The blazing Hollywood star that Tom Sizemore became after appearing in the 1998 film “Saving Private Ryan” succumbed Friday to an almost two-week battle with illness.
Sizemore had a brain aneurism at his Los Angeles home February 18, according to a WDBJ 7 report. The 61-year-old actor’s 17-year-old twin sons Jayden and Jagger and his brother Paul were by his side when he died in a Burbank hospital, according to the report.
The Daily Wire further reported:
Actor Tom Sizemore, known for his roles in “Saving Private Ryan” and “Black Hawk Down,” has died. He was 61 years old.
“It is with great sadness and sorrow I have to announce that actor Thomas Edward Sizemore (‘Tom Sizemore’) aged 61 passed away peacefully in his sleep today at St Joseph’s Hospital Burbank,” said Charles Lago, Sizemore’s manager. “His Brother Paul and twin boys Jayden and Jagger (17) were at his side.”
Sizemore’s death comes after he spent the last couple of weeks in the hospital following a brain aneurysm that he suffered after experiencing a stroke on February 18.
Sizemore, a native of Detroit, Michigan, had battled drug addiction since he was 15; his methamphetamine and heroin addictions were documented in VH1’s six-episode series “Shooting Sizemore.”
Sizemore started his film career in 1989 in films such as “Lock Up,” “Rude Awakening,” “Penn & Teller Get Killed,” and “Born on the Fourth of July.” His career swung upward with his performance in 1993’s “Heart and Souls,” for which he was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Memorable performances in “Heat,” “The Relic,” “Devil in a Blue Dress,” and “Witness Protection” followed before his major roles in “Saving Private Ryan” and “Black Hawk Down.”
In 2013, Sizemore released his memoir, “By Some Miracle I Made It Out Of There,” in which he spoke of his long-time affair with model Elizabeth Hurley. He wrote, “I just loved her. I didn’t see other girls, didn’t talk about other girls — I was completely enraptured and in her world.”
“She taught me a lot about myself,” he recalled. “She taught me that I wasn’t who I thought I was. I’d always thought I was the kind of person who’d never take that kind of treatment from a girl, and what I learned is that I’ll take a lot of things from a girl if I love her, and, in fact, I’ll take too much. I really lost myself in Elizabeth Hurley.”
“Eventually, I was able to get out of my relationship with Elizabeth but I never really got over her — I just moved on out of emotional necessity,” he concluded.
In a recent interview with Age of the Nerd, Sizemore was asked to what he owed his longevity in the acting business. “My passion for the work. I’ve always loved movies,” he answered. “That’s why I started doing this and after all these years I still adore movies.”
Asked which films “jump out at you as being just the most memorable or the most exciting?” Sizemore replied, “‘Natural Born Killers’ was the first leading part in a major production. It was such a unique production and the actors were so terrific. Oliver Stone was at the top of his game, and Spielberg’s ‘Saving Private Ryan’ for obvious reasons. … ‘Heat,’ ‘Black Hawk Down,’ ‘Dreamcatcher,’ ‘A Broken Life,’ and ‘The Last Lullaby’; I truly love those movies. I was lucky to have been given the opportunity to work with many terrific directors.”
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