action, Sizemore admitted that the allegation was false. He elaborated that the recording was made without his knowledge during a time when he was battling substance abuse.[38]
Sizemore had been approached to appear in the first season of the reality television series Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew but declined. He met with Drew Pinsky about appearing in the second season, sitting in Pinsky's office for two hours, as Pinsky recounted, "sweating and completely high on drugs, talking a million miles an hour, acting like he was going to do it then deciding he didn't want to." Sizemore ultimately decided to appear in the show's third season but did not appear in the season premiere. Because Heidi Fleiss was also in treatment on the show that season, both she and Sizemore had to consent to appear together. The season premiered in January 2010, with Sizemore's arrival at the clinic chronicled in the third episode. His reunion with Fleiss was amicable.[35] By the season's end, Fleiss lashed out at Sizemore at their graduation ceremony, taunting him that "the thought of being with [him] would turn women gay."[citation needed]
In February 2017, Sizemore pleaded no contest to two charges of domestic abuse for assaulting his girlfriend, for which he was sentenced to 36 months of summary probation, 30 days of community service, and a year-long domestic violence program; he was also subject to two protective orders associated with the charges, and ordered to pay various fees. The deal was made by Sizemore to avoid spending 210 days in jail.[39]
In a 2013 interview, Sizemore claimed that he began to achieve sobriety after a stern interrogation from fellow actor Robert De Niro.[40] De Niro personally checked Sizemore into rehabilitation.[41]
On January 5, 2019, Sizemore was arrested for misdemeanor drug possession of "various illegal narcotics" in Burbank, California.[42]On February 18, 2023, Sizemore suffered a brain aneurysm at his Los Angeles home and was hospitalized at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in critical condition.[47][48][49] Charles Lago, his representative, issued a statement on February 27 that doctors had determined there was "no further hope and have recommended end-of-life decision" to Sizemore's family.[50][51][52] Sizemore died on March 3, at the age of 61.[49]
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888Actor Tom Sizemore, known for his work in films such as “Saving Private Ryan,” “True Romance” and “Black Hawk Down,” has died at 61 after a brain aneurysm.
Sizemore died Friday at a hospital in Burbank, according to his manager, Charles Lago. The actor had been taken to the intensive-care unit of Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank on Feb. 18, where he was listed in critical condition and remained in a coma.
Earlier this week, Lago released a statement on behalf of the “Heat” actor’s kin: “Doctors informed his family that there is no further hope and have recommended end-of-life decision.”
Lago said in a statement that Sizemore “passed away peacefully in his sleep ... at St Joseph’s Hospital Burbank. His brother Paul and twin boys Jayden and Jagger were at his side.”
In 1998, Sizemore starred opposite Tom Hanks and Matt Damon in Steven Spielberg‘s Oscar-winning World War II drama “Saving Private Ryan.” Sizemore portrayed Capt. Miller’s (Hanks) right-hand man, Sgt. Mike Horvath, a loyal and courageous soldier who delivers the movie’s titular line and keeps souvenirs from each military tour he’s completed.
Sizemore accepted the career-altering role of Horvath on a whim. He was just about to start shooting Terrence Malick’s “The Thin Red Line” in Australia when Spielberg called and asked him, “Do you want to go to Australia with Terry Malick or do you want to come to Great Britain and Ireland with me and Tom Hanks?”
“I told him I wanted to go to Great Britain and Ireland,” he said in 2018.
“It was a seminal experience for me because it was like being invited behind the curtain of Oz. Steven and his crew were operating on a total different level than I had ever witnessed,” he added, “the scope of his vision, the attention to detail was beyond anything I had ever dreamed of.”
Born Nov. 29, 1961, Thomas Edward Sizemore Jr. grew up in Detroit. His father was a lawyer and professor and his mother an ombudsman for the city.
“I was a tough kid,” Sizemore recalled in 1995. “I don’t punch people anymore.”
Eventually, Sizemore’s family relocated to the suburbs until his father got a divorce, and the children moved back to Detroit with their mother. By the age of 16, Sizemore “wanted to get on with” his life.
“I knew I wanted to be an actor,” he told The Times in 1995. “I wanted to get out of Detroit.”
After attending Wayne State University, Sizemore earned a master’s degree in theater from Temple University and moved to New York City to pursue acting. His first break came when Oliver Stone cast him for a small role in “Born on the Fourth of July.”
Sizemore played tough-guy roles throughout the 1990s in films such as “Natural Born Killers,” “Wyatt Earp” and “Heat” and later had a recurring role in the television series “China Beach.” In 2000, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his leading performance as a former mobster on the run in the TV movie “Witness Protection.” He also had a starring role in the high-profile military drama “Black Hawk Down.”
Outside his film and TV work, Sizemore also dabbled in theater. At Los Angeles’ Geffen Playhouse in 2011, he staged a private reading of his one-man show, “I Am Not Sam,” that explored his biracial identity. During the performance, he adopted the voice of his Black grandfather, who warned him to never reveal his biracial heritage if he wanted to make it in Hollywood.
“I hate this stuff,” Sizemore said as people gathered to congratulate him after the reading. “I’m going to leave in a second.”
Sizemore accumulated more than 200 acting credits spanning movies, video games, theater and TV. His final role was as a doctor in the 2022 comedy series “Barbee Rehab.”
Throughout his career, Sizemore was often in the headlines for his run-ins with law enforcement. In 2003, he was convicted of abusing his girlfriend, Heidi Fleiss, and served 17 months in jail.
During his trial, Sizemore’s attorneys denied Fleiss’ allegations and accused her of trying to blackmail him. He was found guilty of domestic violence, criminal threats and harassing phone calls.
He was also arrested once on suspicion of assaulting another girlfriend in downtown L.A. and twice on suspicion of battery of a former spouse. Additionally, he was formerly detained on suspicion of transporting or selling a controlled substance, and he pleaded no contest in 2006 to using methamphetamine outside a Bakersfield motel.
Sizemore was open about his struggles with drug addiction — once even volunteering to detox on national television by participating in a season of the VH1 reality series, “Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew.”
Appearing on “Larry King Live” in 2010, Sizemore told the late TV host that he became addicted to cocaine after using the drug for the first time with “a famous actor” when his Hollywood dreams were starting to come true. He also struggled with addiction to heroin and crystal meth.
“If I didn’t do it, I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t get out of bed,” Sizemore told King. “But I got no pleasure from it, and it was destroying my career. ... I’m an actor. I’ve been acting for 30 years, and I wasn’t doing it anymore. I didn’t have any money. ... I was fairly hopeless.”
In 2011, Sizemore announced that he would write a book about his experiences with “substance abuse.” He released his memoir, “By Some Miracle I Made It Out of There,” in 2013.
“The fact that I’m now sober over two years — and that I’m acting as much as I did before — proves that people can overcome obstacles even when they’re sure they can’t,” Sizemore said ahead of the book’s release.
Sizemore is survived by his 17-year-old twin sons, Jagger and Jayden.
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Tom Sizemore, Intense Actor With a Troubled Life, Dies at 61
He earned praise for his work in films like “Saving Private Ryan” and “Black Hawk Down.” He also served prison time for drug possession and domestic abuse.
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Tom Sizemore, a tough-guy actor whose career, which included roles in major films like “Saving Private Ryan” and “Black Hawk Down,” was overshadowed at times by his problems with substance abuse and the law, died on Friday in Burbank, Calif. He was 61.
The death was announced by his manager, Charles Lago. The cause was not immediately known, but Mr. Sizemore suffered a stroke on Feb. 18, which caused a brain aneurysm. He had been in a coma and on life support since then.
Mr. Sizemore could be intense, charismatic and manic in roles as soldiers, thugs, cops, killers and, in a television movie, the baseball player Pete Rose. As Sgt. Mike Horvath in Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” (1998), he was the devoted second in command to Captain Miller (played by Tom Hanks) in a small group of Army Rangers whose mission after the D-Day invasion was to locate a soldier whose three brothers had already died in battle.
Near the end of the movie, Horvath eloquently lays out the choices facing Miller: Let Private Ryan stay and fight, which he prefers, or send him home, as the unit had been ordered to do.
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“Part of me thinks the kid’s right — what’s he done to deserve this?” Mr. Sizemore, as Horvath, says. “He wants to stay here? Fine, let’s leave him and go home. But then another part of me thinks, what if by some miracle we stay, and actually make it out of here? Someday we might look back on this and decide that saving Private Ryan was the one decent thing we were able to pull out of this.”
“That’s what I was thinking, sir,” he concludes. “Like you said, Captain, we do that, we all earn the right to go home.”
Mr. Spielberg was not the only A-list director Mr. Sizemore worked with. In Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers” (1994), he was an obsessed detective pursuing a young couple on a murder spree. In Michael Mann’s “Heat” (1995), he was a member of a crew of thieves led by Robert De Niro. And in Ridley Scott’s “Black Hawk Down” (2002), based on a botched United States military raid in 1993 in Mogadishu, Somalia, to capture lieutenants of a brutal warlord, he was the commander of the 75th Ranger Regiment.
When Mr. Sizemore starred on the television series “Robbery Homicide Division,” a police procedural set in Los Angeles and aired in the 2002-3 season, Robert Philpot of The Fort Worth Star-Telegram said he was the main reason to watch.
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“Using his oversized head, which hangs down slightly as if it were too heavy for his body, and his expressive eyes,” Mr. Philpot wrote, “Sizemore projects complete authority, keeping underlings as well as suspects in line.”
Mr. Sizemore at the time was dealing with serious drug problems, which dated to the 1990s. Over the years he used heroin, crystal methamphetamine and cocaine, and he was in and out of rehab.
“How long sober now?” Larry King asked him on his CNN show in 2010.
“Three hundred twenty-six days,” Mr. Sizemore said.
“What was the longest you were ever sober before that?” Mr. King asked.
“A couple minutes,” Mr. Sizemore said. “No, that’s not true. I got sober in ’97 and was sober through 2002.”
In 2003, he was convicted of physically abusing his former girlfriend, Heidi Fleiss, who in the 1990s ran an upscale prostitution ring and was referred to in the news media as the Hollywood Madam.
In a letter to the judge who sentenced him, Mr. Sizemore wrote, “I am convinced that if I had not been under the influence of drugs, I would have controlled my behavior.”
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He served eight months in prison.
In October 2004, he pleaded guilty to a felony count of possessing methamphetamine and was placed on probation. The probation was revoked in 2005 when he was caught using a prosthetic device to fake a drug test. His probation was later reinstated.
And in 2007 he served several months in jail for violating his probation after being arrested in a hotel in Bakersfield, Calif., for possessing methamphetamine.
“God’s trying to tell me he doesn’t want me using drugs because every time I use them I get caught,” Mr. Sizemore said in a jailhouse interview with The Associated Press.
He participated in 10 episodes of the reality series “Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew” from 2010 to 2011, along with Ms. Fleiss, the former basketball player Dennis Rodman, the actress Mackenzie Phillips and others.
In an article in The New York Times Magazine in 2009 about the series, Chris Norris wrote that Mr. Sizemore had fallen “from an Olympus populated by Pacino, De Niro, Spielberg and Scorsese to this beige-carpeted, cable-only Hades.”
Thomas Edward Sizemore Jr. was born on Nov. 29, 1961, in Detroit. His father was a lawyer. His mother, Judith (Schannault) Sizemore, worked for the City of Detroit’s ombudsman.
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After graduating from Wayne State University in Detroit with a bachelor’s degree in theater in 1983, he earned a master’s in the same subject from Temple University in 1986. Three years later, he made his debut on television, in the series “Gideon Oliver,” and on film, in “Lock Up,” starring Sylvester Stallone.
“Lock Up” was a flop, but United Press International wrote that Mr. Sizemore, as a “whacked-out scheming loser of an inmate,” had emerged “with semi-star potential.”
By the time “Lock Up” was released, he had filmed parts in the forthcoming films “Born on the Fourth of July,” directed by Mr. Stone and starring Tom Cruise; “Blue Steel,” with Jamie Lee Curtis; and the dark comedy “Penn & Teller Get Killed.”
“Most of the characters I play are losers, like the convict Dallas in ‘Lock Up,’” Mr. Sizemore told U.P.I. “In ‘Born on the Fourth of July’ I’m a quadriplegic. In “Penn & Teller,’ I’m a crazed killer. In ‘Blue Steel,’ I’m a crack maniac.”
His role as a mobster in “Witness Protection” (1999) earned him a Golden Globe nomination for best performance by an actor in a made-for-TV movie or mini-series. That year, he and eight other actors from “Saving Private Ryan” were nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding cast.
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Mr. Sizemore continued to play characters on either side of the law, and despite his substance abuse problems, he remained busy for the rest of his career. He portrayed an internal affairs investigator on five episodes of “Hawaii Five-O” in 2011 and 2012; a C.I.A. agent assigned to rescue three American journalists taken hostage in “Radical” (2017); and a commander in the science fiction film “Battle for Pandora” (2022).
And in a preternaturally chilling role, he played a depraved building manager who is tried for kidnapping and killing a little boy in a 2015 episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”
Mr. Sizemore is survived by his mother; his twin sons, Jagger and Jayden; his brother Paul; his half sister, Katherine Sizemore; and his half brother, Charles Sizemore. His brother Aaron died last year. His marriage to Maeve Quinlan ended in divorce.
During his 2010 interview with Mr. King, Mr. Sizemore said that soon after he had become successful in Hollywood, he started using cocaine with a famous actor, whom he would not identify.
“I didn’t want to do it,” he said, “but there was people in this room and he did it, and I went, ‘If he did it, I’m going to do it.’ And I did it, it took a couple minutes and I went, ‘Wow, that is bomb. Where do you get that? Do you have any more of it?’"
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Tom Sizemore Never Served But Became a Military Movie Icon
We usually remember veterans who went on to have successful careers in movies or television after their military service. Tom Sizemore isn't one of those veterans, but he managed to play iconic characters in some of the most beloved military movies of all time.
Sizemore died at age 61 on March 3, 2023, after suffering a brain aneurysm on Feb. 18 and never regaining consciousness.
Sizemore was born into privilege in Detroit, but he had an expressive face that made him perfect for playing the kind of everyday men assigned to get the job done. Instead of being the kind of handsome actor who looks like no one you've ever seen in a real-life unit, Sizemore actually seemed like a real guy who wandered onto the movie set and got asked to read some lines.
After struggling to get a toehold in the acting world during his 20s, Sizemore got a break when he was cast as "Veteran No. 1" in Oliver Stone's Oscar-winning movie "Born on the Fourth of July" about Vietnam War vet Ron Kovic.
Things took off in the 1990s, and he had an impressive run in a series of non-military movies that includes "Point Break," "True Romance," "Natural Born Killers," "Strange Days," "Devil in a Blue Dress," "Heat" and "Bringing Out the Dead."
We're here to remember his military roles, though, and that list is equally impressive. Here are the ones we'll most remember.
Sgt. Mike Horvath, "Saving Private Ryan" (1998)
When things get hairy on Omaha Beach, Tom Hanks' Capt. John Miller looks to Sizemore's Sgt. Mike Horvath for guidance. Horvath gives his commanding officer all the backup he needs as the former schoolteacher grows into a leadership role as his men search for the missing Pvt. Ryan.
Horvath keeps Miller focused on the mission as they face a final showdown with the German army, reminding his captain that saving Pvt. Ryan is one of the only truly decent things they can do in a messy war.
Sizemore wasn't much older than all the young actors who went on to become successful leading men, but he's the one actor besides Hanks who had some gravitas and looked like a real version of the character he played.
Sgt. Danny McKnight, "Black Hawk Down" (2001)
"Black Hawk Down" tells the story of a real mission that took place in 1993 during the civil war in Somalia. After a Black Hawk helicopter was shot down during a mission in Mogadishu, U.S. forces must fight through the streets of the city to rescue the crash survivors.
Sizemore played Army Lt. Col. Danny McKnight, whose Humvee was attacked by rebels and sustained heavy casualties. After returning to base, McKnight goes back out for another rescue attempt. The actor's look in the scene where he insists on heading back into the fray is one of the greatest moments in movie history.
Sgt. Earl Sistern, "Pearl Harbor" (2001)
Director Michael Bay set out to make a movie that combined the brutal war action of "Saving Private Ryan" with the romance of "Titanic" and took three hours to tell the story.
One of the highlights is Sizemore's performance as Sgt. Earl Sistern, the lead mechanic at Wheeler Airfield. Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett may be less than convincing as combat pilots, but Sizemore is the best thing in the movie as a grunt on the ground who's strafed by the Japanese attack.
Bob "Boxman" Walkawitz, "Flight of the Intruder" (1991)
Director John Milius tried to dial it down and make a commercial movie with "Flight of the Intruder." This is the man who worked on the screenplays for the first two "Dirty Harry" movies, "Jeremiah Johnson," "Apocalypse Now" and "Clear and Present Danger" and both wrote and directed "Red Dawn," "The Wind and the Lion," "Conan the Barbarian" and "Farewell to the King."
Milius didn't write "Flight of the Intruder," which was based on a Stephen Coonts novel, but he knows about tough-guy movies. Milius was the first director to see Sizemore's potential as a guy who can play the kind of parts that became his signature.
Boxman isn't a big part, but Sizemore takes advantage of his limited screen time to make a huge impression.
Sgt. Vinnie Ventresca, "China Beach" (1989)
Sizemore just had a six-episode arc during the third season of the ABC television series, but he got to romance series star Dana Delany's 1st Lt. Colleen McMurphy. His run on the show ended with an episode where Ventresca and McMurphy argue as she insists on saving the life of his buddy, even though the friend is brain dead and will never recover from his injuries.
Unfortunately for Sizemore and movie fans, the actor had struggled with drug and alcohol abuse since his teen years, and the problem got out of control just as his career was peaking at the turn of the century. He had an ill-fated romance with the Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss and became a tabloid icon as his career spiraled downward.
He had a lead role on the failed CBS television crime series "Robbery Homicide Division" in the fall of 2002, but that was the last time a big studio trusted him with a major role. He went on to make a ton of straight-to-video nonsense that took advantage of the great military roles he'd played early in his career.
"SEAL Team Eight: Behind Enemy Lines," "Nazi Overlord," "Company of Heroes," "Shadows in Paradise" and "USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage" aren't really up to the standards of his early career, but they're generally far better than the hundred-plus paycheck gigs he took in the 21st century.
There were brief runs on the television series "Shooter" and "Twin Peaks," but Sizemore never really got his career back to where his talent should've taken him before his death. Here's to the memory of one of our greatest fake military heroes. Rest in peace, Mr. Sizemore.
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