Tom Sizemore, the “Saving Personal Ryan” actor whose brilliant 1990s star burned out underneath the pounds of his personal domestic violence and drug convictions, died Friday at age 61.
The actor had suffered a brain aneurysm on Feb. 18 at his dwelling in Los Angeles. He died in his slumber Friday at a clinic in Burbank, California, his manager Charles Lago stated.
Sizemore turned a star with acclaimed appearances in “Natural Born Killers” and the cult-basic crime thriller “Heat.” But severe material dependency, abuse allegations and several operate-ins with the legislation devastated his career, remaining him homeless and sent him to jail.
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As the global #MeToo motion wave crested in late 2017, Sizemore was also accused of groping an 11-year-old Utah woman on set in 2003. He known as the allegations “highly disturbing,” stating he would by no means inappropriately contact a child. Rates ended up not submitted.
Even with the raft of legal hassle, Sizemore experienced scores of continuous film and television credits — while his occupation hardly ever regained its onetime momentum. Aside from “Black Hawk Down” and “Pearl Harbor,” most of his 21st century roles came in small-spending budget, minor-observed productions wherever he continued to perform the gruff, tricky fellas he turned famed for portraying.
“I was a person who’d occur from very small and risen to the top. I’d had the multimillion-greenback household, the Porsche, the cafe I partially owned with Robert De Niro,” the Detroit-born Sizemore wrote in his 2013 memoir, “By Some Miracle I Produced It Out of There.” “And now I experienced definitely almost nothing.”
The book’s title was taken from a line uttered by his character in “Saving Non-public Ryan,” a role for which he garnered Oscar excitement. But he wrote that success turned him into a “spoiled film star,” an “arrogant fool” and at some point “a hope-to-die addict.”
He racked up a string of domestic violence arrests. Sizemore was married once, to actor Maeve Quinlan, and was arrested on suspicion of beating her in 1997. Although the expenses were being dropped, the pair divorced in 1999.
Sizemore was convicted of abusing ex-girlfriend Heidi Fleiss in 2003 — the similar 12 months he pleaded no contest and avoided trial in a individual abuse case — and sentenced to jail. The former Hollywood madam testified that he had punched her in the jaw at a Beverly Hills hotel, and overwhelmed her in New York to the position exactly where they could not show up at the “Black Hawk Down” premiere.
The sentencing choose stated drug abuse was most likely a catalyst but that testimony experienced discovered a guy who experienced deep difficulties dealing with women of all ages. Fleiss identified as Sizemore “a zero” in a dialogue with The Involved Push following his conviction.
Sizemore apologized in a letter, expressing he was “chastened” and that “personal demons” had taken over his existence, while he later on denied abusing her and accused her of faking a photo demonstrating her bruises.
Fleiss also sued Sizemore, saying she suffered emotional distress immediately after he threatened to get her have probation revoked. Fleiss had been convicted in 1994 of running a substantial-priced simply call-girl ring. That lawsuit was settled on undisclosed phrases.
Sizemore was the matter of two workplace sexual harassment lawsuits relevant to the 2002 CBS present “Robbery Murder Division,” in which he performed a law enforcement detective. He was arrested as not long ago as 2016 in a further domestic violence scenario.
Sizemore finished up jailed from August 2007 to January 2009 for failing several drug assessments though on probation and after Bakersfield, California, authorities discovered methamphetamine in his vehicle.
“God’s attempting to explain to me he does not want me applying medicines since every time I use them I get caught,” Sizemore advised The Bakersfield Californian in a jailhouse job interview.
Sizemore told the AP in 2013 that he thought his dependency was similar to the trappings of achievements. He struggled to sustain his psychological composure as he described a low issue searching in the mirror: “I seemed like I was 100 years outdated. I had no marriage with my children I experienced no get the job done to talk off. I was dwelling in squat.”
He appeared on the actuality Television exhibit “Celebrity Rehab” and its spinoff “Sober Home,” telling the AP that he did the reveals to acquire enable, but also partly to shell out off accrued money owed that ran into the millions.
A lot of of Sizemore’s later on-vocation movies experienced a sci-fi, horror or action bent: In 2022 alone, he starred in flicks with these titles as “Impuratus,” “Night of the Tommyknockers” and “Vampfather.” But Sizemore nonetheless nabbed a number of meaty roles — like in the “Twin Peaks” revival — and guest places on well known displays like “Entourage” and “Hawaii 5-O.”
A stuntman sued Sizemore and Paramount Pics in 2016, indicating he was injured when the allegedly intoxicated actor ran him about while filming USA’s “Shooter.” Point out records obtained by the AP showed that Sizemore was only intended to be sitting in the unmoving car and that he “improvised at the close of the scene and drove absent in his automobile.” Sizemore was fired from “Shooter” and the stuntman’s lawsuit was settled on undisclosed conditions.
In addition to his film and Tv set credits, he was part of the voice cast for 2002’s “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City” movie video game. He also taught classes at the LA West Performing Studio, according to new advertisements.
He is survived by his 17-calendar year-old twin sons, Jayden and Jagger, and his brother Paul, all of whom were being by his facet when he died.
“I’ve led an intriguing life, but I can’t inform you what I’d give to be the male you didn’t know nearly anything about,” Sizemore wrote in his memoir.
