Every Film He Made Rated a Best Picture?

He inspired lover Meryl Streep: ‘He wasn’t like anybody I’d ever met…’ Five Best Pictures in 7 years? The amazing John Cazale

Meryl Streep set the record for Academy Awards. She fell in love with the incredible John Cazale, who made just five films (all nominated for Best Picture — three won). She was with him until the end (he died at age 42)—photo collage by Joseph Serwach with public domain images via Wikimedia Commons.

You know Academy Award champion Meryl Streep — but do you recall the actor who changed her life? Every John Cazale film was nominated for Best Picture and rated among the greatest films ever.

Streep won three Academy Awards (a record of 21 nominations). Cazale taught Meryl Streep how to become the best actress ever — and most importantly, he taught her how to live, love, and die.

“She doesn’t talk about it much,” Michael Schulman, author of Her Again, told the New York Post. “But that year was so wildly eventful and dramatic in her life. It was instrumental in shaping who she was as a person and an actor.”

Say his name aloud: John Cazale. Most draw a blank, not recognizing his name. Show his photo, and — if they recognize him — they smirk and ask: “Fredo?”

Fifty years after he created the Fredo character for The Godfather and Godfather II, the beloved stars he worked with (the greatest of their generation) say they learned more from Cazale than any other actor.

Over seven years, the five films he appeared in amassed a combined 40 Academy Award…