Tom Sizemore's 7 most memorable performances

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He may not have made his name as a leading man, but Tom Sizemore, who died on March 3 at age 61 following a ruptured brain aneurysm, could be counted on to bring a certain reckless intensity to the roles he played. He was an indelibly salty presence and a reliable scene-stealer, even when he shared the screen with acting giants such as Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington.

Though personal troubles (abuse, addiction, numerous cycles through rehab) famously plagued him throughout his nearly 35-year career, directors like Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, and Martin Scorsese continued to champion him for good reason. In projects as varied as Heat, Saving Private Ryan, Wyatt Earp, and Passenger 57, the Detroit native rarely missed the chance to convert small parts into moments of both crisis and catharsis.

Below, we celebrate seven of Sizemore's most memorable turns.

<i>True Romance</i> (1993)

The cameo list in Quentin Tarantino's cult caper is bananas: Brad Pitt, Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Samuel L. Jackson, James Gandolfini. So you'd be forgiven for not immediately recalling Sizemore's turn as an L.A. cop with a penchant for both f-bombs and good grammar (just watch him school his on-screen partner, the late Chris Penn). Still, the actor tears gleefully into his few memorable scenes; if you were Bronson Pinchot's panicky, coke-riddled actor with a police wire attached to his scrotum, wouldn't you trust that face? — Leah Greenblatt

<i>Devil in a Blue Dress</i> (1995)

Sizemore is one heavy among many here, but his chilling pivot from affably shifty to scary makes his screen time as jolting as that of costars Denzel Washington and Don Cheadle. His Albright, a suspender-clad fixer in this noir's suffocating portrait of 1940s Los Angeles, is the kind of charismatic scumbag Sizemore could play in his sleep. Still, his cold, darting eyes never stop telling stories, teasing a moral rot that runs deep. — Randall Colburn

<i>Heat</i> (1995)

Michael Mann's cool-blue crime epic looms largest in his filmography these days (he wrote a best-selling sequel novel to it last year), and Sizemore supplies the toughest of crews with a glint of playfulness — even when he's all-business. His Michael Cheritto coolly cuts down a hired hand who thinks the robbery is a yap session ("Stop talking, okay, slick?"). Then, when it's time to decide on that proverbial One Last Job, Sizemore steals the scene from Robert De Niro — re-read that sentence, please — with the finest take of his career, a glance or two to the side, the smallest flash of wildness, then a full-on commitment: "Well, you know for me, the action is the juice. I'm in."— Joshua Rothkopf

<i>Saving Private Ryan</i> (1998)

"What if, by some miracle, we stay and actually make it out of here?" Sizemore's Sergeant Mike Horvath tells his friend and captain, John Miller (Tom Hanks), in the ruins of WWII France, as their ragtag company attempts to rescue a young foot soldier (Matt Damon) who is the last survivor of four brothers. "Someday, we might look back on this and decide that saving Private Ryan was the one decent thing we were able to pull out of this whole god-awful s----y mess." There are no miracles for Horvath in the end, but his understated performance remains a gritty, grounded highlight of his career. — LG

<i>Bringing Out the Dead</i> (1999)

Landing a gig in a Martin Scorsese movie — even a minor one — was a coup for Sizemore, and he's doubly fortunate to have been in that film's most memorable scene: a coked-out midnight ambulance run scored to the Clash's "Janie Jones," reminiscent of Taxi Driver. (Yes, that's Marty himself on the radio doing the dispatching.) Bleary-eyed and impulsive, Sizemore brings a broad smile to the proceedings and lets us laugh at the wildness of the moment. "Something's gonna happen," he yells, "I can feel it," and for the briefest instant, he's out-crazy-ing Nicolas Cage. — JR

<i>Robbery Homicide Division</i> (2002)

Mann executive-produced this tragically forgotten midnight-city procedural, starring his Heat scene-stealer Sizemore as LAPD detective Sam Cole. It's a live-wire star turn, all that nasty Natural Born Killers energy sizzling undernearth broadcast-cop nobility. The show might have been Sizemore's mainstream crossover, uncovering the glamour in his gravelly dark humor. But low ratings demoted RHD to a Saturday doomslot by December, when a domestic battery charge began a long run of career-derailing legal trouble for the actor. — Darren Franich

<i>Twin Peaks: The Return</i> (2017)

Playing a corrupt insurance agent so deep into his paycheck-and-arrest period sounds like sleazeball stunt casting. But Sizemore's bit part in this kaleidoscopic revival is a tender, full-bodied portrait of dandruffy emotional dissolution. When a coworker threatens his scam, he attempts to poison the man's coffee (the ultimate David Lynch sin). In a single scene, Sizemore cycles a full Crime and Punishment of monstrous evil, confused conscience, and spiritual regret, before blubbering out a confession. It's a Mighty Have Fallen moment, so pitiful it's funny, but also a bright burst of unexpected humanity. — DF

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