Al Pacino

At 84 years old, Al Pacino has this physical status:

Alfredo James Pacino (Itune) (born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. He has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards, making him one of the few actors to have earned the Triple Crown of Acting. He has also been honoured with the AFI Life Achievement Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the National Medal of Arts.

Pacino's debut in Me, Natalie (1969), a method actor and former student of the HB Studio and Actors Studio, where he was trained by Charlie Laughton and Lee Strasberg. In The Panic in Needle Park (1971), he received acclaim for his first lead role as a heroin addict. Michael Corleone's breakthrough role in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), for which he received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor, was praised by the Academy Award, and he'll reprise his role in the sequels The Godfather Part II (1974) and The Godfather Part III (1990). Pacino was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Serpico (1973), The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and Justice for All (1979). He was recognized for his role in Scent of a Woman (1992). He received additional accolades for his appearances in Dick Tracy (1990), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), and The Irishman (2019). Tony Montana in Scarface (1983), Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way (1993), Benjamin Ruggiero in Donnie Brasco (1997), and Lowell Bergman in The Insider (1999). He has appeared in Heat (1995), The Devil's Advocate (1997), Insomnia (2002), and Insomnia (2002), and House of Gucci (2021).

Pacino has appeared in many films for HBO, including Angels in America (2003) and Jack Kevorkian's biography You Don't Know Jack (2010), as well as the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Film for each. Pacino stars in the Amazon Video series Hunters (2020–present). He has also worked on stage. He has been a two-time Tony Award winner for his appearances in Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? Pavlo Hummel's Basic Training.

Pacino directed and starred in this documentary about Richard III, making his film debut on this occasion; Pacino had appeared on stage in 1977; he was playing the lead role. In addition, Shylock appeared in a 2004 feature film adaptation and the 2010 stage production of The Merchant of Venice. Pacino produced and appeared in Chinese Coffee (2000), Wilde Salomé (2011), and Salomé (2013). He has been the joint president of the Actors Studio since 1994.

Early life

Alfredo James Pacino was born in Upper Manhattan's East Harlem neighborhood on April 25, 1940. He is the son of Italian-American parents Rose Gerardi and Salvatore Pacino. When he was two years old, his parents divorced. Kate and James Gerardi, two Italian immigrant from Corleone, Sicily, later moved to the Bronx with her parents, Kate and James Gerardi. Pacino's father, who was born in San Fratello, Sicily, worked as an insurance salesman and restaurateur in Covina, California.

Pacino used the phrase "Sonny" to his peers in his teenage years. He had aspired to be a baseball player and was also known as "The Actor." He attended Herman Ridder Junior High School but dropped out of the majority of his classes, except for English. After receiving acceptance by audition, he attended the High School of Performing Arts. His mother disapproved with his decision and, following an argument, he left home. Pacino began earning his acting experience by working as a messenger, busboy, janitor, and postal clerk, as well as once serving in the mailroom for Commentary magazine.

At age nine, Pacino started smoking and drinking and also used marijuana medically at age 13, but he refused to use hard drugs. At the ages of 19 and 30, his two nearest relatives died as a result of heroin use. Pacino, a Bronx, grew up, and was often involved in occasional fights and was deemed as a disruptive student. He appeared in basement plays in New York's theatre underground but was turned down as a youth by the Actors Studio. Pacino joined the HB Studio, where he met Charlie Laughton, his mentor and best friend. Often homeless and homeless, he slept on the street, in theaters, or at friends' houses.

Pacino's mother died at the age of 43 in 1962. His grandfather James died the following year. "I was 22 and the two most influential people in my life had passed away," Pacino said, "I was in a tailspin."

After four years at HB Studio, Pacino successfully auditioned for the Actors Studio. In the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, the Actors Studio is a membership group of professional actors, theatre designers, and playwrights. "Meta acting" under acting coach Lee Strasberg, who appeared with Pacino in the films The Godfather Part II and...And Justice for All."

During later interviews, he discussed Strasberg and the Studio's effect on his work. "The Actors Studio meant so much to me in my life." Lee Strasberg hasn't been given the deserved respect he so richly deserves. Next to Charlie: It kind of shocked me. It was indeed sober. It was a turning point in my life. It was absolutely responsible for my departure from all those jobs and just keep doing." "It's been thrilling to work for him [Lee Strasberg] because he was so curious when he talked about a scene or talked about people in another interview. One would want to hear him talk because, as he would say, you'd never heard before... He had such a positive attitude... he loved actors so much."

Pacino, along with Ellen Burstyn and Harvey Keitel of the Actors Studio, co-president in 2000.

Personal life

Pacino has three children. Julie Marie (born 1989), the eldest of his family, is his daughter with acting coach Jan Tarrant. Anton James, his son Anton James, and daughter Olivia Rose (born January 25, 2001), with actress Beverly D'Angelo, with whom he had a long friendship from 1997 to 2003. He has never been married.

Pacino had a friendship with his co-star Diane Keaton on The Godfather Trilogy. After the filming of The Godfather Part III, they broke down on again, off-again friendship. "Al was simply the most amusing man," Keaton said of Pacino. "It's to me, that's the most beautiful image." Warren [Beatty] was beautiful and charming, but Al's face is like whoa. "Killer, killer face." He has worked with Jill Clayburgh, Marthe Keller, Kathleen Quinlan, and Lyndall Hobbs. Pacino had a ten-year relationship with Argentine actress Lucila Polak from 2008 to 2018.

Pacino has confessed to using opioids and alcohol early in his career, largely because his sudden success after The Godfather was impossible to cope with. In 1977, he went back to sobriety.

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Stage career

Pacino spent a season at the Boston Playhouse in 1967, appearing in Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing. (his first big paycheck: US$125 a week); and in Jean-Claude Van Itallie's America Hurrah. On this play, Jill Clayburgh met actor Jill Clayburgh. They had a five-year marriage and moved back together to New York City.

In 1968, Pacino appeared in Israel Horovitz' The Indian Wants the Bronx, playing Murph, a street punk. The play opened in January 17, 1968 and ran for 177 performances; it was part of a double bill with Horovitz' It's Called the Sugar Plum, starring Clayburgh. Pacino received an Obie Award for his work, with John Cazale receiving the Best Supporting Actor and Horowitz for Best New Play. Martin Bregman saw the play and became Pacino's boss, a relationship that would continue to thrive in the years to come, as Bregman encouraged Pacino to perform The Godfather, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon. "Martin Bregman discovered me," Pacino said about his stage work. I was 26, 25 years old, and he found me and became my boss. And here's why I'm here. I owe it to Marty, but I really do."

For a performance at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Pacino brought The Indian Wants the Bronx to Italy. It was Pacino's first trip to Italy; he later said, "performing for an Italian audience was a magical experience." In "Deadly Circle of Violence," an ABC television series NYPD episode premiering on November 12, 1968, Pacino and Clayburgh were cast. At the time, Clayburgh appeared on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow, as Grace Bolton. Her father will help with money each month to help with finances.

Pacino made his Broadway debut in Don Petersen's Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? A&P Heir Huntington Hartford's Belasco Theatre was produced by A&P Heir Huntington Hartford. After 39 performances on March 29, 1969, Pacino received rave reviews and received the Tony Award on April 20, 1969. In the 1970s, Pacino continued to perform onstage, winning a second Tony Award for Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel and appearing in Richard III as the title actor. Pacino achieved critical success on stage in David Mamet's American Buffalo, for which Pacino was nominated for a Drama Desk Award in the 1980s, thanks in part to his Drama Desk Award. Pacino's stage performance includes revivals of Eugene O'Neill's Hughie, Oscar Wilde's Salome, and 2005's Orphanage.

Pacino, alongside Dustin Hoffman and Paul Newman, became a major contributor for The Mirror Theater Ltd in 1983, granting a loan from Laurence Rockefeller. As Strasberg's daughter-in-law Sabra Jones, the founder and Producing Artistic Director of The Mirror, the men were compelled to invest by their friendship with Lee Strasberg. Pacino produced Hughie by Eugene O'Neill in 1985, but the company was unable to do it at the time due to the small cast.

Pacino appeared in Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui for the National Actor's Theater and Complicite in October 2002. The film was directed by Simon McBurney, and it included John Goodman, Charles Durning, Tony Randall, Steve Buscemi, Chazz Palminteri, Paul Giamatti, Billy Crudup, Lothaire Bluteau, Dominic Chianese, and Sterling K. Brown. The result was a critical success, with "Pacino" grasping and holding the attention of a coiled spring about to snap. He is all brooding terror and crocodile fae, butchering his way to the top with unnervingly sinister glee."

Pacino appeared in The Merchant of Venice, a new play by the summer of 2010. In its first week, the acclaimed performance at the Broadhurst Theatre in October rose to Broadway, grossing US$1 million at the box office. In addition, the appearance earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Play.

Pacino appeared in Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet's 30th anniversary Broadway revival, which ran from October 2012 to January 20, 2013. After 97 performances, he appeared on Broadway in China Doll, a Mamet play written for him, which opened on December 5, 2015, and closed on January 21, 2016. In October 2015, the previews were released.

Screen career

While studying at The Actors Studio, Pacino found acting enjoyable and discovered he had a gift for it. However, his early career was not financially rewarding. Pacino made his film debut in 1969 with a brief appearance in Me, Natalie, an independent film starring Patty Duke, following his success on stage. Pacino began working with Human resource firm Creative Management Associates (CMA) in 1970.

Pacino was dragged to the attention of director Francis Ford Coppola, who portrayed him as Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972), a blockbuster Mafia film. Even though Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, and the little-known Robert De Niro were all tested out for the role, Coppola selected Pacino from the audience, much to the dismay of studio executives who wanted someone better known.

Pacino's performance earned him an Academy Award nomination and showcased a prime example of his early acting style, which Halliwell's Film Guide called "intense" and "tightly clenched" and "tightly clenched" in the case. Pacino canceled the Academy Award ceremony after being dissatisfied with his nomination for the Supporting Acting Award, citing that he had more screen time than co-star and Best Actor winner Marlon Brando, who had to postponed the awards due to non-related reasons.

Pacino co-starred in Scarecrow with Gene Hackman in 1973 and received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Pacino was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor after appearing in Serpico, based on the true life of New York City policeman Frank Serpico, who went undercover to expose other officers' wrongdoings. Pacino appeared in The Godfather Part II, the first sequel to win the Best Picture Academy, for the second time, this time in the lead role. According to Newsweek, his role in The Godfather Part II was "arguably cinema's best representation of the hardening of a heart."

He had even more success with the debut of Dog Day Afternoon, based on John Wojtowicz's true story. Sidney Lumet, who had directed Serpico a few years earlier, received the award for Best Actor again, and Pacino was nominated for Best Actor.

Pacino appeared as a racer in Bobby Deerfield, directed by Sydney Pollack, in 1977, and was nominated for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for his portrayal of the title role. Justice for All was his next film, which was the courtroom drama. Pacino was lauded by reviewers for his wide variety of acting skills, and he was selected for the Best Actor Oscar for the fourth time. In Kramer vs. Kramer, Dustin Hoffman lost out that year, a role that Pacino had not dominated.

Pacino received four Oscar nominations for his appearances in Serpico, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, and...Just for All.

Pacino's career fell in the early 1980s, including appearances in the controversies around Cruising, a film that sparked protests from New York's gay community, and Author! Author! Author! had a critical review of the book. Nonetheless, his role in Scarface (1983), directed by Brian De Palma, was a career highlight and a pivotal role. The film was initially panned due to violent content, but it later received critical acclaim. The film did well at the box office, grossing over US$45 million domestically. Pacino received a Golden Globe award for his role as Cuban drug lord Tony Montana.

Pacino began working on his personal project, The Local Stigmatic, a 1969 off-Broadway play by English writer Heathcote Williams. In a 50-minute film version, he appeared in the role, remounting it with director David Wheeler and the Theater Company of Boston. The film was not released theatrically, but it was later released as part of the Pacino: An Actor's Vision box set in 2007.

Pacino attributed his 1985 film Revolution about a fur trapper during the American Revolutionary War, which culminated in a four-year absence from filmmaking. Pacino had returned to the stage at this time. He curated workshop performances 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 reflected on his film absence: "I remember back when it was happening,'74, '75, doing The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui on stage, saying that the reason I went back to the stage was because my film career was waning." Unfortunately, that's the sense of ethos, the way in which theater is perceived. In 1989's Sea of Love, Pacino portrayed a detective investigating a serial killer who discovers victims in a newspaper's singles column. The film received raves.

Pacino was nominated for his role in Big Boy Caprice in 1990, the box office's worst critic, Roger Ebert, compared Pacino to "the scene-stealer." In Part III (1990), Michael Corleone, one of his most famous characters, appeared in a return to one of his most popular characters. The film received mixed praises and suffered in pre-production due to script rewrites and actor withdrawal shortly before production.

Pacino appeared in Frankie and Johnny with Michelle Pfeiffer, who co-starred with Pacino in Scarface. In the diner where they work, Pacino portrays a newly released cook who begins a friendship with a waitress (Pfeiffer). Terrence McNally's version of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (1987), which featured Kenneth Welsh and Kathy Bates, was adapted by Terrence McNally from his own off-Broadway play Frankie and Johnny. The film received mixed reviews, though Pacino later admitted that he loved being on the role. In the New York Times, Janet Maslin said, "Mr. Pacino hasn't been this uncomplicatedly appealing since his Dog Day Afternoon days," and he makes Johnny's never-ending pursuit of wooing Frankie a pleasure. "His scenes with Ms. Pfeiffer alone have a precision and sincerity that hold the film's maudlin aspects at bay."

Pacino received the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1993 for his portrayal of the irascible, blind US Army Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in Martin Brest's Scent of a Woman. He was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Glengarry Glen Ross, making Pacino the first male actor to be nominated for two acting awards in the same year and the first male actor to receive two acting nominations for two films in the same year and a lead role.

In 1993, Pacino appeared alongside Sean Penn in Carlito's Way, a violent crime drama in which he portrayed Carlito Brigante, a gangster released from jail with the help of his corrupt lawyer (Penn) and promises to go straight. Pacino appeared in Michael Mann's Heat (1995), in which he and Robert De Niro appeared on screen together for the first time (although both Pacino and De Niro did not film any scenes).

Pacino appeared in his dramatic docudrama Looking for Richard, a collection of scenes from William Shakespeare's Richard III's Richard III, as well as a wider analysis of Shakespeare's continuing presence and relevance in popular culture in 1996. Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, and Winona Ryder were among the cast members of the performance. In the supernatural thriller The Devil's Advocate (1997), which co-starred Keanu Reeves, Pacino played Satan. The film was a hit at the box office, grossing US$150 million worldwide. "The satanic role is played by Pacino with relish bordering on glee," Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times.

In the true story of undercover FBI agent Donnie Brasco (Johnny Depp) and his attempts to bring down the Mafia from the inside, Donnie Brasco, Pacino, portrayed gangster "Lefty" in 1997. Lowell Bergman, a 60 Minutes producer in 1999, appeared in The Insider, opposite Russell Crowe, and in Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday.

Since 2000, Pacino has won three Golden Globes; the first being the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2001 for lifetime achievement in motion pictures.

Pacino appeared in a low-budget film version of Ira Lewis' play Chinese Coffee in 2000, which was also shown at film festivals. The project was almost entirely funded by Pacino and came as a one-on-one dialogue between two main characters. On a special DVD box set called Pacino: An Actor's Vision, which was released in 2007, Chinese Coffee was included in Pacino's two other rare films he was involved in making, The Local Stigmatic and Looking for Richard. For the films' discs, Pacino produced prologues and epilogues.

Pacino turned down an invitation to reprise his role as Michael Corleone in the computer game version of The Godfather. As a result, Electronic Arts was not allowed to use Pacino's name or voice in the game, though his appearance does appear in it. He did allow his likeness to appear in the 1983 Scarface video game version, which was a quasi-sequel Scarface: The World is Yours.

Insomnia, a remake of the Norwegian film of the same name starring Robin Williams, was co-starring Christopher Nolan. "He [Pacino] can play small as well as explode," Newsweek said. On the review portal Rotten Tomatoes, the film and Pacino's results were well received, with a 93 percent score. The film did moderately well at the box office, grossing $113 million worldwide. S1m0ne, his next film, on the other hand, received little critical praise or box office success.

Despite Pacino's well-received role, he played a publicist in People I Know, a small film that received little attention despite his well-received role. He was a small part of the flop Gigli in 2003 as a favour to director Martin Brest, who was rarely playing a supporting role since his commercial breakthrough. Pacino appeared as a CIA recruiter and co-star Colin Farrell in the Recruit, which was published in 2003. Mixed reviews were given to the film, and Pacino has described it as something he "personally couldn't follow." Roy Cohn appeared in the 2003 HBO miniseries Angels in America, an adaptation of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name. In 2004, Pacino received his third Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor.

In Michael Radford's 2004 film version of The Merchant of Venice, Pacino appeared as Shylock. Critcs praised him for giving compassion and insight to a character that is traditionally depicted as a villainous caricature. Matthew McConaughey's mother and mentor are depicted in Two for the Money by Rene Russo. The film was released on October 8, 2005, to mixed reviews. "Al Pacino has been the mentor so many times that he deserved to win a kingmaker's award," Desson Thomson wrote in The Washington Post, "the conflict between good and evil seems to have been settled in favor of Hollywood redemption."

The American Film Institute named Pacino the recipient of the 35th AFI Life Achievement Award on October 20, 2006. The University Philosophical Society of Trinity College Dublin gave Pacino the Honour Patronage of the Society on November 22, 2006.

Pacino appeared in Steven Soderbergh's Thirteen, alongside George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matthew Gould, Elliott Gould, and Andy Garca as Willy Bank, the casino tycoon attacked by Danny Ocean and his crew. The film received largely critical feedback.

After being released in various other countries in 2007, 88 Minutes was released in the United States on April 18, 2008. Alicia Witt and the film's co-stars were critical, but analysts disagreed with the script and not Pacino's acting. As New York detectives looking for a serial killer, Pacino and Robert De Niro co-star in Righteous Killing. On September 12, 2008, the film was released in theaters. Although it was an awaited return for the two actors, critics were not keen on it. "Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, a slow-moving, ridiculous police drama that would have been sent straight to the remainder bin at Blockbuster if it had starred anyone else," Lou Lumenick of the New York Post said.

In an HBO Films biopic titled You Don't Know Jack, which premiered in April 2010, Pacino played Jack Kevorkian. The film is about the life and times of the physician-assisted suicide advocate. Pacino's second Emmy Award for lead actor and his fourth Golden Globe accolade for his efforts. In the 2011 comedy film Jack and Jill, he co-starred as himself. Critics panned the film, but Pacino "won" the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor at the 32nd ceremony.

He was presented with Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award on September 4, 2011, the first American documentary-drama film written and directed by Pacino, and starring Pacino. The event was hosted at the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco's Castro District on the evening of March 21, 2012, ahead of a full house. Pacino, who plays Herod in the film, describes it as his "most personal project ever." President Barack Obama presented Pacino with the National Medal of Arts in February 2012.

Pacino appeared in a 2013 HBO biographical picture about record producer Phil Spector's murder trial, titled Phil Spector. Danny Collins, the British comedian, appeared in the comedy "Drama Danny Collins (2015). A Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy nomination went to him for his career as an aging rock star. In 2016, Pacino was given the Kennedy Center Award. Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey, Bobby Cannavale, and Chris O'Donnell paid their respects to the tribute with remarks by his former costars.

Deadline Hollywood announced that Pacino will appear in the television film Paterno, based on Joe Posnanski's 2012 biography. On April 7, 2018, Paterno premiered on HBO for the first time.

In Quentin Tarantino's comedy-drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which was released on July 26, 2019, Pacino appeared alongside Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio. Pacino appeared in Jim Scorsese's Netflix film The Irishman, based on Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci's 2004 book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt; this was the first time Pacino had been directed by Scorsese, and he received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination. Pacino's results received high praise. In The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw described it as "glorious." "De Niro, Pesci, and Pacino are at the top of their game, in part because they aren't just rehashing the classic gangster styles they've encountered before," Justin Chang wrote.

In the Amazon Video series Hunters, Pacino starred as Meyer Offerman, a fictional Nazi hunter. This is Pacino's first television series since the Angels in America (2003). In August 2020, the Hunters were back for their second season.

In 2021, Pacino played Aldo Gucci in Ridley Scott's House of Gucci. Pacino's role as a standout among Lady Gaga's and Jared Leto's reviews mixed to positive feedback, with Pacino's appearance lauded as a standout in the film. He was the lead defense counsel in American Traitor: The trial of Axis Sally that year.

Pacino was supposed to film Amedeo Modigliani in August 2022, and he would co-produce with Johnny Depp and Barry Navidi. The film is based on a Dennis McIntyre play, which was previously made for the 2004 film of the same name. In 2023, principal photography will begin.

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