The other is experimental composer and music theorist John Cage, a pioneer in post-war avant-garde sounds.
Here, in chronological order, is a look at some of the actor’s best.
In turn, Cage rose to leading man status.
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They join the Army and serve in Vietnam, both traumatized by combat.
Modine, whose diverse career includes roles like Private/Sergeant J.T.
“Hi” McDunnough while she’s snapping his mugshot at the county jail.
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Hi serves his time, and the two marry to discover that Ed can’t bear children.
“Cher replied immediately, ‘Nicolas Cage!’
When I met with Nic, I felt he was perfect.
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He didn’t disappoint me at all.
Believability is everything in film.”
Jones) captures eloquently in this heart-wrenching tragedy.
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Ben, a screenwriter with an alcohol addiction, comes to town intending to end his life.
And then a romance blooms, as two lonely souls find release from their troubled lives.
Their mission: to stop a catastrophic attack.
Cher and Nicolas Cage in ‘Moonstruck’.Everett Collection
Gen. Francis Hummel (Ed Harris) and his clan of U.S. Force Recon Marines.
“Nic was not happy with the action beats in the fight.
He said he felt ridiculous, even asking if it would look okay.
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I remember asking him to come to dailies.
Then he said with a big smile: ‘So that’s how this s— works.’
There were bombs, gunfire, falling towers, and s— flying everywhere.”
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“It was inspired by a story in theL.A.
“Donald Deline was the studio exec on the film.
We brought inScott Rosenbergand worked out the story.”
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“Tony Scottwas at the top of the list.
But, apparently, Jerry couldn’t convince Tony Scott to doCon Air.
So Jerry got a first-time director… Simon West.”
Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage in ‘The Rock’.Everett Collection
“I can’t imagine that film without Nic as the lead.
It was like having Salvador Dali on set every day… but with a greasy mullet.”
LikeThe Rock,Con Airwas another pillar in every ’90s kid’s childhood.
Nicolas Cage in Con Air.Everett Collection
In the scene, the Griffith Park Carousel spins in slow motion.
The homicidal Castor Troy crouches behind a Remington 700PSS rifle in the grass, drinking from a straw.
Aiming at Sean’s back, Castor pulls the trigger.
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A bullet tears through flesh but strikes Michael.
Sean survives; his son dies.
Seth, City of Angels (1998)
By the late-’90s, Cage had landed at No.
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40 onEmpiremagazine’s “Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time” list.
When someone dies, he accompanies their spirit to the afterlife.
Nic is an exciting actor because he’s completely spontaneous.
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He surprised us daily with humorous moments and touching emotion.”
His skin is pale, eyes swollen, burned out after five years on the job.
“Film acting is normally defined by restraint and presence,“Bringing Out the DeadscribePaul Schradertells EW.
Columbia Pictures
He redefines the task.
He shatters the meter.
Very few actors Klaus Kinski another can accomplish this.”
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The two gifted minds tackled this enchanting invention about a screenwriter with both depression and writer’s block.
Charlie is hired to adapt Susan Orlean’s 1998 nonfiction bookThe Orchid Thiefinto a movie.
Lost because “the book has no story,” he writes himself into the screenplay.
Garth Stead
Laroche was such a fascinating character.
Have never laughed so much on a shoot.
Only got two days with Nicolas Cage for what became the last scene.
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Schlissel (Insomnia,Flightplan,The Prestige,Body of Lies) explains.
As with alcoholism inLeaving Las Vegas,Cage explores the debilitating realities of OCD.
That’s one firearm for every 12 people on the planet.
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The only question is: How do we arm the other 11?”
Nic took it in good humor and then did something remarkable that I’ve never seen anyone else do.
He did an impersonation of himself.
Nicolas Cage in ‘Mandy’.RLJE Films
A perfectly nuanced, subtly heightened version of Nic.
After we all picked our jaws off the floor, no one tried that again."
Chocolate shakes melt and drip down his coat in the freezing cold.
Nicolas Cage ‘Pig’.David Reamer/Neon
His Vicodin addiction is spiraling out of control due to a spinal injury.
Five Senegalese immigrants are murdered in a crime-ridden neighborhood, and McDonagh gets assigned to the investigation alongside Det.
Stevie Pruit (Val Kilmer), mingling with men like himself but on opposite sides of the law.
Nicolas Cage as Nick Cage in ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’.Katalin Vermes/Lionsgate
Instead, he and screenwriter William M. Finkelstein (Law & Order,L.A.
Law) tread even darker waters in a swamp of corruption and chaos.
Red is a logger; Mandy is an artist and author.
Robin’s shack sits nestled in the Oregon wilderness.
In the process, Cage serves up a brooding, subdued, and brilliant performance.
In the best of ways, it didn’t feel like there was any acting going on."
InMassive Talent, Cage’s career is on the downslope as he nears 60.
He’s no longer the wavy-haired rebel in a snakeskin jacket fromWild at Heart.
“Not a lot of actors would agree to do an extremely heightened, tabloid version of their life.
He completely embraced it and totally went for it.”
“Nothing communicates to me more than watching a great cinematic performance.
Whether I am watching or performing a character, I feel with that character and become less alone.”
