Tom Sizemore, 'Saving Private Ryan' actor, has died at 61

Tom Sizemore, 'Saving Private Ryan' actor, has died at 61,

Tom Sizemore brought magnetic intensity to many of the tough guy roles he played early in his career. Gruff and green-eyed, Sizemore appeared in numerous films now considered classics, perhaps most famously 1998's Saving Private Ryan. But the actor's struggles with addiction and legal problems would eclipse his talent and career.

On Feb. 18, Sizemore was hospitalized and placed in critical condition after suffering a brain aneurysm. Sizemore had remained in a coma until his death on Friday. The actor was 61 years old.

"I am very saddened by the loss of not only a client but a great friend and mentor of almost 15 years," Sizemore's manager Charles Lago said in a statement. "Tom was one of the most sincere, kind and generous human beings I have had the pleasure of knowing. His courage and determination through adversity was always an inspiration to me. The past couple of years were great for him and he was getting his life back to a great place. He loved his sons and his family. I will miss my friend Tom Sizemore greatly."

Born in Detroit, Sizemore grew up watching movies with his mother. He became fascinated with Robert De Niro's performance in Taxi Driver, as he told the website Decider in 2022.

"I saw that movie every week for, like, two months when it was playing in the theater," he said. "I saw it 11 weeks in a row. That's when I first started thinking, 'Whatever that is they're doing up there, I want to be part of it. I want to do that.' And I started to figure out how to become an actor."

Sizemore studied theater at Wayne State University and Temple University. After a period of waiting tables in New York City while trying to carve out a career, he started getting cast in an impressive streak of celebrated films.

Starting in 1989, Sizemore appeared in small roles in Born on the Fourth of July, directed by Oliver Stone, then two early movies by Kathryn Bigelow, Point Break and Blue Steel. Slowly, Sizemore worked his way into increasingly larger roles in Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, Passenger 57, True Romance and Natural Born Killers.