The Only Major Actors Still Alive From Dog Day Afternoon

Few filmmakers had a better 1970s than Sidney Lumet. While he was more prolific than most of the decade’s top directors, knocking out 11 movies over a 10-year span, and did find time to helm one of the worst musicals in motion picture history (a badly bungled adaptation of “The Wiz”), when Lumet got ahold of the right material, he made classics like “Serpico,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” and “Network.”

There isn’t a more electric movie in Lumet’s oeuvre than “Dog Day Afternoon.” Based on a true story, the 1975 critical and commercial hit centers on a bank robbery in Brooklyn carried out by Sonny Wortzik, an amateur crook desperate to pay for his lover’s gender-affirming surgery. When the heist quickly goes south, Sonny and his associates find themselves stuck holding hostages while cops swarm the building. The defiant Sonny scrambles to negotiate an escape while playing to the crowd of onlookers who’ve gathered outside the bank, but the noose keeps tightening around his neck the longer the ordeal drags on. It’s an exciting, nerve-fraying drama that takes one unexpected twist after another on its way to a tragic conclusion.

At his best, Lumet was an ace director of actors. At the outset of each production (as detailed in his indispensable book “Making Movies”), Lumet built in a rehearsal period so that he could work with his performers in a more intimate setting, as if directing a stage play, before getting his actors before the cameras. On “Dog Day Afternoon,” this process allowed him to get uncommonly authentic turns from world-class actors like Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning and Chris Sarandon. If you’ve seen the film, you’ll never forget Pacino’s Sonny firing up Brooklyn bystanders with his “Attica!” chant, nor will you ever shake that pulse-pounding ending. It’s a scintillating actors’ showcase, and, given that it was shot over 50 years ago, we’ve unfortunately lost most of the performers who made it sing (including Cazale, who passed away far too soon from cancer at the age of 42). So, let’s take a moment to celebrate two brilliant actors from the film who are still quite active today.

Sarandon’s portrayal of the transitioning Leon Shermer was only his second film gig (after making a name for himself on the CBS soap opera “Guiding Light”), and it proved to be a major breakthrough for the actor (who, in case you’re wondering, was married to Susan Sarandon at the time). Sarandon earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and immediately began booking leading man roles in films like “Lipstick” and “The Sentinel.” However, by the mid-1980s, it was clear that the performer was better suited to suave villainy as Jerry Dandrige in the original “Fright Night” and Prince Humperdinck in “The Princess Bride.”

Sarandon continued to work steadily into the 1990s, where he found by far his most memorable character as the voice of Jack Skellington in “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” While he’s since kept busy via films and TV work (on shows like “ER,” “Orange Is the New Black,” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”), Skellington has only become more prominent in the popular culture thanks to the film’s holiday classic status and Sarandon’s participation in nine video games featuring the character’s voice (including “The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge,” “Kingdom Hearts,” and, most recently, “Disney Speedstorm”). At 82, Sarandon hasn’t stepped in front of a camera since 2016, so if he’s officially retired he’s certainly earned it.

Widely regarded as one of the best actors of his generation, Pacino had already earned three Academy Award nominations (for “The Godfather, “The Godfather Part II,” and “Serpico”) when he landed the part of addled bank robber Sonny Wortzik. It was his second and final collaboration with Lumet, and would’ve easily represented his first Best Actor win had he not run into the buzzsaw that was Jack Nicholson in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (an Oscar sensation that swept the Academy’s five top awards that year). The role was a bracing change of pace from the controlled menace of Michael Corleone, and a fascinating complement to the hard-charging righteousness of Frank Serpico. Though Sonny’s committing a criminal act, we come to sympathize with him when we learn why he wants the money. It’s a layered, full meal of a performance that cemented Pacino’s god-tier acting status.

“Dog Day Afternoon” was also the peak of Pacino’s early-career run. He began chasing more demonstrative roles that were less nuanced than the characters that made him a star. This led him to the monstrous gangster Tony Montana in “Scarface,” where he disappeared under a thick Cuban accent and garish physical affectations. It’s a monumental performance, but it was also a preview of the “hoo-hahing” Pacino who became a parody of himself after winning Best Actor in 1993 for “Scent of a Woman.” There have been masterful portrayals since then (in movies like “Carlito’s Way,” “The Insider,” and, most recently, “The Irishman”), but Pacino has seemingly lost the element of surprise — which will happen when you turn 84. Still, with a staggering six projects currently in post-production, there’s always the chance a master like Pacino could throw a curveball or two (perhaps in “Lear Rex,” where he’ll play Shakespeare’s title king opposite a stacked cast that includes Jessica Chastain, Rachel Brosnahan, and Peter Dinklage). Solana Token Creator