Background

Al Pacino was born on April 25, 1940, in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City, to Italian American parents Salvatore and Rose (née Gerardi) Pacino. His parents divorced when he was two years old. His mother then took him to The Bronx to live with her parents, Kate and James Gerardi, who had come from a town in Sicily named Corleone. His father, who was from San Fratello in the Province of Messina, moved to Covina, California to work as an insurance salesman and restaurateur.

In 1962, his mother died at the age of 43. The following year, Pacino's grandfather James Gerardi, also died.

Education

In his teen years "Sonny", as he was known to his friends, aimed to become a baseball player, and was also nicknamed "The Actor". Pacino went to the Herman Ridder Junior High School, but in secondary school dropped out of many classes except English. He subsequently attended the High School of Performing Arts, but dropped out of school at age 17. His mother disagreed with his decision and after an argument, he left home. To finance his acting studies, he took low-paying jobs as a messenger, busboy, janitor, and postal clerk, and once worked in the mailroom for Commentary magazine. During this time he also started acting in basement plays in New York's theatrical underground, but was rejected for the Actors Studio.

Pacino moved at age 19 to Greenwich Village, where he studied acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio and appeared in many Off-Broadway and out-of-town productions, including Hello, Out There (1963) and Why Is a Crooked Letter (1966). There he met his acting teacher Charlie Laughton, who became his mentor and best friend.

After four years at HB Studio, Pacino successfully auditioned for the Actors Studio. Pacino studied "method acting" under acting coach Lee Strasberg, who appeared with Pacino in the films The Godfather Part II and in And Justice for All.

Career

In 1969, Al Pacino made his Broadway debut and won a Tony Award for his performance in the play Does the Tiger Wear a Necktie? Pacino’s first leading role in a film came with The Panic in Needle Park (1971), a grim tale of heroin addiction that became something of a cult classic.

Director Francis Ford Coppola cast Pacino in the film that would make him a star, The Godfather (1972). The saga of a family of gangsters and their fight to maintain power in changing times, The Godfather was a wildly popular film that won the Academy Award for best picture and earned Pacino numerous accolades for his intense performance as Michael Corleone, a gangster’s son who reluctantly takes over the "family business." Pacino solidified his standing as one of Hollywood’s most dynamic stars in his next few films. In Scarecrow (1973), he teamed with Gene Hackman in a bittersweet story about two transients, and his roles in Serpico (1973) and Dog Day Afternoon (1975) displayed Pacino’s characteristic screen qualities of brooding seriousness and explosive rage. He also repeated the role of Michael Corleone for Coppola’s The Godfather, Part II (1974), a film that, like its predecessor, won the best picture Oscar.

Pacino’s next few films did not fare as well. Bobby Deerfield (1977) was notable as his first box-office failure since he had become a star. The dark comedy And Justice for All (1979) featured some of Pacino’s most memorable scenes, but Cruising (1980) and the light comedy Author! Author! (1982) were critical and popular disasters.

In Brian De Palma’s Scarface (1983), Pacino returned to the kind of combustible, high-intensity role that had made him famous. As gangster Tony Montana, Pacino gave a highly charged, unrestrained performance that, although loved by some and deplored by others, ranks among his most unforgettable. His next film, Revolution (1985), was an expensive flop, and Pacino did not appear in another film for four years.

Sea of Love (1989), his biggest hit in years, reestablished Pacino as a major film star. He reprised the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Part III (1990), but it was his hilarious portrayal of grotesque gangster Big Boy Caprice in Dick Tracy (1990) that won him a supporting actor Oscar nomination. Frankie and Johnny (1991) and Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), both adaptations of plays, continued his string of well-received films, and he won a best actor Oscar for his portrayal of a bitter blind man in Scent of a Woman (1992). Pacino’s other notable films of the 1990s included Carlito’s Way (1993); Heat (1995), a crime drama in which he played a detective hunting a thief (Robert De Niro); Donnie Brasco (1997), in which he starred as a low-level mobster who unknowingly befriends an FBI agent (Johnny Depp); and Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday (1999). Also in 1999 Pacino appeared opposite Russell Crowe in The Insider; based on real-life events, it examines tobacco companies and their efforts to conceal the dangerous side effects of cigarettes.

Pacino’s prolific acting career continued into the 21st century. In 2002 he starred with Robin Williams in the thriller Insomnia, and he later appeared in Ocean’s Thirteen (2007), the final installment of a popular comedy trilogy that featured George Clooney and Brad Pitt. After skewering his public persona with a role as himself in the Adam Sandler comedy Jack and Jill (2011), Pacino played an aging gangster in Stand Up Guys (2012). He evinced the isolation of a small-town locksmith in Manglehorn (2014) and the late-life epiphany of a rock star in Danny Collins (2015).

In between his big-screen work, Pacino appeared in several television productions for HBO. For his role as homophobic lawyer Roy Cohn in Angels in America (2003), an adaptation of Tony Kushner’s two-part play about AIDS in the 1980s, he won an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. His performance as Jack Kevorkian, a doctor who assisted in the suicide of terminally ill patients, in the movie You Don’t Know Jack (2010) earned him the same awards. He later starred as another controversial figure in David Mamet’s Phil Spector (2013), which was set during the embattled record producer’s first trial for murder. In Paterno (2018) Pacino played legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, whose reputation was tarnished by a sex-abuse scandal that occurred during his tenure.

Pacino frequently returned to the stage throughout his career, notably winning a Tony Award for his leading role in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel (1977). He also starred in such plays as Shakespeare’s Richard III (1973, 1979), Julius Caesar (1988), and The Merchant of Venice (2010); Mamet’s American Buffalo (1980, 1981, 1983) and Glengarry Glen Ross (2012); and Oscar Wilde’s Salomé (1992, 2003, 2006). In 1992 Pacino originated the role of Harry Levine, a washed-up writer who is depressed about his lack of success, in the Broadway drama Chinese Coffee; he later directed and starred in a 2000 film adaptation. He also directed the documentary films Looking for Richard (1996) and Wilde Salomé (2011), which offered behind-the-scenes looks at two of his stage productions.

Achievements

• Al Pacino, a name which has long been associated with cold-blooded murder and villainous roles in some of the most historic movies of Hollywood, is an epoch-making star who took acting to a whole new level. He is often been counted among one of the most legendary villains of Hollywood, known for his extremely riveting portrayals of antagonists. He is a resourceful actor who fits into the shoes of any character he is assigned to play. Be it a romantic or a comic role, he does it all with finesse. A brilliant actor with a unique style, Pacino, has set landmarks with almost every film he has worked in. Charming and appealing, young Pacino was not one of those actors, who believed good-looks were only associated with protagonists. He chose to play characters, who were handsome, attractive and charismatic, but evil. He belongs to the generation of actors who challenged the conventions and changed the face of modern-day cinema through their sheer brilliance and hard work.
  
  Pacino has had a career spanning over five decades, during which time he has received numerous accolades and honors both competitive and honorary, among them an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, four Golden Globe Awards, the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the National Medal of Arts. He is also one of few performers to have won a competitive Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony Award for acting, dubbed the "Triple Crown of Acting".
  
  In 2007, the American Film Institute awarded Pacino with a lifetime achievement award and, in 2003, British television viewers voted Pacino as the greatest film star of all time in a poll for Channel 4.
  
  

Works

More photos

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  • Devil's Advocate 1997
  • Righteous Kill 2008
  • The Insider 1999
  • Scent of a Woman 1992
  • Frankie & Johnny 1991
  • Heat 1995
  • 88 Minutes 2008
  • Insomnia 2002
  • Donnie Brasco 1997
  • Author! Author! 1982
  • The Godfather 1972
  • The Godfather Part II 1974
  • The Godfather Part III 1990
  • Stand Up Guys 2013
  • Sea of Love 1989
  • Scarface 1983
  • Hangman 2017
  • People I Know 2003
  • Cruising 2007
  • Salomé 2017
  • Two for the Money 2005
  • Revolution Revisited 2008
  • You Don't Know Jack 2010
  • The Recruit 2003
  • City Hall 1996
  • Misconduct 2016
  • Simone 2002
  • Manglehorn 2015
  • Jack and Jill 2011

Religion

Pacino is the son of full-on Italians and was raised as such, which includes Catholicism. But it seems to have been only in name that Pacino was Catholic. He said: "My parents were Italian, and they had me baptized, but I was not raised in the Catholic tradition. I come from a broken home."

Pacino is probably referring to the fact that his parents divorced when he was two-years-old and, contrary to Catholic tradition, his father was married four times. Pacino indicates that he's not really a Catholic.

Politics

Al is only slightly less secretive about his political views. But again, it's probably something he doesn't allow interviewers to question him about. He supports Democrats (at least one) financially. Pacino has only given money to one political candidate–Democrat Ralph Waite–but he's contributed to Waite's campaign four different times, to the tune of $4,000.

Views

Al Pacino did once give his philosophy of mankind–which is cryptic and almost meaningless: "My philosophy? Man is a little bit better than his reputation, and a little bit worse."

Pacino indicates his liberal view of sexual orientation, indicating confusion regarding any sort of intolerance. He said: "I don't understand the hatred and fear of gays and bisexuals and lesbians… it's a concept I honestly cannot grasp. To me, it's not who you love… a man, a woman, what have you… it's the fact THAT you love. That is all that truly matters."

Quotations: "It's easy to fool the eye but it's hard to fool the heart."

"I don't need bodyguards. I'm from the South Bronx."

"Vanity is my favourite sin."

"The actor becomes an emotional athlete. The process is painful - my personal life suffers."

"My weaknesses... I wish I could come up with something. I'd probably have the same pause if you asked me what my strengths are. Maybe they're the same thing."

"My first language was shy. It's only by having been thrust into the limelight that I have learned to cope with my shyness."

Membership

Pacino is currently co-president, along with Ellen Burstyn and Harvey Keitel, of the Actors Studio.

• Actors Studio

  1994 - present

Personality

A world’s legend, who starred in numerous films and shows, actually, is a very shy person.

A lifelong fan of Shakespeare, Pacino directed and starred in Looking for Richard (1996), a documentary film about the play Richard III, a role which Pacino had earlier portrayed on-stage in 1977.

Al Pacino has publicly stated that his all-time favorite actress is Julie Christie.

Physical Characteristics: This charming handsome actor has always had a slim, well-built body. He tries to take fitness regularly. In addition, his face-type made him a super star.

Al Pacino has a deep and rich voice.

Interests

• Politicians

  Ralph Waite

• Writers

  Shakespeare

• Music & Bands

  Pacino is an avid fan of opera.

Connections

Although al Pacino 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 January 25, 2001), with actress Beverly D'Angelo, with whom he had a relationship from 1996 until 2003. 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 II. He has had relationships with Tuesday Weld, Jill Clayburgh, Marthe Keller, Kathleen Quinlan and Lyndall Hobbs.

Father:

Sal Pacino

(February 16, 1922, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States - January 12, 2005, Covina, California, United States)

Mother:

Rose Gerard Pacino

(d. 1962)

Sister:

Roberta Pacino

Sister:

Josette Pacino

Sister:

Desiree Pacino

Daughter:

Olivia Pacino

(b. January 25, 2001)

Son:

Anton James Pacino

(b. January 25, 2001)

Daughter:

Julie Marie Pacino

(b. October 16, 1989)

Partner:

Beverly D'Angelo

(b. November 15, 1951)

Beverly Heather D'Angelo is an American actress and singer, who starred as Ellen Griswold in the National Lampoon's Vacation films (1983–2015). She has appeared in over 60 films and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her role as Patsy Cline in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), and for an Emmy Award for her role as Stella Kowalski in the TV film A Streetcar Named Desire (1984). Her other film roles include Sheila Franklin in Hair (1979) and Doris Vinyard in American History X (1998).

Partner:

Marthe Keller

(b. 28 January 1945)

Marthe Keller is a Swiss actress and opera director.

Partner:

Jill Clayburgh

(April 30, 1944 – November 5, 2010)

Jill Clayburgh was an American actress known for her work in theater, television, and cinema. She won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the 1978 film An Unmarried Woman. She would receive a second Best Actress Academy Award nomination for the 1979 film Starting Over as well as four Golden Globe nominations for her film performances.

Partner:

Lyndall Hobbs

(b. 1952)

Lyndall Hobbs is an Australian film director and producer.

mentor:

Charlie Laughton

(1 July 1899 – 15 December 1962)

Charlie Laughton was an English stage and film actor, director, producer and screenwriter.

colleague:

Robert De Niro

(born August 17, 1943)

Robert De Niro is an American actor, producer, and director.

Partner:

Diane Keaton

(born January 5, 1946, Los Angeles, California, United States)

Diane Keaton is an American film actress and director who achieved fame in quirky comic roles prior to gaining respect as a dramatic actress.

References

• Al Pacino
  2008
• Al Pacino: Anatomy of an Actor
  2013
• Al Pacino: The Movies Behind The Man
  2017
• Al Pacino: A Life On The Wire
  1992
• Al Pacino: In Films and on Stage, 2d ed
  2016
• When I Knew Al: The Untold Story of Al Pacino
  2005
• Al Pacino (Movie Icons)
  2009