Tom Sizemore, star of Saving Private Ryan, dies aged 61 after brain aneurysm

Authored by theguardian.com and submitted by GobberJiffy
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Tom Sizemore, the actor best known for appearances in Saving Private Ryan and The Relic, has died aged 61, his manager confirmed in a statement.

“It is with great sadness and sorrow I have to announce that actor Thomas Edward Sizemore … passed away peacefully in his sleep today at St Joseph’s Hospital Burbank. His Brother Paul and twin boys Jayden and Jagger (17) were at his side,” Sizemore’s representative, Charles Lago said.

Sizemore has been in a coma in the intensive care unit of Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Los Angeles after suffering a brain aneurysm on 18 February.

On 28 February, Lago said that doctors had told the actor’s family that there was “no further hope.”

At the time, Lago said: “Today doctors informed his family that there is no further hope and have recommended end-of-life decision. The family is now deciding end-of-life matters.”

Born in Detroit in 1961, Sizemore gained a reputation for tough-guy roles in war and action films in the 1990s and 2000s. He had small roles as law enforcement types in Point Break and True Romance, and bigger roles as a detective in ultraviolent thriller Natural Born Killers and a member of a heist crew in Heat.

Sizemore’s first lead role was as another cop: the detective in the horror film The Relic, in which a vicious monster goes on a killing spree in a museum. He was then cast in a prominent role in Saving Private Ryan, as Tom Hanks’ second-in-command, dropping out of Terrence Malick’s war film The Thin Red Line to do so.

Later film roles saw him appear in Black Hawk Down, Splinter and Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House. More recently Sizemore was cast in TV shows including regular roles in Robbery Homicide Division, Dr Vegas and the Hawaii Five-0 reboot. In 2017 he appeared as insurance agent Anthony Sinclair in the third series of Twin Peaks.

Sizemore’s turbulent private life saw him acquire a reputation for violence and substance abuse. In 2003 he was convicted of domestic violence and criminal threats against his then girlfriend Heidi Fleiss and sentenced to six months in jail; he was again convicted of domestic abuse in 2017 and given three years’ probation. He was repeatedly arrested for drug use, and was sentenced to 16 months in jail in 2007 for possession of methamphetamine.

Sizemore was married to Maeve Quinlan between 1996 and 1999, and has two children.

zephyy on March 4th, 2023 at 06:08 UTC »

He does not tangle with lizards no more.

Engineering_Flimsy on March 4th, 2023 at 05:10 UTC »

When I was 18y/o, saw a girl a year younger than myself drop dead in an eye's blink from a brain aneurysm. Bunch of us from the same church were playing softball between Sunday services one gorgeous summer afternoon. She was walking up to bat and-faster than thought-just crumpled mid-step, almost like a balloon suddenly, partially deflating. No cries of pain, no gasps, not a sound. One second she's smiling, living and loving life as she strolled up to the plate, the next she's a lifeless heap in the dirt. Had been nothing out of the ordinary leading up to that fateful day either.

I aged about ten years that afternoon, I think. At least it certainly felt that way.

soda_cookie on March 4th, 2023 at 05:01 UTC »

His roles in Heat and SPR will always resonate with me. Hope he rests easy