Coordinates | 52°24′″N16°55′″N |
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name | Al Pacino |
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birth name | Alfredo James Pacino |
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birth date | April 25, 1940 |
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birth place | New York City
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occupation | Actor, director, screenwriter, producer |
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years active | 1968–present |
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children | 2 daughters, 1 son
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Alfredo James "
Al"
Pacino (; 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,
Tony Montana in ''
Scarface'',
Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in ''
Dick Tracy'' and
Carlito Brigante in ''
Carlito's Way'', though he has also appeared several times on the other side of the law — as a police officer, detective and a lawyer. His role as Frank Slade in ''
Scent of a Woman'' won him the
Academy Award for Best Actor in 1992 after receiving seven previous Oscar nominations.
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, picking up 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 Rose and Salvatore Pacino, who divorced when he was two years old. When he was two, his mother moved to the
South Bronx near the
Bronx Zoo, to live with her parents, Kate and James Gerardi, who originated from
Corleone,
Sicily. His father moved to
Covina, California, and worked as an insurance salesman and restaurateur. Pacino attended
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in New York. 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'. 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 boy,
busboy,
janitor, and postal clerk, in order to finance his acting studies.
He started smoking at age nine, drinking and casual marijuana use at age thirteen, but never took hard drugs. His two closest friends died young of drug abuse at the ages of 19 and 30. Growing up in the Bronx, he got into occasional fights and was something of a troublemaker at school.
He acted in basement plays in New York's theatrical underground but was rejected for the Actors Studio while still a teenager. Pacino then joined the Herbert Berghof Studio (HB Studio), where he met acting teacher Charlie Laughton, who became his mentor and best friend. During this period, he was frequently unemployed and homeless, and sometimes had to sleep on the street, in theaters, or at friends' houses. In 1962, his mother died at the age of 43. The following year, his grandfather, James Gerardi, one of the most influential people in his life, also died.
Actors Studio training
After having spent four years at HB Studio, Pacino successfully auditioned for the Actors Studio. 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. Pacino studied "
method acting" under acting coach
Lee Strasberg, who later appeared with Pacino in the films ''
The Godfather Part II'' and in ''
...And Justice for All''. 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." 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."
Pacino is currently co-president, along with Ellen Burstyn and Harvey Keitel, of the Actors Studio.
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.
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. 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''. 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". 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.
On February 25, 1969, Pacino made his Broadway debut in Don Petersen's ''Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?'' at the Belasco Theater. It closed after 39 performances on March 29, 1969, but Pacino received rave reviews and won the Tony Award on April 20, 1969. 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''. 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. 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''.
Pacino made his return to the stage in summer 2010, as Shylock in a Shakespeare in the Park production of ''The Merchant of Venice''. The acclaimed production transferred to Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre in October, earning US$1 million at the box office in its first week. The performance also garnered him a Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Play.
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. 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. In 1970, Pacino signed with the talent agency Creative Management Associates (CMA).
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 then little-known Robert De Niro – also tried out for the part, Coppola selected the relatively unknown Pacino, much to the dismay of studio executives. He was even teased on the set because 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.
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. In 1975, he enjoyed further success with the release of ''Dog Day Afternoon'', based on the true story of bank robber John Wojtowicz. It was directed by Sidney Lumet, who also directed him in ''Serpico'' a few years earlier, and Pacino was again nominated for Best Actor.
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. and the comedy-drama ''Author! Author!'' were critically panned. However, 1983's ''Scarface'', directed by Brian De Palma, proved to be a career highlight and a defining role. Upon its initial release, the film was critically panned, but did fairly well at the box office, grossing over US$45 million domestically. Pacino earned a Golden Globe nomination for his role as Cuban drug lord Tony Montana.
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.
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, 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." Pacino returned to film in 1989's ''Sea of Love'', 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.
1990s
Pacino received an Academy Award nomination for playing
Big Boy Caprice in the box office hit ''
Dick Tracy'' in 1990, in which critic
Roger Ebert wrote that Pacino is "the scene-stealer". 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). 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.
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."
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''. 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.
Pacino starred alongside Sean Penn in the crime dramas ''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).
In 1996, Pacino starred in his theatrical docudrama ''Looking for Richard'', which is both a performance of selected scenes of William 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 Reaves. The film was a success at the box office, taking US$150 million worldwide. Roger Ebert wrote in the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', ‘The satanic character is played by Pacino with relish bordering on glee.’ 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.
In 2000, Pacino released a low budget film adaptation of Ira Lewis' play ''Chinese Coffee'' to film festivals. 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. ''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.
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''.
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". The film and Pacino's performance were well-received, gaining a favorable rating of 92 percent on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. The film did moderately well at the box office, taking in $113 million dollars worldwide. His next film, ''S1m0ne'', was one that Pacino liked, but which did not gain much critical praise or box office success.
He played the part of a publicist in ''People I Know'', a small film that received little attention despite Pacino's well-received performance. 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. and was described by Pacino as something he "personally couldn't follow".
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. 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. 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."
On October 20, 2006, the American Film Institute named Pacino the recipient of the 35th AFI Life Achievement Award. On November 22, 2006, the University Philosophical Society of Trinity College, Dublin awarded Pacino the Honorary Patronage of the Society.
Pacino starred 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.
''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, although critics found the fault to be in the plot instead of Pacino's acting. In ''Righteous Kill'', Pacino and Robert De Niro co-star as New York detectives searching for a serial killer; rapper 50 Cent also stars in it. 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. 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."
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 for lead actor and his fourth
Golden Globe award.
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. He's also filming a biographical picture about Phil Spector.
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. The award will be presented ahead of the premier of his film ''Wilde Salome'', which is the third film Pacino has directed. Pacino, who plays the role of Herod in the film, describes it as his "most personal project ever".
Personal life
Although he has never married, Pacino has three children from two of his many relationships. 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. 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''. Other women he has had relationships with include
Tuesday Weld,
Marthe Keller,
Kathleen Quinlan and
Lyndall Hobbs.
Filmography
Awards and nominations
Pacino has been nominated and has won many awards during his acting career including eight
Oscar nominations (winning one), 15
Golden Globe nominations (winning four), five
BAFTA nominations (winning two), two
Emmy Awards for his work on Television and two
Tony Awards for his work on the Stage. 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.
Notes
References
External links
Al Pacino at Emmys.com
Category:1940 births
Category:Actors from New York City
Category:Actors Studio alumni
Category:American film actors
Category:American film directors
Category:American people of Italian descent
Category:American people of Sicilian descent
Category:American stage actors
Category:BAFTA winners (people)
Category:Best Actor Academy Award winners
Category:Best Actor BAFTA Award winners
Category:Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
Category:Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actor Golden Globe winners
Category:Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe winners
Category:Drama Desk Award winners
Category:Emmy Award winners
Category:Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School alumni
Category:Living people
Category:Obie Award recipients
Category:Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Category:People from Harlem
Category:People from the Bronx
Category:Tony Award winners
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