Saving Private Ryan actor Tom Sizemore has died following a brain aneurysm earlier in February. He was 61.
The actor's manager shared the heartbreaking news with fans, revealing Tom died in his sleep Friday at a hospital in Burbank, California.
Tom's family was told on February 28 by doctors that "there is no further hope" and it was recommended that they make an "end of life decision". The actor collapsed at his Los Angeles home on February 19 following a brain aneurysm which doctors have said was brought on by a stroke.
© Photo: Getty ImagesTom has died age 61
Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1961, he broke through with an early role in Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July in 1989.
He also appeared in the director's 1994 classic Natural Born Killers, and starred alongside Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze in 1991's Point Break, and worked with Christian Slater and Val Kilmer in 1993's True Romance. In 2017, he appeared as insurance agent Anthony Sinclair in David Lynch's revival miniseries Twin Peaks.
"I was very, very happy with the way my career was," he said in 2005, adding: "Playing second fiddle to Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan is nothing [to sneeze at]."
© Photo: Getty ImagesTom was known for his work in Steven Spielberg 1998 Oscar-winning film Saving Private Ryan
But his personal life was marred by tragedy and criminal allegations, including sexual assault claims.
In 2003 he was convicted of domestic violence, making criminal threats, and harassing his ex-girlfriend Heidi Fleiss, known as Hollywood's Madam. He denied the charges but later, in a letter sent to the judge, admitted that he had "permitted my personal demons to take over my life".
He served six months in prison for the charges.
© Photo: Getty ImagesTom had a tragic life
He authored his memoir, By Some Miracle I Made It Out of There - the title was a line from Saving Private Ryan - in 2013 which detailed his long battle with addiction; he first began taking drugs when he was 15.
"I was a guy who’d come from very little and risen to the top. I’d had the multimillion-dollar house, the Porsche, the restaurant I partially owned with Robert De Niro," he wrote before sharing thathe felt fame had turned him tino a "spoiled movie star".
Tom with his two sons in 2012
Tom married actress Maeve Quinlan in 1996, but they later divorced in 1999. In July 2005 he welcomed twin sons, Jagger and Jayden, with then partner Janelle McIntire, but he was not involved in their lives much early on because of his addiction.
"Fatherhood didn't change me in the beginning very much. I was ill," he said in a 2012 interview with The Reel Breakdown. "And the boys were kept from me."
"My life's gotten a lot better, it's been a real chronicle," he later shared in a 2017 interview, revealing he was four years sober.
"I'm coming up on four years sober, it was really difficult, the first two years were miserable. I thought I'd never smile again. But I am smiling again, you've got to stick around until you feel better."
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