Sizemore “passed away peacefully in his sleep” at Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, with his two sons and his brother, Paul Sizemore, by his side, Lago said in a statement released on behalf of the family.
“I am deeply saddened by the loss of my big brother Tom,” Paul Sizemore said in the statement. “He was larger than life. He has influenced my life more than anyone I know. He was talented, loving, giving and could keep you entertained endlessly with his wit and storytelling ability. I am devastated he is gone and will miss him always.”
On Monday, Sizemore’s family said doctors informed them there was “no further hope” and recommended “end of life decision” due to the condition of his health, according to a statement released.
But Sizemore struggled to stay clean. And there were other “personal demons”.
In 1997, he was arrested on suspicion of assaulting his wife, actress and tennis player Maeve Quinlan. They divorced two years later.
In 2003, he was sentenced to six months in prison for beating up his girlfriend, the former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss, and was ordered to complete more rehab and anger management.
Ms Fleiss testified that he had also stubbed a cigarette out on her, knocked her to the ground outside his home, and made more than 70 obscenity-laced phone calls.
He said at the time that he had “permitted my personal demons to take over my life”. Born in Detroit, Sizemore made a name for himself in Hollywood playing tough guys.
He had an early, small role in the 1989 Oliver Stone film “Born on the Fourth of July” and scored his television break playing Sgt. Vinnie Ventresca in the ABC series “China Beach.”
Sizemore followed that with performances in various films, including “Point Break” in 1991, “True Romance” in 1993, “Natural Born Killers” in 1994 and “Strange Days” in 1995.
His costarring role as Bat Masterson in Kevin Costner’s western “Wyatt Earp” earned Sizemore acclaim. He went on to other major roles in “Pearl Harbor” and “Black Hawk Down,” both released in 2001.
He was perhaps best known for his role as Sgt. Mike Horvath in the 1998 World War II film “Saving Private Ryan.” Born in a working class area of Detroit, Sizemore obtained a masters degree in theatre before his Hollywood break arrived with a bit part in Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July in 1989.
That work led to bigger roles in 1990s dramas such as Tony Scott’s True Romance, Devil in a Blue Dress, opposite Denzel Washington, and the biopic Wyatt Earp, alongside Kevin Costner.
Stone cast him again in the controversial Natural Born Killers as the violent Detective Jack Scagnetti; and he played a henchman to Robert De Niro’s criminal in Heat.
In the Oscar-winning film Saving Private Ryan in 1998, he was at Tom Hanks’ side as the loyal Sergeant Horvath.
In 2005, he went back to jail for violating his probation by failing a drug test, after being caught trying to use a prosthetic penis to fake the results. According to prosecutors, Sizemore had been caught once before trying to use a similar device.
Two years later, he was sentenced to 16 months for violating the terms of his probation, and was also arrested for driving under the influence.
“I was a guy who’d come from very little and risen to the top,” Sizemore wrote in his 2013 autobiography.
“I’d had the multimillion-dollar house, the Porsche, the restaurant I partially owned with Robert De Niro. And now I had absolutely nothing.”
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