Alfredo James "
Al"
Pacino (
/pəˈtʃiːnɵ/; born April 25, 1940) is an
American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including
Michael Corleone in
The Godfather trilogy and
Tony Montana in
Scarface,
though he has also appeared several times on the other side of the
law—as a police officer, a detective and a lawyer. For his performance
as Frank Slade in
Scent of a Woman he won the
Academy Award for Best Actor in
1992. He had received seven previous Oscar nominations, including one in that same year.
He made his feature film debut in the 1969 film
Me, Natalie in a minor supporting role, before playing the leading role in the 1971 drama
The Panic in Needle Park. Pacino made his major breakthrough when he was given the role of Michael Corleone in
The Godfather in 1972, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for
Best Supporting Actor. Other Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor were for
Dick Tracy and
Glengarry Glen Ross. Oscar nominations for Best Actor include
The Godfather Part II,
Serpico,
Dog Day Afternoon,
...And Justice for All and
Scent of a Woman.
In addition to a career in film, he has also enjoyed a successful career on stage, winning
Tony Awards for
Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? and
The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. A longtime fan of
Shakespeare, he made his directorial debut with
Looking for Richard, a quasi-documentary on the play
Richard III. Pacino has received numerous lifetime achievement awards, including one from the
American Film Institute. He is a
method actor, taught mainly by
Lee Strasberg and Charles Laughton at the
Actors Studio in New York.
Although he has never married, Pacino has had several relationships with actresses and has three children.
Early life and education
Pacino was born in
East Harlem, New York City, to
Italian American parents Salvatore Pacino and Rose, who divorced when he was two years old.
[1] When he was two, his mother moved to a neighborhood in
The Bronx near the
Bronx Zoo, to live with her parents, Kate and James Gelardi, who originally came from
Corleone,
Sicily.
[2] During his teenage years "Sonny", as he was known to his friends, aimed to become a
baseball player, though he was also nicknamed "The Actor".
[3] Pacino flunked nearly all of his classes except
English
and dropped out of school at 17. His mother disagreed with his
decision; they had an argument and he left home. He worked at a string
of low-paying jobs, including messenger,
busboy,
janitor, and postal clerk, in order to finance his acting studies.
[1]
He started smoking at age nine, drinking, and casual
marijuana use at age thirteen, but never took
hard drugs.
[4] His two closest friends died young of
drug abuse at the ages of 19 and 30.
[5] Growing up in The Bronx, he got into occasional fights and was something of a troublemaker at school.
[6]
He acted in basement plays in New York's theatrical underground but was rejected for the
Actors Studio while still a teenager.
[3] Pacino then joined the Herbert Berghof Studio (
HB Studio), where he met teacher of acting Charlie Laughton—not the actor Charles Laughton—who became his mentor and best friend.
[3] During this period, he was frequently unemployed and
homeless, and sometimes had to sleep on the street, in theaters, or at friends' houses.
[2][7]
In 1962, his mother died at the age of 43.
[8] The following year, his grandfather, James Gelardi, one of the most influential people in his life, also died.
[1]
Actors Studio training
After having spent four years at HB Studio, Pacino successfully auditioned for the Actors Studio.
[3] The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors,
theatre directors and playwrights in the
Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of
Manhattan in New York City.
[9] Pacino studied "
method acting"
[1] under acting coach
Lee Strasberg, who later appeared with Pacino in the films
The Godfather Part II and in
...And Justice for All.
[2]
During later interviews he spoke about Strasberg and the Studio's
effect on his career. "The Actors Studio meant so much to me in my life.
Lee Strasberg hasn't been given the credit he deserves ... Next to
Charlie, it sort of launched me. It really did. That was a remarkable
turning point in my life. It was directly responsible for getting me to
quit all those jobs and just stay acting."
[10]
During another interview he added, "It was exciting to work for him
[Lee Strasberg] because he was so interesting when he talked about a
scene or talked about people. One would just want to hear him talk,
because things he would say, you'd never heard before ... He had such a
great understanding ... he loved actors so much."
[11]
Pacino is currently co-president, along with
Ellen Burstyn and
Harvey Keitel, of the Actors Studio.
[9]
Stage career
In 1967, Pacino spent a season at the Charles Playhouse in
Boston, performing in
Clifford Odets'
Awake and Sing! (his first major paycheck: $125 a week); and in Jean-Claude Van Itallie's
America, Hurrah, where he met actress
Jill Clayburgh while working on this play. They went on to have a five-year romance and moved together back to New York City.
[12]
In 1968, Pacino starred in
Israel Horovitz's
The Indian Wants the Bronx
at the Astor Place Theater, playing Murph, a street punk. The play
opened January 17, 1968, and ran for 177 performances; it was staged in a
double bill with Horovitz's
It's Called the Sugar Plum, starring Clayburgh. Pacino won an
Obie Award for Best Actor for his role, with
John Cazale winning for Best Supporting actor and Horowitz for Best New Play.
[13] Martin Bregman
saw the play and offered to be Pacino's manager, a partnership that
became fruitful in the years to come, as Bregman encouraged Pacino to do
The Godfather,
Serpico and
Dog Day Afternoon.
[14]
Pacino and this production of
The Indian Wants the Bronx traveled to Italy for a performance at the
Festival dei Due Mondi in
Spoleto.
It was Pacino's first journey to Italy; he later recalled that
"performing for an Italian audience was a marvelous experience".
[12] Pacino and Clayburgh were cast in "Deadly Circle of Violence", an episode of the
ABC television series
N.Y.P.D., premiering November 12, 1968. Clayburgh at the time was also appearing on the soap opera
Search for Tomorrow, playing the role of Grace Bolton. Her father would send the couple money each month to help.
[15]
On February 25, 1969, Pacino made his
Broadway debut in
Don Petersen's
Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? at the
Belasco Theater produced by
A&P Heir
Huntington Hartford. It closed after 39 performances on March 29, 1969, but Pacino received rave reviews and won the
Tony Award on April 20, 1969.
[12] Pacino continued performing onstage in the 1970s, winning a second Tony Award for
The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel and performing the title role in
Richard III.
[1] In 1980s Pacino again achieved critical success on the stage while appearing in
David Mamet's
American Buffalo, for which Pacino was nominated for a
Drama Desk Award.
[1] Since 1990 Pacino's stage work has included revivals of
Eugene O'Neill's
Hughie,
Oscar Wilde's
Salome and in 2005
Lyle Kessler's Orphans.
[16]
Pacino made his return to the stage in summer 2010, as
Shylock in a
Shakespeare in the Park production of
The Merchant of Venice.
[17] The acclaimed production transferred to Broadway at the
Broadhurst Theatre in October, earning US$1 million at the box office in its first week.
[18][19] The performance also garnered him a Tony Award nomination for
Best Leading Actor in a Play.
[20] On October 25, 2012, it was announced that he is all set to return to
Broadway in November to star in
David Mamet's classic play,
Glengarry Glen Ross.
[21]
Film career
Early film career
Pacino found acting to be enjoyable and realized he had a gift for it
while studying at The Actors Studio. However, his early work was not
financially rewarding.
[2] After his success on stage, Pacino made his movie debut in 1969 with a brief screen appearance in
Me, Natalie, an independent film starring
Patty Duke.
[22] In 1970, Pacino signed with the talent agency Creative Management Associates (CMA).
[12]
1970s
It was the 1971 film
The Panic in Needle Park, in which he played a
heroin addict, that brought Pacino to the attention of director
Francis Ford Coppola, who cast him as
Michael Corleone in the blockbuster
Mafia film
The Godfather (1972). Although several established actors—including
Robert Redford,
Warren Beatty, and little-known
Robert De Niro—also tried out for the part, Coppola selected the relatively unknown Pacino, much to the dismay of studio executives.
[2]
Pacino was even teased on the set because of his short stature. Pacino's performance earned him an
Academy Award nomination, and offered a prime example of his early acting style, described by
Halliwell's Film Guide as "intense" and "tightly clenched". Pacino boycotted the
Academy Award ceremony, as he was insulted at being nominated for the Supporting Acting award, noting that he had more screen time than costar and
Best Actor winner
Marlon Brando—who was himself boycotting the awards.
[23]
In 1973, he co-starred in
Scarecrow, with
Gene Hackman, and won the
Palme d'Or at the
Cannes Film Festival. That same year Pacino was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor after starring in
Serpico, based on the true story of New York City policeman
Frank Serpico, who went undercover to expose the corruption of fellow officers.
[23] In 1974, Pacino reprised his role as Michael Corleone in the sequel
The Godfather Part II, which became the first sequel to win the
Best Picture Oscar; Pacino, meanwhile, was nominated for his third Oscar.
[23]
Newsweek has described his performance in
The Godfather Part II as "arguably cinema's greatest portrayal of the hardening of a heart".
[24] In 1975, he enjoyed further success with the release of
Dog Day Afternoon, based on the true story of bank robber
John Wojtowicz.
[2] It was directed by
Sidney Lumet, who had directed him in
Serpico a few years earlier, and Pacino was again nominated for Best Actor.
[25]
In 1977, Pacino starred as a race-car driver in
Bobby Deerfield, directed by
Sydney Pollack, and received a
Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture Actor – Drama for his portrayal of the title role, losing out to
Richard Burton, who won for
Equus. His next film was the courtroom drama
...And Justice for All,
which again saw Pacino lauded by critics for his wide range of acting
abilities, and nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for a fourth time.
[25] However he lost out that year to
Dustin Hoffman in
Kramer vs. Kramer—a role that Pacino had declined.
[25]
During the 1970s, Pacino had four Oscar nominations for Best Actor, for his performances in
Serpico,
The Godfather Part II,
Dog Day Afternoon, and
...And Justice for All.
[2]
1980s
Pacino's career slumped in the early 1980s; his appearances in the controversial
Cruising, a film which provoked protests from New York's
gay community,
[26] and the comedy-drama
Author! Author! were critically panned.
[1] However, 1983's
Scarface, directed by
Brian De Palma, proved to be a career highlight and a defining role.
[2] Upon its initial release, the film was critically panned due to its violent content, but later received critical acclaim.
[27] The film did well at the box office, grossing over US$45 million domestically.
[28] Pacino earned a
Golden Globe nomination for his role as
Cuban drug lord
Tony Montana.
[29]
In 1985, Pacino worked on his personal project,
The Local Stigmatic, a 1969
Off Broadway play by the English writer
Heathcote Williams.
He starred in the play, remounting it with director David Wheeler and
the Theater Company of Boston in a 50-minute film version. The film was
never released theatrically but was later released as part of the
Pacino: An Actor's Vision box set in 2007.
[2]
His 1985 film
Revolution about a fur trapper during the
American Revolutionary War, was a commercial and critical failure, which Pacino blamed on a rushed production,
[30] resulting in a four-year hiatus from films. During this time Pacino returned to the stage. He mounted workshop productions of
Crystal Clear,
National Anthems and other plays; he appeared in
Julius Caesar in 1988 in producer
Joseph Papp's
New York Shakespeare Festival. Pacino remarked on his hiatus from film: "I remember back when everything was happening, '74, '75, doing
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
on stage and reading that the reason I'd gone back to the stage was
that my movie career was waning! That's been the kind of ethos, the way
in which theater's perceived, unfortunately."
[31] Pacino returned to film in 1989's
Sea of Love,
[2] in which he portrayed a detective hunting a
serial killer who finds victims through the singles column in a newspaper. The film earned solid reviews.
[32]
1990s
Pacino received an Academy Award nomination for playing
Big Boy Caprice in the box office hit
Dick Tracy in 1990, of which critic
Roger Ebert described Pacino as "the scene-stealer".
[33] Later in the year he followed this up by a return to one of his most famous characters, Michael Corleone, in
The Godfather Part III (1990).
[2]
The film received mixed reviews, and had problems during pre-production
due to script rewrites and the withdrawal of actors shortly before
production.
In 1991, Pacino starred in
Frankie and Johnny with
Michelle Pfeiffer, who co-starred with Pacino in
Scarface.
Pacino portrays a recently paroled cook who begins a relationship with a
waitress (Pfeiffer) in the diner he works in. It was adapted by
Terrence McNally from his own Off-Broadway play
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (1987), which featured
Kenneth Welsh and
Kathy Bates. The film received mixed reviews, although Pacino later said he enjoyed playing the part.
[34] Janet Maslin in
The New York Times
wrote, "Mr. Pacino has not been this uncomplicatedly appealing since
his "Dog Day Afternoon" days, and he makes Johnny's endless enterprise
in wooing Frankie a delight. His scenes alone with Ms. Pfeiffer have a
precision and honesty that keep the film's maudlin aspects at bay."
[35]
In 1992, Pacino won the
Academy Award for Best Actor, for his portrayal of the
blind U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in
Martin Brest's
Scent of a Woman.
[2] That year, he was also nominated for
Best Supporting Actor for
Glengarry Glen Ross, making Pacino the
first male actor ever to receive two acting nominations for two different movies in the same year, and to win for the lead role.
[2]
Pacino starred alongside
Sean Penn in the crime drama
Carlito's Way
in 1993, in which he portrayed a gangster who is released from prison
with the help of his lawyer (Penn) and vows to go straight. Pacino
starred in
Michael Mann's
Heat (1995), in which he and
Robert De Niro appeared on-screen together for the first time (though both Pacino and De Niro starred in
The Godfather Part II, they did not share any scenes).
[2]
In 1996, Pacino starred in his theatrical docudrama
Looking for Richard, which is both a performance of selected scenes of
Shakespeare's
Richard III and a broader examination of Shakespeare's continuing role and relevance in
popular culture. The cast brought together for the performance included
Alec Baldwin,
Kevin Spacey, and
Winona Ryder. Pacino played
Satan in the supernatural thriller
The Devil's Advocate (1997) which co-starred
Keanu Reeves. The film was a success at the box office, taking US$150 million worldwide.
[36]
Roger Ebert wrote in the
Chicago Sun-Times, 'The satanic character is played by Pacino with relish bordering on glee.'
[37] In
Donnie Brasco Pacino played mafia gangster "
Lefty", in the true story of undercover FBI agent
Donnie Brasco (
Johnny Depp) and his work in bringing down the mafia from the inside. Pacino also starred as real life
60 Minutes producer
Lowell Bergman in the multi-Oscar nominated
The Insider opposite
Russell Crowe, before starring in
Oliver Stone's
Any Given Sunday in 1999.
2000s
Pacino has not received another nomination from the Academy since
Scent of a Woman, but won two Golden Globes since the year 2000, the first being the
Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2001 for lifetime achievement in motion pictures.
[38]
In 2000, Pacino released a low-budget film adaptation of Ira Lewis' play
Chinese Coffee to
film festivals.
[39]
Shot almost exclusively as a one-on-one conversation between the two
main characters, the project took almost three years to complete and it
was funded entirely by Pacino.
[39] Chinese Coffee was included along with Pacino's two other rare films he has been involved in producing,
The Local Stigmatic and
Looking for Richard, on a special DVD boxset titled
Pacino: An Actor's Vision which was released in 2007. Pacino produced prologues and epilogues for the discs containing the films.
[40]
Pacino turned down an offer to reprise his role as Michael Corleone in the computer game version of
The Godfather. As a result,
Electronic Arts
was not permitted to use Pacino's likeness or voice in the game,
although his character does appear in it. He did allow his likeness to
appear in the video game adaptation of the remake of 1983's
Scarface, titled
Scarface: The World is Yours.
[41]
Director
Christopher Nolan worked with Pacino for
Insomnia, a remake of the
Norwegian film of the same name, co-starring
Robin Williams.
Newsweek stated that "he [Pacino] can play small as rivetingly as he can play big, that he can implode as well as explode".
[42]
The film and Pacino's performance were well-received, gaining a
favorable rating of 93 percent on the review aggregation website
Rotten Tomatoes.
[43] The film did moderately well at the box office, taking in $113 million dollars worldwide.
[44] His next film,
S1m0ne, did not gain much critical praise or box office success.
[45]
He played the part of a publicist in
People I Know, a small film that received little attention despite Pacino's well-received performance.
[46] Rarely taking a supporting role since his commercial breakthrough, he accepted a small part in the box office flop
Gigli in 2003 as a favor to director Martin Brest.
[46] The Recruit, released in 2003, featured Pacino as a CIA recruiter and co-stars
Colin Farrell. The film received mostly negative reviews,
[47] and was described by Pacino as something he "personally couldn't follow".
[46] Pacino next starred as lawyer
Roy Cohn in the 2003
HBO miniseries
Angels in America, an adaptation of
Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize winning
play of the same name.
[2] For this performance, Pacino won his third Golden Globe, for
Best Performance by an Actor, in 2004.
[48]
Pacino starred as
Shylock in
Michael Radford's 2004 film adaptation of
The Merchant of Venice, choosing to bring compassion and depth to a character traditionally played as a villainous caricature.
[49] In
Two for the Money, Pacino portrays a sports gambling agent and mentor for
Matthew McConaughey, alongside
Rene Russo. The film was released on October 8, 2005 and received mixed reviews.
[50] Desson Thomson wrote in
The Washington Post,
"Al Pacino has played the mentor so many times, he ought to get a
kingmaker's award ... the fight between good and evil feels fixed in
favor of Hollywood redemption."
[51]
On October 20, 2006, the
American Film Institute named Pacino the recipient of the 35th
AFI Life Achievement Award.
[52] On November 22, 2006, the
University Philosophical Society of
Trinity College, Dublin awarded Pacino the Honorary Patronage of the Society.
[53]
Pacino played a
spoof role in
Steven Soderbergh's
Ocean's Thirteen alongside
George Clooney,
Brad Pitt,
Matt Damon,
Elliott Gould and
Andy García as the villain Willy Bank, a casino tycoon targeted by Danny Ocean and his crew. The film received generally favorable reviews.
[54]
88 Minutes
was released on April 18, 2008 in the United States, having already
been released in various other countries in 2007. The film co-starred
Alicia Witt and was critically panned,
[55] although critics found the fault to be in the plot instead of Pacino's acting.
[56] In
Righteous Kill, Pacino and
Robert De Niro
co-star as New York detectives searching for a serial killer. The film
was released to theaters on September 12, 2008. Although it was an
anticipated return for the two stars, it was not well received by
critics.
[57] Lou Lumenick of
The New York Post gave
Righteous Kill one star out of four, saying: "Al Pacino and Robert De Niro collect bloated paychecks with intent to bore in
Righteous Kill, a slow-moving, ridiculous police thriller that would have been shipped straight to the remainder bin at
Blockbuster if it starred anyone else."
[58]
2010s
Pacino played Dr.
Jack Kevorkian in an
HBO Films biopic entitled
You Don't Know Jack, which premiered April 2010. The film is about the life and work of the
physician-assisted suicide advocate. The performance earned Pacino his second
Emmy Award[59] for lead actor
[60] and his fourth
Golden Globe award.
[29]
Pacino and
Robert De Niro are reportedly set to star in the upcoming project
The Irishman, that will be directed by
Martin Scorsese and co-star
Joe Pesci.
[61] He's also filming a biographical picture about
Phil Spector.
[62]
It was announced in May 2011 that Pacino was to be honored with the "Glory to the Film-maker" award at the
68th Venice International Film Festival.
[63] The award was presented ahead of the premiere of his film
Wilde Salome, the third film Pacino has directed.
[63] Pacino, who plays the role of
Herod in the film, describes it as his "most personal project ever".
[63]
The United States premiere of
Wilde Salomé took place on the evening of March 21, 2012, before a full house at the 1,400-seat
Castro Theatre in San Francisco's
Castro District. Marking the 130th anniversary of
Oscar Wilde's visit to San Francisco, the event was a benefit for the
GLBT Historical Society.
[64][65][66]
It was announced in January 2013, that Pacino will play the late former
Penn State University football coach Joe Paterno in the movie tentatively titled
Happy Valley and based on a 2012 biography of Paterno by sportswriter
Joe Posnanski.
[67]
Personal life
Although he has never married, Pacino has three children. The eldest,
Julie Marie (born 1989), is his daughter with acting coach Jan Tarrant.
He also has twins, son Anton James and daughter Olivia Rose (born
2001), with actress
Beverly D'Angelo, with whom he had a relationship from 1996 until 2003.
[68][69] Pacino had a relationship with
Diane Keaton, his co-star in the
Godfather trilogy. The
on-again, off-again relationship ended following the filming of
The Godfather Part III.
[70] He has also had relationships with
Tuesday Weld,
Jill Clayburgh,
Marthe Keller,
Kathleen Quinlan and
Lyndall Hobbs.
[40]
The
Internal Revenue Service filed a
tax lien
against Pacino, claiming he owes the government a total of $188,000 for
2008 and 2009. A representative for Pacino blamed his former business
manager
Kenneth Starr for the discrepancy.
[71]
