Soldiers of the former regiments of the Scottish Division(1968–2006) and the Royal Regiment of Scotland (2006) in Number 2. Pattern ceremonial dress

The glengarry bonnet is a traditional Scots cap made of thick-milled woollen material, decorated with a toorie on top, frequently a rosette cockade on the left side, and with ribbons hanging down behind. It is normally worn as part of Scottish military or civilian Highland dress, either formal or informal, as an alternative to the Balmoral bonnet or tam o' shanter. The Royal Regiment of Scotland wears the glengarry with diced band and black cock feathers as its ceremonial headdress.

History[link]

Alexander Ranaldson MacDonell of Glengarry in 1812.

Traditionally, the 'glengarry bonnet' is said to have first appeared as the head dress of the Glengarry Fencibles when they were formed in 1794 by Alexander Ranaldson MacDonell of Glengarry, of Clan MacDonnell of Glengarry. MacDonnell, therefore, is sometimes said to have invented the glengarry but it is not clear whether early pictures of civilians or fencible infantry show a true glengarry, capable of being folded flat, or the standard military bonnet of the period merely 'cocked' into a more 'fore-and-aft' shape.^[1] The first use of the classic, military glengarry may not have been until 1841, when it is said to have been introduced for the pipers of the 79th Foot by the commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Lauderdale Maule^[2].

It was only in the 1850s that the glengarry became characteristic undress headgear of the Scottish regiments of the British Army. By 1860, the glengarry without a diced border and usually with a feather had been adopted by pipers in all regiments except the 42nd (Black Watch), whose pipers wore the Full Dress feather bonnet. In 1914, all Scottish infantry regiments were wearing dark blue glengarries in non-ceremonial orders of dress, except for the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) who wore them in rifle green, and the Scots Guards, who wore peaked forage caps or khaki service dress caps.

The diced bands on glengarries were either in red, white and blue for Royal regiments or red, white and green for others. The toories on top could be red, royal blue or black, according to regiment. The Black Watch and Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, however, wore glengarries without dicing and The 93rd (Sutherland)Highlanders were unique in wearing a simple red and white chequer pattern. This was said to commemorate the stand of the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders at the Battle of Balaclava immortalized as The Thin Red Line.^{[citation needed]}

Between 1868 and 1897, the glengarry was also worn as an undress cap for most British soldiers until replaced by the short-lived Field Service Cap. When this was revived in 1937, the Dress Regulations for the Army, described the Universal Pattern Field Service Cap (used by the British Army in World War II) as "similar in shape to the Glengarry."

Modern wear[link]

The glengarry continued to be worn in dark blue by all regiments of the Scottish Division up to their final amalgamation into the Royal Regiment of Scotland in 2006. In parade dress, it was worn by all regiments except the Black Watch, who wore the blue balmoral bonnet, and musicians of some regiments, who wore feather bonnets in full dress. The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) wore a plain rifle green glengarry up until their disbandment in 1968. The blue glengarry currently worn by the Royal Regiment of Scotland has red, blue and white dicing, a red toorie, black silk cockade and the regimental cap badge surmounted by a cock feather. This last is a tradition taken from the Royal Scots and King's Own Scottish Borderers. Other Commonwealth military forces that have Scottish and Highland regiments also make use of the glengarry.

Scottish companies and pipe bands of the Australian Army also wear the glengarry.^[3]

Irish Army[link]

An Inspection of the Eastern Reserve Brigade Guard of Honour By President Mary McAleese on the 93rd anniversary of the 1916 Rising on O'Connell Street in Dublin

The headdress worn by Irish Army pipers is called a Glengarry but is more similar to the caubeen^[4] in appearance^[5], than to the Scottish headdress of the same name. It was designed in 1934 for the Cavalry Corps as a more practical headdress than the standard peaked cap in the confines of their armoured cars and tanks. The Glengarry is the same colour as the army's service dress uniform with a black band and two black swallow-tail ribbons at the rear. The cap badge is worn over the left eye. Officers in the RDF wear a similar Glengarry but with green band and ribbons as part of their service dress uniform. Army pipers and drummers wear a black Glengarry with a saffron band and ribbons and a dark green feather hackle .

Civilian wear[link]

The glengarry is worn by male members of staff at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Queen's Official residence in Scotland.^[6]

The glengarry is also commonly worn by civilians, notably civilian pipe bands, but can be considered an appropriate hat worn by any man with Highland casual dress or day wear. In this context, it most often has a red toorie. In pipe bands, women often also wear the glengarry.

Police use of diced band[link]

In 1932 Percy Sillitoe, the Chief Constable of the City of Glasgow Police, abolished the traditional custodian helmet and added a new feature to the peaked caps worn by his police officers. This new feature was a black and white chequered cap band based on the dicings seen on the glengarry headress of the Scottish regiments. The diced band, popularly known as the Sillitoe Tartan, later spread to police forces in Australia, New Zealand, and the rest of the United Kingdom, as well as to some other parts of the world, notably Chicago.

Method of wearing[link]

The correct method of wearing the glengarry has changed since the end of the Second World War. Prior to 1945, glengarries were generally worn steeply angled, with the right side of the cap worn low, often touching the ear, and the side with the capbadge higher on the head. The trend since the end of the war has been to wear the glengarry level on the head.

References[link]

Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin with fiance, Hilaria Thomas in 2011.
Born	Alexander Rae Baldwin III (1958-04-03) April 3, 1958 (age 54) Long Island, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1980–present
Spouse	Kim Basinger (m. 1993–2002; divorced)
Partner	Hilaria Thomas (engaged)
Children	1
Website
http://www.alecbaldwin.com/

Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III (born April 3, 1958) is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.

Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work, for two seasons (6 and 7), on the soap opera Knots Landing, in the role of Joshua Rush. He has since played both leading and supporting roles in films such as Beetlejuice (1988), The Hunt for Red October (1990), The Marrying Man (1991), The Shadow (1994), Notting Hill (1999), The Aviator (2004) and The Departed (2006). His performance in the 2003 film The Cooler garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Since 2006 he has starred as Jack Donaghy on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, receiving critical acclaim for his performance and winning two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and seven Screen Actors Guild Awards for his work on the show, making him the male performer with most SAG Awards ever.

He is the eldest of the Baldwin brothers working in Hollywood.

Early life[link]

Baldwin was born on Long Island, New York, the son of Carolyn Newcomb (née Martineau) and Alexander Rae Baldwin, Jr., a high school history/social studies teacher and football coach.^[1] Baldwin was raised in a Roman Catholic family of Irish, English, and French descent.^[2][3] He has three younger brothers, Daniel, William, and Stephen, who also became actors. Baldwin has two sisters, Beth Baldwin Keuchler (born 1955), and Jane Baldwin Sasso (born 1965).^{[citation needed]}

Baldwin attended Alfred G. Berner High School in Massapequa, Long Island, and played football there under Coach Bob Reifsnyder, who is in the College Football Hall of Fame. He worked as a busboy at the famous New York City disco Studio 54. Baldwin attended George Washington University from 1976 to 1979. He then transferred to New York University to study acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute under Elaine Aiken and Geoffrey Horne.^[4] He returned to NYU in 1994 and graduated with a BFA that year. On May 12, 2010, he gave a commencement address at New York University and was awarded a Doctor of Fine Arts degree, honoris causa.^[5]

Career[link]

Stage[link]

Baldwin made his Broadway debut in 1986, in a revival of Joe Orton's Loot alongside theater veterans Zoë Wanamaker, Željko Ivanek, Joseph Maher and Charles Keating.^[6] This production closed after three months. His other Broadway credits include Caryl Churchill's Serious Money with Kate Nelligan and a highly acclaimed revival of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. His performance as Stanley Kowalski in the latter garnered him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor. Baldwin also received an Emmy nomination for the 1995 television version of the production, in which both he and Jessica Lange reprised their roles, alongside John Goodman and Diane Lane. In 1998, Baldwin played the title role in Macbeth at the Public theater alongside Angela Bassett and Liev Schreiber in a production directed by George C. Wolfe. In 2004, Baldwin starred in a revival of Twentieth Century with Anne Heche.

On June 9, 2005, he appeared in a concert version of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific at Carnegie Hall. He starred as Luther Billis, alongside Reba McEntire as Nellie and Brian Stokes Mitchell as Emile. The production was taped and telecast by PBS on April 26, 2006. In 2006, Baldwin made theater news in Roundabout Theatre Company's Off-Broadway revival of Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr. Sloane. In 2010, Baldwin starred opposite Sam Underwood in a critically acclaimed revival of Peter Shaffer's Equus, directed by Tony Walton at Guild Hall in East Hampton, NY.

Television[link]

Baldwin's first major acting role was as Billy Aldrich on the daytime soap opera The Doctors from 1980 to 1982. In fall 1983, he starred in the short-lived television series Cutter to Houston. He then co-starred in the television series Knots Landing from 1984 to 1986. In 1986, Baldwin starred in Dress Gray, a four-hour made-for-television miniseries, as an honest cadet sergeant who tries to solve the mystery of a murdered gay classmate.^[7] The film was adapted by Gore Vidal from the novel by Lucian Truscott IV.

Between 1998 and 2003, Baldwin was the U.S. narrator for the children's show Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, narrating all 52 episodes of Series 5 and Series 6. He portrayed Arnold Pagani in a Goosebumps episode, "Bad Hare Day". Baldwin appeared in a celebrity edition of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire in November 2000, competing against Jon Stewart, Charlie Sheen, Vivica A. Fox and Norm Macdonald. He won $250,000 for PAWS, and used Kim Basinger as one of his "phone-a-friend" partners. He voiced Blue Barron in Teen Titans.

In 2002, Baldwin appeared on two episodes of Friends as Phoebe Buffay's overly enthusiastic love interest, Parker. He also portrayed a recurring character in a number of episodes in seasons 7 and 8 of Will & Grace, in which he played Malcolm – a "top secret agent" and the lover of Karen Walker (Megan Mullally). He also guest-starred in the first live episode of the series. Baldwin wrote an episode of Law & Order entitled "Tabloid", which aired in 1998. He played the role of Dr. Barrett Moore, a retired plastic surgeon, in the series Nip/Tuck.

On July 7, 2007, Baldwin was a host at the American leg of Live Earth, which was broadcast on NBC.^{[citation needed]}

Baldwin stars in the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, which first aired October 2006. Baldwin met his future co-stars Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan while appearing on Saturday Night Live. He has received two Emmy Awards,^[8] two Golden Globe awards and five Screen Actors Guild Awards for his role. Baldwin received his second Emmy nomination for Best Actor in a Television Comedy or Musical as Jack Donaghy in 2008, marking his seventh Primetime Emmy nomination and first win. He won again in 2009. Since season 3, Baldwin has been credited as producer of the show.

Baldwin joined TCM’s The Essentials Robert Osborne as co-host beginning in March 2009.^[9][10]

Baldwin co-hosted the 82nd Academy Awards with Steve Martin in 2010.^[11] He has hosted Saturday Night Live sixteen times, the most recent being the Season 37 premiere on September 24, 2011. He currently holds the record for most times hosting Saturday Night Live, eclipsing Steve Martin.^[12]

Film[link]

Baldwin made his film debut with a minor role in the 1987 film Forever, Lulu. Also in 1988, he appeared in Beetlejuice and Working Girl. He gained further recognition as a leading man with his role as Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October (1990).

Baldwin met his future wife Kim Basinger when they played lovers in the 1991 film The Marrying Man. He appeared with Basinger again in The Getaway, a 1994 remake of the 1972 Steve McQueen film of the same name. Next, in a brief role, Baldwin played a ferocious sales executive in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), a part added to the film version of David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play (including the monologue "Coffee's for closers"). Later that year, he starred in Prelude to a Kiss with Meg Ryan, which was based on the Broadway play. The film received a lukewarm reception by critics and grossed only $22 million worldwide.^[13]

In 1994, Baldwin made a foray into pulp fiction-based movies with the role of the title character in The Shadow. The film made $48 million. In 1996 and 1997, Baldwin continued to work in several thrillers including The Edge, The Juror and Heaven's Prisoners.

Baldwin shifted towards character acting, beginning with Pearl Harbor in 2001. He played Lt. Col. James Doolittle in the film, which, with a worldwide box office of $449,220,945, remains the highest grossing film Baldwin has appeared in his acting career.^[14] Baldwin was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance in the 2003 gambling drama The Cooler.^[4] He appeared in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator (2004) and The Departed (2006).^[4] In 2006, he starred in the film Mini's First Time, alongside Nikki Reed and Luke Wilson. Baldwin performed opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar in the 2007 romantic comedy, Suburban Girl. In 2009, he co-starred in the hit romantic comedy It's Complicated with Meryl Streep and Steve Martin. In 2001, he voiced Butch in Cats & Dogs.

Baldwin directed and starred in an all-star version of The Devil and Daniel Webster with Anthony Hopkins, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Dan Aykroyd in 2001.^[15] The then-unreleased film became an asset in a federal bank fraud trial when investor Jed Barron was convicted of bank fraud while the movie was in production. The film eventually was acquired by The Yari Group without Baldwin's involvement.^[16]

In 2003, he served as the antagonist in the live-action film The Cat in the Hat.

In 2007, the Yari Film Group announced it would give the film, now titled Shortcut to Happiness, a theatrical release in the spring and cable film network Starz! announced they had acquired pay TV rights for the film. Shortcut to Happiness was finally released in 2008. Baldwin, displeased with the way the film had been cut in post-production, demanded that his directorial credit be changed to the pseudonym "Harry Kirkpatrick".^[17]

In 2009, Balwin appeared in a series of commercials for Hulu that premiered during the Super Bowl broadcast.

In 2010, Baldwin made a 5-second cameo appearance with comedian Andy Samberg in a musical video titled "Great Day" featured on the bonus DVD as part of Lonely Island's new album "Turtleneck & Chain". In this video, Samberg plays an enthusiastic, upbeat cocaine addict who believes that Tom Petty (who also co-stars) and Alec Baldwin are his very best friends--only to be quickly rejected by both. After finding out the hard way they are quite the opposite and feeling heartbroken, the addict then briefly sings about losing them.

Baldwin has also worked as voice actor in films such as The Royal Tenenbaums, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Thomas and the Magic Railroad and The Spongebob Squarepants Movie. As of March 2011 Baldwin has signed on to star alongside Tom Cruise, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Julianne Hough, and Mary J. Blige in the film adaptaion of the jukebox hit musical Rock of Ages. Baldwin will play Dennis Dupree, the aging owner of a Sunset Strip rock club, when production begins in May 2011.

Radio[link]

On January 12, 2009, Baldwin became the host of The New York Philharmonic This Week, the nationally broadcast radio series of the New York Philharmonic.^[18] He has recorded two nationally distributed public service radio announcements on behalf of the Save the Manatee Club.^[19]

On October 24, 2011, WNYC public radio released the first episode of Baldwin's new podcast Here's the Thing, a series of interviews with public figures including artists, policy makers and performers. The first two episodes featured actor Michael Douglas and political consultant Ed Rollins.^[20]

Personal life[link]

Baldwin with Kim Basinger at the 1994 César Awards ceremony in Paris.

In 1990, he met his future wife, actress Kim Basinger, when they played lovers in the film The Marrying Man.^[21] They married in 1993^[22] and had a daughter, Ireland, in October 1995.^[23] On January 12, 2001, Basinger filed for divorce,^[24] which was finalized in February^{[citation needed]} 2002.^[25]

Since summer 2011,^[26] Baldwin has been dating Hilaria Thomas, an instructor with Yoga Vida in Manhattan.^[27][28] As of April 2012, Baldwin and Thomas are engaged.^[29] In August 2011, Baldwin moved from the Upper West Side and to SoHo,^[30] where they live together.^[31]

Baldwin is a Catholic.^[32][33]

Runway Incident[link]

In December of 2011, Alec was waiting on an American Airlines flight at LAX, and playing Words with Friends on his phone. When instructed to put away the "electronic device" by the stewardess, he reportedly became belligerent, and was eventually removed from the plane. He later publicly apologized, though only to the passengers so delayed, not the airline or Federal regulators.^[34]

In 2012, a commercial for Capital One credit cards (for which Alec is a spokesman) made a humorous reference to this event: A viking character from the famous ad series asks about the phone Alec is using, and Baldwin replies, in a very facetious way, that it is not to be used on the runway, ending with a very chiding "no!" A commercial for Best Buy, also humorously referenced the event in which the Words With Friends co-creators are on a plane and are interrupted by a stewardess looking down at them, clearing her throat and signaling them to put their phones away while saying, "we created Words With Friends."

Baldwin also made a guest appearance on SNL's Weekend Update posing as the captain of the plane he was removed from in a bit poking fun at the situation.

[edit] A Promise to Ourselves

In 2008 Alec Baldwin and Mark Tabb published their book, A Promise to Ourselves, which chronicles Baldwin's seven-year battle to remain a part of his daughter's life.^[35][36]

Baldwin contends that after their separation in December 2000, his former wife, Kim Basinger, endeavored to deny him access to his daughter by refusing to discuss parenting,^[37] blocking visitation,^[38] not providing telephone access,^[39] not following court orders,^[40] not dropping their daughter off for reasons of it being inconvenient,^[41] and directly lobbying the child.^[42] He contends she spent over $1.5 million in the effort.^[43]

Baldwin called this parental alienation syndrome.^[44] Baldwin has called the attorneys in the case "opportunists" and has characterized Basinger's psychologists as part of the "divorce industry". He has faulted them more than Basinger, and writes, "In fact, I blame my ex-wife least of all for what has transpired. She is a person, like many of us, doing the best she can with what she has. She is a litigant, and therefore, one who walks into a courtroom and is never offered anything other than what is served there. Nothing off the menu, ever."^[45]

Baldwin wrote that he has spent over a million dollars,^[46] has had to put time aside from his career,^[47] has had to travel extensively,^[48] and needed to find a house in California (he lived in New York),^[49] so he could stay in his daughter's life.^[35]

Baldwin contended that after seven years of these issues, he hit a breaking point, and on April 11, 2007, left an angry voicemail message in response to another unanswered arranged call in which Baldwin called his daughter a "rude, thoughtless little pig".^[50] He contends that the tape was sold to TMZ, which released the recording despite laws against publishing media related to a minor without the permission of both parents.^[51] Baldwin admitted he made a mistake, but asked not to be judged as a parent based on a bad moment.^[52] He later admitted to Playboy in June 2009 that he contemplated suicide over the voice mail that leaked to the public. Of the incident, he said "I spoke to a lot of professionals, who helped me. If I committed suicide, [ex-wife Kim Basinger's side] would have considered that a victory. Destroying me was their avowed goal."^[53]

During the autumn of 2008, Baldwin toured in support of the book, speaking about his experiences related in it.^{[54][55][56][57]}

Political views[link]

Baldwin serves on the board of People for the American Way. He is an animal rights activist, and a strong supporter of PETA,^[58][59] for which he has done work that includes narrating the video entitled Meet Your Meat.^[60] Baldwin also lent his support to the Save the Manatee Club by donating his time to record several public service announcements for the group, which had contacted him following his role in "Bonfire of the Manatees", an episode of The Simpsons in which he was the voice of a biologist working to save the endangered mammals.^[61]

During his appearance on the comedy late night show Late Night with Conan O'Brien on December 12, 1998, eight days before President Bill Clinton was to be impeached, Baldwin said, "If we were in another country ... we would stone Henry Hyde to death and we would go to their homes and kill their wives and their children. We would kill their families, for what they're doing to this country."^[62] Baldwin later apologized for the remarks, and the network explained it was meant as a joke and promised not to rerun it.^[63]

Baldwin said in a 2006 interview with the New York Times that if he did become involved in electoral politics, he would prefer to run for Governor of New York. When asked if he was qualified for the office, Baldwin responded that he considered himself far more qualified than California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.^[64] In June 2011, The Daily reported that Baldwin was mulling a 2013 run for Mayor of New York City, in the wake of a potential early race shakeup after candidate Congressman Anthony Weiner's sexting scandal.^[65] However, on December 21, 2011, Baldwin said he was abandoning plans to run for the office and would instead continue in his role on 30 Rock.^[66]

In February 2009, Baldwin spoke out to encourage state leaders to renew New York's tax break for the film and television industry, stating that if the "tax breaks are not reinstated into the budget, film production in this town is going to collapse and television production is going to collapse and it's all going to go to California".^[67]

During the 2011 Emmy Awards, Baldwin was slated to appear in a taped skit. However, the producers of the show cut a portion of the skit containing a reference to Rupert Murdoch and the News International phone hacking scandal. Baldwin told Access Hollywood Live that he asked them not to air his performance. Producers complied and he was replaced with Leonard Nimoy.^[68]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Baldwin, Alec (2008). A Promise to Ourselves: A Journey Through Fatherhood and Divorce. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-36336-9. OCLC 222666774. http://books.google.com/books?id=BdLOJ-S_IIEC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• Brown, Scott (December 15, 2009). "Stay in the Game: The Fall and Rise of Alec Baldwin". Wired (Condé Nast Publications) (January 2010): 86–87. http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_alec_baldwin/. 

External links[link]

• Official website
• Alec Baldwin at the Internet Movie Database
• Alec Baldwin at the Internet Broadway Database
• Alec Baldwin at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Alec Baldwin at AllRovi
• Political contributions of Alec Baldwin
• Alec Baldwin's Blog at Huffington Post
• Alec Baldwin narrates the PETA's Meet your Meat video
• Alec Baldwin's Charity Work
• Alec Baldwin at Emmys.com

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]