Tom Sizemore, the ‘Saving Private Ryan’ star who built a long Hollywood career amid addiction problems and run-ins with law enforcement, has passed away. He was 61.
The veteran actor’s death following a stroke-related brain aneurysm at his home in Los Angeles on Feb. 18 has been confirmed by his manager. .
Sizemore passed away peacefully in his sleep today at St. Joseph’s Hospital Burbank. His brother Paul and twin brothers Jayden and Jagger were by his side,” Charles Lago told The Post.
“The Sizemore family has been comforted by hundreds of messages of support and love to their son, brother and father,” added Lago. “They ask for privacy at this difficult time and I ask that those wishes be respected.”
There will be a private cremation service for the family with a larger life event celebration planned in a few weeks.
The news of Sizemore’s death comes after Lago revealed on Monday that his medical care was at a critical turning point.
“Today, doctors have informed his family that there is no hope and have recommended an end-of-life decision,” Lago said in a statement received by The Post. He added that Sizemore’s family was “deciding end-of-life matters”.
The star fought for his life in the intensive care unit at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, after an unidentified person found Sizemore unconscious and called 911. He remained in a coma until his death.
“Tom was one of the most genuine, kind and generous people I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. His courage and determination through adversity was always an inspiration to me. The last few years have been great for him and he was getting his life back on track.”
Charles Lago, Sizemore’s manager for 15 years.
Born November 29, 1961 in Detroit, Sizemore attended Wayne State University and received his master’s degree in theater from Temple University in 1986.
One of his first acting credits was playing a veteran in Oliver Stone’s “Born on the Fourth of July”, released in 1989. He then starred in several other projects, including ‘Lock Up’, ‘Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man’, ‘Point Break’, ‘True Romance’, ‘Natural Born Killers’ and ‘Strange Days’.
Sizemore’s career-defining role came in the 1998 blockbuster “Saving Private Ryan,” where he played Sgt. Mike Horvath.
“I had a great time with Tom Hanks — we were kind of ‘good Tom’ and ‘bad Tom,’ and you can guess who was who,” Sizemore wrote of “Saving Private Ryan” in his 2013 memoir, ” By some miracle I got out of there.”
“The real purpose of my character in the movie was to keep Hanks’ character alive and make sure the other men didn’t see him falling apart. At the end of the shooting, Tom wrote me a nice note saying that he would never forget to make the film with me.”
Saving Private Ryan won five Oscars, including Best Director for Steven Spielberg.
Sizemore’s other notable films include ‘Pearl Harbor’ and ‘Heat’. He also appeared in six episodes of the TV series “Twin Peaks” in 2017, and he voiced Sonny Forelli in the 2002 video game “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City”.
One of his last movies was “The Legend of Jack and Diane” in 2022. He’s attached also for projects ending in 2023 and 2024.
The embattled actor struggled publicly with cocaineheroin and methamphetamine addictions and got into legal trouble for drug possession And domestic violence. He appeared in “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew” in 2010.
While promoting his memoir, Sizemore claimed that his “Heat” co-star Robert DeNiro urged him to go to rehab after they finished filming the 1995 movie.
“I walked in to see my psychiatrist, and I walked in, and there were all these people there… and I sat down and Bob came in and said, ‘Okay. OK, now we can talk… Now hear me out, I’m not a psychiatrist… but you either go to rehab or jail and walk in on a cop, ”Sizemore Access told Hollywood about his family-led intervention.
“I tried to make a joke of it because all these people are there and I’m embarrassed, and he said, ‘Tom, I’m not playing. They put you in jail for a year,’ he added.
“I did the last scene of ‘Heat’ and I was going to go straight to rehab, but I let my assistant drive my car… and I dove into the backseat of a moving vehicle with my prosthetics on and I drove to the Loews Hotel and I checked in under the name of Amiel Gooch and Bob [DeNiro] eventually tracked me down there, and when I knew he was approaching me, I hung from the balcony,” Sizemore explained.
Sizemore was married to ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ actress Maeve Quinlan from 1996 to 1999. Quinlan called the police after a violent argument at their home in 1997. “great misunderstanding.”
Sizemore’s abusive reputation endured. In 2003, he was convicted of domestic violence against his then-girlfriend, Heidi Fleiss. “The Hollywood Madam” had nothing but negative things to say about her former beau in a 2017 interview with USA Today.
“He would bring these weird things home. They were so humiliating,” Fleiss told the outlet about Sizemore’s alleged porn preferences.
“No one will have more disgusting stories in Hollywood than him,” she added. “I’ve dealt with a lot of people doing a lot of different things. It’s different with Tom. He is on a whole different level.”
Sizemore dated Janelle McIntire from 2003 to 2006. McIntire gave birth to the couple’s twin boys, Jagger and Jayden Sizemore, in July 2005.
Months later, a sex tape called “The Tom Sizemore Sex Scandal” was released, which allegedly captured the actor engaging in hardcore scenes with up to three women at once, distributor Lively entertainment claimed at the time. Sizemore reportedly claimed in the video that he hooked up with Paris Hilton, which she denied.
Sizemore pleaded no contest to methamphetamine use outside a California motel in 2006 and was sentenced to 36 months of probation.
In 2009, he was arrested twice in LA on suspicion of assaulting an ex-husband and on suspicion of transporting or selling a controlled substance, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Him again pleaded no contest to two domestic violence charges for assaulting his girlfriend — a deal that allowed him to avoid more jail time — in February 2017.
That November, former child actress Kiersten Peak claimed the Hollywood reporter that Sizemore had molested her on the set of “Natural Born Killers” in 2003 when she was just 11 years old. He was briefly kicked off the set due to the allegation, but was allowed to complete the project again.
The actress filed a lawsuit against Sizemore in May 2018, demanding $3 million, claiming that his alleged abuse caused long-term emotional problems. His publicist denied the allegation, and a Utah judge dismissed the lawsuit in August 2020.
“Apart from the loss of job and the pain and humiliation this has caused me and my family, the thought that an 11-year-old girl would think I violated her, whether it’s because she misinterpreted an accidental touch when the director put her on my lap for the photo shoot or someone else put this idea into her head for whatever evil selfish reasons is what devastates me the most,” Sizemore said in part in a statement to USA Today.
According to his IMDb profile, Sizemore was still linked to dozens of projects in production or post-production this year.
His latest completed works include an episode on the upcoming sixth season of the television series ‘Cobra Kai’ and the 2023 disaster movie ‘Bermuda Island’.
