Returning to the stage, Cazale played Angelo in a 1976 Central Park production of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure -- and fell in love with his little-known 27-year-old costar, Meryl Streep. Before they could marry, Cazale was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and Streep stayed by his side. ''I've hardly ever seen a person so devoted to someone who is falling away like John was,'' says Pacino. ''To see her in that act of love for this man was overwhelming.''

Aware of the actor's illness, director Michael Cimino cast the now-uninsurable Cazale (over financiers' objections) as a cowardly steel-mill worker in his Vietnam epic The Deer Hunter. Streep also took a role in the film as a silently suffering domestic-abuse victim (which she derided as ''a man's view of a woman'') so she could be near Cazale on location. Five months after the film wrapped, Cazale died. ''I was so close that I hadn't noticed his deterioration,'' Streep later said. ''John's death came as a shock to me because I didn't expect it.''

The Deer Hunter was released nine months later and snared Oscars for Best Picture, Director, and Supporting Actor -- for Christopher Walken's attention-grabbing portrayal of a suicidal vet. Streep was also rewarded with a nomination, her first, for supporting actress. But Cazale was snubbed once more, this time posthumously.

''John certainly deserved an Oscar for all the things he did,'' Chianese says. ''But he was the kind of actor who knew deep down that eventually he would be recognized before he died, and he was recognized. He just wasn't recognized enough.''

Not that he probably cared; Cazale was a genuinely unselfish performer. ''It was always easy working with John,'' Pacino says. ''He was the most giving actor I've ever worked with, the most involved and sensitive.'' In other words, John Cazale was the best supporting actor, even if he never received a statuette.

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