An inch (plural: inches; abbreviation or symbol: in or ″ – a double prime) is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including Imperial units, and United States customary units. There are 36 inches in a yard and 12 inches in a foot. Corresponding units of area and volume are the square inch and the cubic inch.

Usage[link]

The inch is a commonly used customary unit of length in the United States,^[1] Canada,^[2][3] and the United Kingdom.^[4] For the United Kingdom, guidance on public sector use states that since 1 October 1995, without time limit, that the inch (along with the mile, yard and foot) is to be used as a primary unit for road signs and related measurements of distance and speed and may continue to be used as a secondary or supplementary indication following a metric measurement for other purposes.^[4]

Measuring tape calibrated in 32nds of an inch

International inch[link]

From July 1, 1959, the United States and countries of the British Commonwealth defined the length of the international yard to be exactly 0.9144 metres.^[5][6] Consequently, the international inch is defined as exactly 25.4 millimetres. This creates a slight difference between the international units and American surveyor's units which are described in the article on the foot.

The international standard symbol for inch is in (see ISO 31-1, Annex A). In some cases, the inch is denoted by a double prime, which is often approximated by double quotes, and the foot by a prime, which is often approximated by an apostrophe.

Equivalence to other units of length[link]

1 international inch is equal to:

• 1,000 thou (also known as mil) (1 mil = 1 thou = 0.001 inches)
• 1,000,000 microinches (1 μin is one millionth of an inch.)

• ≈ 0.02778 yards (1 yard is equal to 36 inches.)
• 2.54 centimetres (1 centimetre ≈ 0.3937 international inches.)

Historical origin[link]

The English word inch comes from Latin uncia meaning "one twelfth part" (in this case, one twelfth of a foot); the word ounce (one twelfth of a troy pound) has the same origin. The vowel change from u to i is umlaut; the consonant change from c (pronounced as k) to ch is palatalization (see Old English phonology).

In some other languages, the word for "inch" is similar to or the same as the word for "thumb"; for example, French: pouce inch/thumb; Italian: pollice inch/thumb; Spanish: pulgada inch, pulgar thumb; Portuguese: polegada inch, polegar thumb; Swedish: tum inch, tumme thumb; Dutch: duim inch/thumb; Sanskrit: angulam inch, anguli finger; Slovak: palec inch/thumb; Hungarian: hüvelyk inch/thumb, Danish and Norwegian: tomme / tommer inch/inches and tommel thumb. Given the etymology of the word "inch", it would seem that the inch is a unit derived from the Foot unit in Latin in Roman times.

King David I of Scotland in his Assize of Weights and Measures (c. 1150) is said to have defined the Scottish inch as the width of an average man's thumb at the base of the nail, even including the requirement to calculate the average of a small, a medium, and a large man's measures.^[7] However, the oldest surviving manuscripts date from the early 14 century and appear to have been altered with the inclusion of newer material.^[8]

The earliest known reference to the inch in England is from the Laws of Æthelberht dating to the early 7th century, surviving in a single manuscript from 1120.^[9] Paragraph LXVII sets out the fine for wounds of various depths: one inch, one shilling, two inches, two shillings, etc. "Gif man þeoh þurhstingð, stice ghwilve vi scillingas. Gife ofer ynce, scilling. æt twam yncum, twegen. ofer þry, iii scill."^[10][11]

An Anglo-Saxon unit of length was the barleycorn. After 1066, 1 inch was equal to 3 barleycorn, which continued to be its legal definition for several centuries, with the barleycorn being the base unit.^[12] One of the earliest such definitions is that of 1324, where the legal definition of the inch was set out in a statute of Edward II of England, defining it as "three grains of barley, dry and round, placed end to end, lengthwise".^[12]

Similar definitions are recorded in both English and Welsh medieval law tracts.^[13] One, dating from the first half of the 10th century, is contained in the Laws of Hywel Dda which superseded those of Dyvnwal, an even earlier definition of the inch in Wales. Both definitions, as recorded in Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales (vol i., pp. 184,187,189), are that "three lengths of a barleycorn is the inch".^[14]

Charles Butler, a mathematics teacher at Cheam School, in 1814 recorded the old legal definition of the inch to be "three grains of sound ripe barley being taken out the middle of the ear, well dried, and laid end to end in a row", and placed the barleycorn, not the inch, as the base unit of the English Long Measure system, from which all other units were derived.^[15] John Bouvier similarly recorded in his 1843 law dictionary that the barleycorn was the fundamental measure.^[16] Butler observed, however, that "[a]s the length of the barley-corn cannot be fixed, so the inch according to this method will be uncertain", noting that a standard inch measure was now (by his time) kept in the Exchequer chamber, Guildhall, and that was the legal definition of the inch.^[15] This was a point also made by George Long in his 1842 Penny Cyclopædia, observing that standard measures had since surpassed the barleycorn definition of the inch, and that to recover the inch measure from its original definition, in the event that the standard measure were destroyed, would involve the measurement of large numbers of barleycorns and taking their average lengths. He noted that this process would not perfectly recover the standard, since it might introduce errors of anywhere between one hundredth and one tenth of an inch in the definition of a yard.^[17]

Before the adoption of the international inch (see above), the United Kingdom and most countries of the British Commonwealth defined the inch in terms of the Imperial Standard Yard. But Canada had its own, different, definition of the inch, defined in terms of metric units. The Canadian inch was defined to be equal to 25.4 millimetres, the amount later accepted as the international inch.

Metric or decimal inch[link]

A metric inch (25 mm instead of 25.4 mm) was the equivalent of an inch under a former proposal for the metrification and unification of the English system of measures.

In Sweden, between 1855 to 1863, the existing Swedish "working inch" of ≈24.74 mm was replaced by a "decimal inch" of ≈29.69 mm which was one tenth of the Swedish foot. Proponents argued that a decimal system simplifies calculations. However, having two different Swedish inch measures (and the English inch on top of that) proved to be complicated. So in a transition period between 1878 and 1889 the metric units were introduced as the overall standard measures. However, the various inches survived some time in building and construction trades.

Scottish inch[link]

A Scottish inch (Scottish Gaelic: òirleach) was a Scottish measurement of length. It equals 1/12 ft in Scottish measures, and 1.0016 inches in imperial units (about 2.5441 cm).^[18] It was used in the popular expression Gie 'im an inch, an he'll tak an ell, in English "Give him an inch and he'll take an ell", first published as "For when I gave you an inch, you tooke an ell," by John Heywood in 1546.^[19] (The ell, equal to 37 inches or about 94 cm, was in use in England until 1685.)^[20] A Scottish square inch was equivalent to 1.0256 imperial square inches and 6.4516 square centimetres.

See also[link]

• Anthropic units
• English units
• Gry
• Guz
• Imperial unit
• Pyramid inch
• United States customary units
• UCUM

References[link]

1. ^ Corpus of Contemporary American English (Brigham Young University, accessed December 2011) lists 24,302 instances of inch(es) compared to 1548 instances of centimeter(re)(s) and 1343 instances of millimeter(re)(s).
2. ^ Weights and Measures Act
3. ^ Weights and Measures Act, accessed January 2012, Act current to 2012-01-18. Canadian units (5) The Canadian units of measurement are as set out and defined in Schedule II, and the symbols and abbreviations therefor are as added pursuant to subparagraph 6(1)(b)(ii).
4. ^ ^{a b} Guidance Note on the use of Metric Units of Measurement by the Public Sector. Department for Business Innovation and Skills. Crown copyright 2011. Accessed December 2011.
5. ^ Lasater, Brian (31 January 2008). The Dream of the West, Pt II. Lulu.com. p. 256. ISBN 978-1-4303-1382-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=_BQHPD0RNe4C&pg=PA256. Retrieved 14 May 2012. 
6. ^ "On what basis is one inch exactly equal to 25.4 mm? Has the imperial inch been adjusted to give this exact fit and if so when?". National Physical Laboratory. http://www.npl.co.uk/reference/faqs/on-what-basis-is-one-inch-exactly-equal-to-25.4-mm-has-the-imperial-inch-been-adjusted-to-give-this-exact-fit-and-if-so-when-(faq-length). Retrieved 2010-07-13. 
7. ^ Lord John Swinton (1789). A proposal for uniformity of weights and measures in Scotland. printed for Peter Hill. p. 134. http://books.google.com/books?id=kHhbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA134. Retrieved 27 February 2012. 
8. ^ Elizabeth Gemmill; Nicholas Mayhew (22 June 2006). Changing Values in Medieval Scotland: A Study of Prices, Money, and Weights and Measures. Cambridge University Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-521-02709-0. http://books.google.com/books?id=t1hmrzOSEagC&pg=PA113. Retrieved 27 February 2012. 
9. ^ Goetz, Hans-Werner; Jarnut, Jörg; Pohl, Walter (2003). Regna and Gentes: The Relationship Between Late Antique and Early Medieval Peoples and Kingdoms in the Transformation of the Roman World. BRILL. p. 33. ISBN 978-90-04-12524-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=RovRlJkrncEC&pg=PA33. Retrieved 14 May 2012. 
10. ^ Wilkins, David (1871). Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: English church during the Anglo-Saxon period: A.D. 595-1066. 1871. Clarendon Press. p. 48. http://books.google.com/books?id=XGUAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA48. Retrieved 27 November 2011. 
11. ^ Duncan, Otis Dudley (1984). Notes on social measurement: historical and critical. Russell Sage Foundation. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-87154-219-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=5c459mDugI0C&pg=PA87. Retrieved 27 November 2011. 
12. ^ ^{a b} H. Arthur Klein (1974). The world of measurements: masterpieces, mysteries and muddles of metrology. New York: Simon and Schuster. 
13. ^ Jane Hawkes and Susan Mills (1999). Northumbria's Golden Age. Sutton. pp. 310. ISBN 978-0-7509-1685-1. 
14. ^ John Williams (1867). "The civil arts — mensuration". The Traditionary Annals of the Cymry. Tenby: R. Mason. pp. 243–245. 
15. ^ ^{a b} Charles Butler (1814). An Easy Introduction to the Mathematics. Oxford: Bartlett and Newman. pp. 61. 
16. ^ John Bouvier (1843). "Barleycorn". A Law Dictionary: With References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law. Philadelphia: T. & J. W. Johnson. pp. 188. 
17. ^ George Long (1842). "Weights & Measures, Standard". The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. London: Charles Knight & Co.. p. 436. 
18. ^ "Dictionary of the Scots Language". Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries. http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?plen=333&startset=1811889&query=INCH&fhit=inch&dregion=form&dtext=snds#fhit. Retrieved 2011-05-21. 
19. ^ Heywood, John (1546). A dialogue conteinying the nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the englishe tongue, compacte in a matter concernyng two maner of mariages, etc.. London: Thomas Berthelet.  Full text of 1874 reprint
20. ^ Gibson, A. J. S.; Smout, T. C. (19 July 2007). Prices, Food and Wages in Scotland, 1550-1780. Cambridge University Press. p. 371. ISBN 978-0-521-03780-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=PHtKW4hPqBYC&pg=PA371. Retrieved 11 March 2012. 

• Collins Encyclopedia of Scotland
• Weights and Measures, by D. Richard Torrance, SAFHS, Edinburgh, 1996, ISBN 1-874722-09-9 (NB book focusses on Scottish weights and measures exclusively)
• This article incorporates text from "Dwelly's [Scottish] Gaelic Dictionary" (1911).
• Scottish National Dictionary and Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue

Al Pacino
Al Pacino attending the Venice Film Festival in September 2004
Born	Alfredo James Pacino (1940-04-25) April 25, 1940 (age 72) New York City
Occupation	Actor, director, screenwriter, producer
Years active	1968–present
Children	2 daughters, 1 son

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. His role as Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman won him the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1993 after receiving seven previous Oscar nominations, one of them being in the 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[link]

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.^[1] 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.^[2] His father moved to Covina, California, and worked as an insurance salesman and restaurateur.^[1] Pacino attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in New York.^[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 boy, 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 acting teacher Charlie 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 Gerardi, one of the most influential people in his life, also died.^[1]

Actors Studio training[link]

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[link]

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. 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]

Film career[link]

Early film career[link]

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.^[21] In 1970, Pacino signed with the talent agency Creative Management Associates (CMA).^[12]

1970s[link]

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.^[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.^[22]

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.^[22] 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.^[22] Newsweek has described his performance in the film as "arguably cinema's greatest portrayal of the hardening of a heart".^[23] 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 also directed him in Serpico a few years earlier, and Pacino was again nominated for Best Actor.^[24]

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.^[24] However he lost out that year to Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer — a role that Pacino had declined.^[24]

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[link]

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,^[25] 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,^[26] but did fairly well at the box office, grossing over US$45 million domestically.^[27] Pacino earned a Golden Globe nomination for his role as Cuban drug lord Tony Montana.^[28]

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,^[29] 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."^[30] 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.^[31]

1990s[link]

Al Pacino at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.

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".^[32] 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.^[33] 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."^[34]

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 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.^[35] Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times, ‘The satanic character is played by Pacino with relish bordering on glee.’^[36] 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[link]

Al Pacino at the Rome Film Festival in 2008.

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.^[37]

In 2000, Pacino released a low budget film adaptation of Ira Lewis' play Chinese Coffee to film festivals.^[38] 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.^[38] 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.^[39]

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.^[40]

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".^[41] The film and Pacino's performance were well-received, gaining a favorable rating of 92 percent on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.^[42] The film did moderately well at the box office, taking in $113 million dollars worldwide.^[43] His next film, S1m0ne, was one that Pacino liked, but which did not gain much critical praise or box office success.^[44]

He played the part of a publicist in People I Know, a small film that received little attention despite Pacino's well-received performance.^[45] 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.^[45] The Recruit, released in 2003, featured Pacino as a CIA recruiter and co-stars Colin Farrell. The film received mostly negative reviews,^[46] and was described by Pacino as something he "personally couldn't follow".^[45] 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.^[47]

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.^[48] 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.^[49] 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."^[50]

On October 20, 2006, the American Film Institute named Pacino the recipient of the 35th AFI Life Achievement Award.^[51] On November 22, 2006, the University Philosophical Society of Trinity College, Dublin awarded Pacino the Honorary Patronage of the Society.^[52]

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.^[53]

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,^[54] although critics found the fault to be in the plot instead of Pacino's acting.^[55] 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.^[56] 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."^[57]

2010s[link]

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^[58] for lead actor^[59] and his fourth Golden Globe award.^[28]

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.^[60] He's also filming a biographical picture about Phil Spector.^[61]

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.^[62] The award will be presented ahead of the premier of his film Wilde Salome, which is the third film Pacino has directed.^[62] Pacino, who plays the role of Herod in the film, describes it as his "most personal project ever".^[62]

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.^[63][64][65]

Personal life[link]

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.^[66][67] 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. ^[68] Other women he has had relationships with include Tuesday Weld, Marthe Keller, Kathleen Quinlan and Lyndall Hobbs.^[39]

The Internal Revenue Service filed a tax lien against Pacino claiming he owes the government $169,143.06 in 2008 and $19,140.44 in 2009 for a total of $188,283.50. A representative for Pacino blamed his former business manager Kenneth Starr for the discrepancy.^[69]

Filmography[link]

Video game[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

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.^[80]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Grobel, Lawrence (2006). Al Pacino: The Authorized Biography. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-9497-1. 

External links[link]

	Book: Al Pacino
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