James Caan - Pittsfield's Piccolo in 'Brian's Song' - Dies at 82

You watched the movie as a kid. So did we and ... yep, cried. Truth be told, we might still today.

Because to a lot of older NFL fans, Brian's Song was one of the first football movies of their childhood.

And on Thursday one of the stars of that classic - actor James Caan - passed away at the age of 82. Caan played Brian Piccolo, who was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

From The Godfather to Elf, Caan did it all in Hollywood. Including using his experience as a college football player to portray the ill-fated Piccolo in TV's Brian's Song, based on Piccolo's unyielding and unlikely relationship with a Chicago Bears' teammate named Gale Sayers (played by Billy Dee Williams).

The 1971 ABC Movie of the Week recounted the life of Piccolo, who was stricken with terminal cancer after turning pro in 1965. Piccolo and Sayers became the first interracial roommates in the history of the NFL.

Critics have called the movie one of the finest television movies ever made. A 2005 readers' poll taken by Entertainment Weekly ranked Brian's Song seventh on its list of the top "guy-cry" films.

Good to know we're not alone.

Caan played at Michigan State before moving from from East Lansing to attend Hofstra University in New York. It was there where he met Francis Ford Coppola, director of "The Godfather'' - and the rest is, very literally, film history.

The real-life Piccolo played 51 games for the Bears from 1965-69, rushing for 927 yards and scoring five touchdowns. He passed away from cancer in June 1970.