Well, there is interest in the guyan new short documentary has been made:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090118/D95PN1900.html
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) - The most star-studded entry at the Sundance Film Festival is a short documentary about an actor whose intense face is known to just about any serious cinema fan but whose name often escapes them.
"I Knew It Was You" features interviews with Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, Gene Hackman, Richard Dreyfuss, Francis Ford Coppola and others, all paying tribute to the guy whose long, sad face leaves people saying: "I know him. Isn't that Fredo from 'The Godfather'?"
John Cazale made only five films, among them the first two "Godfather" flicks, before dying of cancer at age 42 in 1978. But all five were nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards, including "Dog Day Afternoon,""The Conversation" and "The Deer Hunter."
"Five best-picture nominations. A perfect record," said Richard Shepard, who directed "I Knew It Was You," a 40-minute documentary that premiered in Sundance's short-films program and eventually will air on HBO. "It's insane, isn't16d0 it?"
The acclaimed theater actor became one of Hollywood's premier character actors with his five films, starting with Coppola's "The Godfather," in which he played hapless Fredo, the weak link in the Corleone crime family.
The immortal line from Pacino's Michael Corleone to older brother Fredo in "The Godfather Part II" - "I know it was you. You broke my heart" - gave the documentary its title.
Cazale broke hearts on screen with portrayals of volatile, vulnerable, vacillating men, including Pacino's tragic bank-robbing partner in "Dog Day Afternoon."
"He's fearless, because he's not worried about looking good. A lot of actors are so conscientious about being the GUY. They're afraid to look weak, always trying to have the bravado, have the coolness," said filmmaker Brett Ratner ("X-Men: The Last Stand," the "Rush Hour" flicks), one of the documentary's producers. "He was OK being vulnerable. I don't know, he just touched me, his humanity. I fell in love with it. In 'Dog Day Afternoon,' it broke my heart. I cry, weep at the end."
Shepard, director of the hit man tale "The Matador," said Cazale is his favorite actor, and the documentary got its start out of his frustration at being able to find so little information about him on the Internet and in film books.
"It's ridiculous, and it just infuriated me," Shepard said. "I was like, I've got to do something about it. Someone should make a movie."
So Shepard started making a movie, along with producer Stacey Reiss. They landed interviews with Streep, "Dog Day Afternoon" director Sidney Lumet and Cazale's brother. Then they approached Ratner, because Shepard recalled reading that the filmmaker also was a Cazale fan.
Ratner secured financing from HBO. Then the floodgates opened as one top Hollywood name after another jumped at the chance to share recollections and observations of Cazale.
Besides the actor's many collaborators, the documentary includes interviews with such Cazale admirers as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Steve Buscemi and Sam Rockwell.
"What was amazing was how many people wanted to do it," Reiss said. "These people get asked all the time to be in documentaries, and it was just an outpouring of support. I think they all were just so happy that other people were going to get to know this person that they cared about and loved so much."

sabolon1:
93 sleeless in seattle oscar nominated for best screenplay
93 philadelphia oscar nominated for best screenplay
oscar WIN for actor
94 forrest gump screenplay, picture & actor WIN
95 appolo 13 oscar nominated for best screenplay
96 toy story oscar nominated for best screenplay
97 no film
98 saving private ryan screenplay, picture and actor nomination
99 green mile screnplay and picture nomination
00 cast away actor WIN
Hanks didn't win for Castaway. Russell Crowe won for Gladiator.

i am sure there are others that i am going to say, but
i am thinking since that streak i can only really think of one actor to be involved in such a streak of that calibar.
tom hanks
93 sleeless in seattle oscar nominated for best screenplay
93 philadelphia oscar nominated for best screenplay
oscar WIN for actor
94 forrest gump screenplay, picture & actor WIN
95 appolo 13 oscar nominated for best screenplay
96 toy story oscar nominated for best screenplay
97 no film
98 saving private ryan screenplay, picture and actor nomination
99 green mile screnplay and picture nomination
00 cast away actor WIN
mind you not oscar nominated films, but 9 films in 7 years. an impressive streach
i cant think of any matching cazales body of work, but hanks had a decent stretch i think
if it wasn't for my horse, i wouldn't have spent that year in college

I'm sure there are actors or actresses with 5 or more movies in the top 250- but none of these actors or actresses have only 5 feature length films to their name. It would pretty much be the same to see if any actor or actress have their first five films in the top 250 tho

Not only that, but he's probably the only actor (who was in more than one film) whose films were all Oscar-nominated and 3 were Oscar-winners!
(Not counting the short film from 1962)
The Godfather - Winner, Best Picture 1972
The Conversation - Nominated, Best Picture 1974
The Godfather, Part II - Winner, Best Picture 1974
Dog Day Afternoon - Nominated, Best Picture 1975
The Deer Hunter - Winner, Best Picture 1978

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"he was a very generous and caring person, even before his death."
I wonder how generous and caring he is now that he's dead?

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dude's got a pretty goo5b4d batting average here on imdb.

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I think Cazale must have one of the best good movie ratiosever.
Having seen all his films, it's obvious he's a good actor but you have to admit that he was a perennial supporting actor and more of a foil to the main guys.
However, I thought he was excellent in Dog Day Afternoon and showed he could've taken on bigger roles if his life hadn't been cut so short.

I concur that there's gotta be other people with that can make this claim but they've gotta be people who played like "man #2" and "passerby #3" in several movies as opposed to having major supporting roles in all of them like Cazale.
The only way you could know for sure is if there was some sort of program that could scour IMDB for such a filmography but until then you can only really say that Cazale is the only known actor with this distinction.

James Dean, not a great actor, but an icon.

I agree a lifetime award would really be great all of his performances are terrific and maybe more people would see them if they honored himsomeone should anywayhe was probably a real nice guy unlike alot of actors
"Do you believe intime travel?" - Frank

Chicago, The Hours and Gangs of New York are nothing compare to Cazale's FilmsBtw, I really hated Chicago, maybe I dont like Musicals at all

look being in good movies doesnt make you a good actor, not necessarily.Im not saying Cazale was a bad actor, I just want to make that clear..

I 111csuppose it is, if you put it that way
But consider this: Put Dog Day Afternoon, The Godfather II and The Conversation up against The Hours, Gangs of New York and Chicago Also, it is debatable whether those latter three should have been nominated for Best Picture at all (esp. Chicago).
Anyway, Reilly's feat on paper is very impressive, but how will those three films be regarded in 30 years time?

John C. Reilly was actually in three in the same yearThe Hours, Gangs of New York, and Chicago. Sorry, while John Cazale is a fantastic actor, Reilly's feat is more impressive.

I love john cazale, so don't take this the wrong way. Three best pic noms in two years was beaten by John C. Reilly for Chicago, the Hours, and Gangs of New York. All nominated the same year. None as good as any of Cazale's films however.

John C. Reilly was in Gangs of New York, The Hours, and Chicagoall 3 of which were nominated for Best Picture in the SAME year (2003).

I didn't really know anything about him as a person. I'm glad to learn that he was one of the good guys offscreen! The award renaming would be a lovely gesture that I'm sure would be popular with a lot of actors. If enough people backed the suggestion, who knows?

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he was in three movies nominated for best picture in TWO years, i doubt anyone else has ever done that either (godfather 2 and conversation in 74, dog day afternoon in 75)