Tom Sizemore, the Saving Private Ryan actor whose bright 1990s star burned out under the weight of his domestic violence and drug convictions, died Friday at age 61. The actor had suffered a brain aneurysm on Feb. 18 at his home in Los Angeles. He died in his sleep Friday at a hospital in Burbank, California, his manager, Charles Lago, said, per the AP. Sizemore became a star with acclaimed appearances in Natural Born Killers and the cult-classic crime thriller Heat. But serious substance dependency, abuse allegations, and multiple run-ins with the law devastated his career, left him homeless, and sent him to jail. As the global #MeToo movement wave crested in late 2017, Sizemore was also accused of groping an 11-year-old Utah girl on the set in 2003. He called the allegations "highly disturbing," saying he would never inappropriately touch a child. Charges weren't filed.
Despite the raft of legal troubles, Sizemore had scores of steady film and television credits—though his career never regained its onetime momentum. Aside from Black Hawk Down and Pearl Harbor, most of his 21st-century roles came in low-budget, little-seen productions where he continued to play the gruff, tough guys he became famous for portraying. "I was a guy who'd come from very little and risen to the top," the Detroit-born Sizemore wrote in his 2013 memoir, By Some Miracle I Made It Out of There. "I'd had the multimillion-dollar house, the Porsche, the restaurant I partially owned with Robert De Niro. And now I had absolutely nothing." The book's title was taken from a line uttered by his character in Saving Private Ryan, a role for which he garnered Oscar buzz. But he wrote that success turned him into a "spoiled movie star," an "arrogant fool," and eventually "a hope-to-die addict."
He racked up a string of domestic violence arrests. Sizemore was married once, to actor Maeve Quinlan, and was arrested on suspicion of beating her in 1997. While the charges were dropped, the couple divorced in 1999. Sizemore was convicted of abusing ex-girlfriend Heidi Fleiss in 2003—the same year he pleaded no contest and avoided trial in a separate abuse case—and sentenced to jail. Sizemore was the subject of two workplace sexual harassment lawsuits and was arrested as recently as 2016 in another domestic violence case. He ended up jailed from August 2007 to January 2009 for failing numerous drug tests while on probation and after authorities in Bakersfield, California, found methamphetamine in his car. Sizemore told the AP in 2013 that he believed his dependency was related to the trappings of success.
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He appeared on the reality TV show Celebrity Rehab and its spinoff Sober House, telling the AP that he did the shows to receive help, but also partly to pay off accumulated debts that ran into the millions. Many of Sizemore's later-career films had a sci-fi, horror, or action bent. He still nabbed a few meaty roles, including in the Twin Peaks revival, and guest spots on popular shows like Entourage and Hawaii Five-0. In addition to his film and TV credits, Sizemore was part of the voice cast for 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City video game. He's survived by his 17-year-old twin sons, Jayden and Jagger, and his brother Paul, who were by his side when he died. "I've led an interesting life, but I can't tell you what I'd give to be the guy you didn't know anything about," Sizemore wrote in his memoir.
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