‘Heat,’ ‘Saving Private Ryan’ co-star Tom Sizemore, dead at 61

Actor Tom Sizemore, who appeared in classic films including Heat, Saving Private Ryan, and Black Hawk Down, has died, after suffering a brain aneurysm at his Los Angeles home on February 18. 

The actor was rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital Burbank and listed in critical condition, but according to his manager Charles Lago on February 27, the actor remained in critical condition and in a coma ever since he arrived. Lago’s update explained, “doctors informed his family that there is no further hope and have recommended end of life decision. The family is now deciding end of life matters.”

Sizemore passed peacefully in his sleep at St. Joseph’s with his twin sons and his brother Paul by his side. There will be a private cremation service for the family, with a larger celebration of life event planned in a few weeks, according to Lago.

The versatile character actor was arguably as famous for his off-screen problems as he was for the major films in which he starred. Sizemore battled addiction since he was 15, and over the years ended up running afoul of the law multiple times because of it. 

Sizemore also made headlines for his tumultuous relationship with “Hollywood Madam” Heidi Fleiss, with whom he appeared on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew in 2010, and who accused him of assault in 2003.

In February of 2017, he pleaded no contest to assaulting his girlfriend at the time, but his rap sheet also included arrests of suspected battery of another woman in 2009 and 2011, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In 2019, he was arrested in Burbank, California for misdemeanor drug possession, and in 2020, a Utah judge dismissed a civil lawsuit filed against him by a woman who claim he groped her on the set of a film in 2003, when she was 11. The actor had denied the accusations, and no charges were ever filed at the time.

In 2013, Sizemore published a memoir detailing his career and battle with addiction, titled By Some Miracle I Made It Out of There.

The Detroit, Michigan native appeared in scores of movies including True Romance, Pearl Harbor, and Natural Born Killers, in addition to many straight-to-streaming titles in more recent years. 

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