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Alfredo James "Al" Pacino (born April 25, 1940) is an Academy Award, Emmy Award and Tony Award-winning American stage and film actor. He is probably best known, among many, for his roles as Michael Corleone in The Godfather Trilogy and as Tony Montana in the 1983 film Scarface. He is regarded by many as the best film actor of his generation.
Early life
Alphonso Pacino was born in the Manhattan borough of New York City to Italian-American parents Salvatore Pacino and Rose Gerard (the daughter of an Italian-born father and a New York-born mother of Italian descent). His parents divorced when Pacino was two years old. After the divorce, Al and his mother moved to The Bronx, New York to live with his grandparents, who originated from Corleone, Sicily. His father Salvatore moved to Covina, California, working as an insurance salesman and owner of his own restaurant called Pacino's Lounge.
Pacino attended Manhattan's School of Performing Arts.
Tough times forced the closure of Pacino's in the early 1990s, and is now called Citrus Grill. Salvatore died on January 1, 2005 at the age of 82. However he remained good friends with Aaron Tedesco who Al Pacino described as "An absolute legend".
Career
1960s
In 1966, Pacino studied under legendary acting coach Lee Strasberg (alongside whom he would later feature in the 1974 film The Godfather Part II). He found acting to be an enjoyable talent that he had possessed since childhood, though it left him penniless and homeless. But by the end of the decade, he had won an Obie award for stage work in The Indian Wants the Bronx and a Tony award for Best Supporting Actor in the Broadway play, Does the Tiger Wear a Necktie?. Hes made his first screen appearance in an episode of the television series N.Y.P.D. in 1968. His largely unnoticed movie debut came the following year in Me, Natalie.
1970s
It was the 1971 film The Panic in Needle Park, in which he played a heroin addict, that would bring him to the attention of director Francis Ford Coppola.
Pacino's rise to fame came after portraying Michael Corleone in Coppola's blockbuster 1972 Mafia film The Godfather and Frank Serpico in the eponymous 1973 movie.
Although several established actors, including Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, and a little known Robert De Niro, were vying to portray Michael Corleone, director Coppola selected the relatively unknown Pacino, much to the dismay of studio executives. His performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1973 Pacino starred in the very successful Serpico and the less popular Scarecrow alongside Gene Hackman.
In 1974, Pacino reprised his role as Michael Corleone in the very successful sequel The Godfather Part II which was acclaimed as being comparable to the original. In 1975, Pacino enjoyed further success with the release of Dog Day Afternoon, based on the true story of a bank robber John Wojtowicz.
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.
1980s
Pacino's career slumped in the early 1980s and his appearances in the controversial Cruising and the comedy-drama Author! Author! were critically panned. 1983's Scarface, directed by Brian DePalma proved to be a career highlight and a defining role. Upon its initial release, the film was critically panned but did well at the box office, grossing over $45 million domestically. Pacino earned a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in Scarface as a Cuban drug lord.
1985's Revolution was a commercial and critical failure, resulting in a four year hiatus from films during which 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. He then worked on his most personal project, The Local Stigmatic, a 1969 Off Broadway play in which he starred, which he remounted with director David Wheeler and the Theater Company of Boston in a 1985 50-minute film version unreleased as of 2006. 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 films in 1989's Sea of Love.
1990s
Pacino received an Oscar nomination as Big Boy Caprice in the box office hit Dick Tracy (1990) followed by a return to his most famous character, Michael Corleone, in The Godfather Part III (1990). He would finally win an Oscar for Best Actor, for his portrayal of the depressed, irascible, and retired blind Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in Martin Brest's Scent of a Woman (1992). That very year, he was nominated for the supporting actor award 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 (as did Jamie Foxx in 2005). During that same year, Pacino was offered to voice Batman villain Two-Face in the hugely successful Batman The Animated Series but turned down the role. Pacino has since turned acclaimed performances in such crime dramas as Carlito's Way (1993), Donnie Brasco (1997), the multi-Oscar nominated The Insider (1999) and Insomnia (2002).
In 1995, Pacino starred in Michael Mann's Heat, in which he and fellow film icon Robert De Niro appeared onscreen together for the first time. (Though both Pacino and De Niro starred in The Godfather Part II, they did not share any scenes. The pairing drew much attention as the two actors have long been compared). In 1996, Pacino starred in his theatrical feature Looking for Richard, and was lauded for his role as Satan in the supernatural drama The Devil's Advocate in 1997.
Pacino has not received another nomination from the Academy since Scent of a Woman, but has won two Golden Globes since 2000, the first being the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures, and the second for his role in the highly praised HBO miniseries Angels in America.
Pacino has turned down several key roles in his career, including that of Han Solo in Star Wars, Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now, Richard Sherman in a never-filmed remake of The Seven Year Itch, and Edward Lewis in Pretty Woman. In 1996, Pacino was slated to play General Manuel Noriega in a major biographical motion picture when director Oliver Stone pulled the plug on production to focus on his movie Nixon. Pacino subsequently received his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2000s
Pacino recently turned down an offer to reprise his role as Michael Corleone in The Godfather: The Game, ostensibly because his voice had changed dramatically since playing Michael in the first two Godfather films. 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. (It is rumored Pacino actually declined the role due to a conflict with Electronic Arts' rival, Vivendi Universal, which launched a competing game adaptation of the 1983 remake of Scarface, titled Scarface: The World is Yours).
Pacino still acts on stage and has dabbled in film directing. While The Local Stigmatic remains unreleased, his film festival-screened Chinese Coffee has earned good notices. On the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains, he is only the second actor to appear on both lists: on the "heroes list" as Frank Serpico and on the "villains list" as Michael Corleone. In Scarface Al Pacino ( Tony Montana ) takes a violent path of destruction on his way to the top of Miami's drug trade, but then Tony Montana takes a twist in his life.
In October 1997, Pacino was ranked No 4 in Empire magazine's The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Timelist, and was later voted the Number 1 greatest movie star of all time in a Channel 4 (UK) poll. With his box office earnings relatively modest of late, Pacino looks to be gearing up with several new projects in 2007. He will star in Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean's Thirteen alongside George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Andy Garcia.
Also scheduled for release is Rififi, a remake of the 1955 French original based on the novel by Auguste Le Breton. Pacino plays a career thief just out of prison who finds his wife has left him; in his anger, he starts planning a heist.
Pacino is set to play surrealist Salvador Dalí in the film Dali & I: The Surreal Story.
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.
Personal life
Pacino has three children, despite being a confirmed bachelor. The first, Julie Marie, is his daughter with acting coach Jan Tarrant. He also has twins, Anton and Olivia, with ex-girlfriend Beverly D'Angelo.
Main Filmography
Panic in Needle Park (1971) | The Godfather (1972) | Scarecrow (1973) | Serpico (1973) | The Godfather II (1974) | Dog Day Afternoon (1975) | ...And Justice for All (1979) | Author! Author! (1982) | Scarface (1983) | Sea of Love (1989) | The Godfather III (1990) | Dick Tracy (1989) | Frankie and Johnny (1991) | Scent of a Woman (1992) | Carlito's Way (1993) | Heat (1995) | Devil's Advocate (1997) | Donnie Brasco (1997) | Any Given Sunday (1999) | The Insider (1999) | S1m0ne (2002) | Insomnia (2002) | The Recruit (2003) | The Merchant of Venice (2004) | Two for the Money (2005) | Ocean's Thirteen (2007) | Rififi (2007) | Dali & I: The Surreal Story (2007)
Awards
Preceded by
Anthony Hopkins
for The Silence of the Lambs Academy Award for Best Actor
1992
for Scent of a Woman Succeeded by
Tom Hanks
for Philadelphia
Preceded by
William H. Macy
for Door to Door Emmy Award - Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
2004
for Angels in America Succeeded by
Geoffrey Rush
for The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
Preceded by
Albert Finney
for The Gathering Storm Golden Globe - Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
2004
for Angels in America Succeeded by
Geoffrey Rush
for The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
Preceded by
Barbra Streisand Cecil B. DeMille Award
2001 Succeeded by
Harrison Ford
Preceded by
Nick Nolte
for The Prince of Tides Golden Globe - Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
1992
for Scent of a Woman Succeeded by
Tom Hanks
for Philadelphia (film)
Preceded by
Marlon Brando
for The Godfather Golden Globe - Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
1974
for Serpico Succeeded by
Jack Nicholson
for Chinatown
Preceded by
Sean Connery AFI Life Achievement Award
2007 Succeeded by
TBD
| Latest news about Al Pacino |
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Gregor Louden, with drawings also: Lefty is "worn"For me this has been Al Pacino's last great performance to date. For this role he dropped all the shouting and "HHHOOOHAWWS!!!" and just allowed the character of Lefty to consume him. In the film Lefty is a worn out jaded working man ... Continue reading
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