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Tom Sizemore dead: Saving Private Ryan actor dies after aneurysm aged 61

Actor had been in coma since suffering brain aneurysm on 18 February at his home in Los Angeles

Namita Singh
Saturday 04 March 2023 07:06 GMT
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Tom Sizemore: Saving Private Ryan actor dies aged 61

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Tom Sizemore, the actor best known for his appearance in Saving Private Ryan, has died aged 61.

Sizemore died in his sleep on Friday at a hospital in Burbank, California, his manager Charles Lago confirmed.

He had been in a coma in an intensive care unit since he suffered a brain aneurysm on 18 February at his home in Los Angeles.

“It is with great sadness and sorrow I have to announce that actor Thomas Edward Sizemore … passed away peacefully in his sleep today at St Joseph’s Hospital Burbank. His Brother Paul and twin boys Jayden and Jagger were at his side,” Mr Lago said.

Last Thursday (28 February), doctors caring for Sizemore said there was “no further hope” for his recovery after he suffered the brain aneurysm.

Born in 1961, Sizemore made one of his first movie appearances in Oliver Stone’s 1989 film Born on the Fourth of July. He later starred in 1991’s Point Break and 1993’s True Romance.

Sizemore became a star with acclaimed appearances in Natural Born Killers and the cult-classic crime thriller Heat.

He earned a reputation for playing tough-guy characters in war and action films in the 1990s and 2000s.

In the war epic Saving Private Ryan (1998) he played Mike Horvath, long-time friend of Tom Hanks’s Captain John Miller and second-in-command.

Sizemore was the father to 17-year-old twin daughters and was previously married to actor Maeve Quinlan.

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His career was eclipsed by serious substance dependency, abuse allegations and multiple run-ins with the law, which eventually destroyed his career leaving him homeless and sending him to jail.

He has been vocal about his struggles with addiction in the past, and was convicted of domestic violence in 2003 against his then-girlfriend, Heidi Fleiss. In 2006, he pleaded no contest to using methamphetamine outside a motel.

Sizemore was arrested in Los Angeles in 2009 for a suspected battery of a former spouse, and again in 2011 for the same offence.

As the global MeToo movement wave crested in late 2017, Sizemore was also accused of groping an 11-year-old Utah girl on set in 2003.

He called the allegations “highly disturbing”, saying he would never inappropriately touch a child.

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