Al Pacino facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Al Pacino
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Pacino in 2016
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Alfredo James Pacino
April 25, 1940 New York City, U.S.
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| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1967–present |
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Works
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Full list |
| Partner(s) | Lyndall Hobbs (1989–1996) Beverly D'Angelo (1997–2003) Lucila Polak (2008–2018) |
| Children | 4 |
| Awards | Full list |
Alfredo James Pacino (born April 25, 1940) is a famous American actor. He has won many important awards, including an Academy Award (also known as an Oscar), two Tony Awards for his stage work, and two Primetime Emmy Awards for his TV roles. Winning all three of these is called achieving the "Triple Crown of Acting".
Pacino also has four Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He has been honored with special awards like the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2001 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2007. In 2011, he received the National Medal of Arts, and in 2016, the Kennedy Center Honors.
As a "method actor", Pacino learned his craft at HB Studio and the Actors Studio. He won an Oscar for Best Actor for his role in Scent of a Woman (1992). He was also nominated for Oscars for his roles in The Godfather (1972), Serpico (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), and Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Other well-known movies he starred in include Scarface (1983), Heat (1995), and The Irishman (2019).
On television, Pacino has appeared in HBO shows like Angels in America (2003) and You Don't Know Jack (2010), winning Emmy Awards for both. He also starred in the Amazon Prime Video series Hunters (2020–23). Pacino has a long history in theater, winning two Tony Awards for his stage performances.
Pacino also directs films. He made the documentary Looking for Richard (1996) and starred in it. He has also played the character Shylock in both a film and a stage version of The Merchant of Venice. Since 1994, he has been a co-president of the Actors Studio.
Early Life and Learning
Growing Up in New York
Alfredo James Pacino was born in East Harlem, New York City, on April 25, 1940. He was the only child of Rose and Salvatore Pacino, whose families came from Italy. His parents separated when he was two years old. He then moved with his mother to the South Bronx to live with his grandparents.
As a teenager, Pacino was known as "Sonny" to his friends. He dreamed of becoming a baseball player and was also called "The Actor." He went to Herman Ridder Junior High School. He later joined the High School of Performing Arts after an audition.
Starting His Acting Journey
Pacino's mother did not agree with his choice to pursue acting. After an argument, he left home. To pay for his acting lessons, Pacino worked many different low-paying jobs. He was a messenger, a busboy, a janitor, and a postal clerk.
Growing up, Pacino sometimes got into fights and was seen as a bit of a troublemaker. He acted in small plays in New York's underground theater scene. When he was young, he was turned down by the Actors Studio. He then joined the HB Studio, where he met his acting teacher and mentor, Charlie Laughton. During this time, he was often without a job or a home. He sometimes slept on the street or at friends' houses.
In 1962, Pacino's mother passed away when she was 43. The next year, his grandfather also died. Pacino said this was a very difficult time for him. He felt lost because the two most important people in his life were gone.
Learning at the Actors Studio
After four years at HB Studio, Pacino successfully auditioned for the Actors Studio. This is a group for professional actors, directors, and writers in New York. Pacino learned "method acting" from a coach named Lee Strasberg. Strasberg later acted with Pacino in movies like The Godfather Part II.
Pacino has often spoken about how important the Actors Studio and Lee Strasberg were to his career. He said that Strasberg helped him decide to focus only on acting and quit his other jobs. He found it exciting to work with Strasberg because he had such a deep understanding of acting and loved actors very much. In 2000, Pacino became a co-president of the Actors Studio.
Acting Career
Early Theater and First Film Roles (1967–1971)
In 1967, Pacino acted in plays in Boston. He earned his first good paycheck, which was $125 a week. He met actress Jill Clayburgh there, and they dated for five years. In 1968, Pacino starred in a play called The Indian Wants the Bronx. He won an Obie Award for Best Actor for this role. A manager named Martin Bregman saw the play and became Pacino's manager. Bregman encouraged Pacino to take on some of his most famous movie roles later on.
Pacino's first trip to Italy was to perform The Indian Wants the Bronx there. He said performing for an Italian audience was a wonderful experience. On February 25, 1969, Pacino made his first appearance on Broadway in the play Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?. He received great reviews and won a Tony Award for it.
Pacino continued to perform on stage in the 1970s. He won another Tony Award for The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. He also played the main role in Richard III. In the 1980s, he had success in the play American Buffalo. Since 1990, he has acted in revivals of plays like Hughie and Salome. Pacino found acting enjoyable and realized he was good at it while studying.
His first small film role was in Me, Natalie in 1969. In 1970, he signed with a talent agency.
Becoming a Star (1972–1983)
Director Francis Ford Coppola chose Pacino to play Michael Corleone in the very popular Mafia film, The Godfather (1972). Studio executives wanted a more famous actor, but Coppola insisted on Pacino. Pacino's performance earned him an Oscar nomination. His acting style was described as "intense." Pacino did not attend the Oscar ceremony because he felt he should have been nominated for Best Actor, not Supporting Actor. He had more screen time than the lead actor, Marlon Brando.
In 1973, Pacino starred with Gene Hackman in Scarecrow, which won a top award at the Cannes Film Festival. That same year, Pacino was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in Serpico. This movie was based on the true story of a New York City policeman, Frank Serpico, who fought corruption.
In 1974, Pacino played Michael Corleone again in The Godfather Part II. This movie was the first sequel to win the Best Picture Oscar. Pacino received another Oscar nomination for this role, this time for Best Actor. Many people consider his performance in The Godfather Part II to be one of the best portrayals of a character changing over time.
In 1975, he had more success with Dog Day Afternoon. This film was based on the true story of a bank robber. Pacino was again nominated for Best Actor. In the 1970s, Pacino received five Oscar nominations, including four for Best Actor.
Pacino's career slowed down a bit in the early 1980s. However, his role in Scarface (1983), directed by Brian De Palma, became a very important part of his career. When it first came out, some critics didn't like the film because it was very violent. But later, it became highly praised. The movie also did well at the box office.
Career Changes (1984–1999)
His 1985 film Revolution was not successful. Pacino felt the movie was rushed, so he took a break from films for four years. During this time, he returned to the stage. He performed in several plays, including Julius Caesar in 1988. Pacino said that people often thought his movie career was ending when he went back to theater, but he loved stage acting.
In 1990, Pacino received an Oscar nomination for his role as Big Boy Caprice in the hit movie Dick Tracy. Later that year, he returned to play Michael Corleone again in The Godfather Part III (1990).
In 1991, Pacino starred in Frankie and Johnny with Michelle Pfeiffer. Pacino played a cook who starts a relationship with a waitress. Critics praised Pacino's appealing performance in the film. For his role as a blind U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman (1992), Pacino won the Academy Award for Best Actor. He was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Glengarry Glen Ross in the same year. This made him the first male actor to get two acting nominations for two different movies in the same year and win for the lead role.
Pacino starred with Sean Penn in the crime drama Carlito's Way in 1993. He played Carlito Brigante, a gangster who tries to live a straight life after prison. In Michael Mann's Heat (1995), Pacino and Robert De Niro appeared on screen together for the first time. In 1996, Pacino starred in his film Looking for Richard, which was about William Shakespeare's play Richard III. The film explored Shakespeare's importance in culture.
Pacino played Satan in the thriller The Devil's Advocate (1997), which also starred Keanu Reeves. The movie was very successful. In Donnie Brasco (1997), Pacino played a gangster in the true story of an undercover FBI agent. In 1999, Pacino starred in The Insider and Any Given Sunday.
Television Roles and Broadway Return (2000–2018)
Pacino has won three Golden Globes since 2000. The first was the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2001 for his lifetime achievements in movies. In 2000, Pacino starred in a low-budget film called Chinese Coffee. This film was mostly a conversation between two characters. Pacino funded the project himself.
In 2002, Pacino starred in a play called The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Critics praised his performance, saying he was very captivating. Director Christopher Nolan worked with Pacino on Insomnia, a remake of a Norwegian film. Pacino's performance was well-received. The film did moderately well at the box office.
He played a lawyer named Roy Cohn in the 2003 HBO miniseries Angels in America. For this role, Pacino won his third Golden Globe.
Pacino played Shylock in the 2004 film version of The Merchant of Venice. Critics said he brought kindness and depth to the character. In 2006, the American Film Institute gave Pacino a lifetime achievement award.
Pacino starred in Ocean's Thirteen (2007) as the villain Willy Bank, a casino owner. The film received good reviews.
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Pacino returned to the stage in 2010, playing Shylock in a Shakespeare in the Park production of The Merchant of Venice. This popular play later moved to Broadway. His performance earned him a Tony Award nomination. Pacino played Jack Kevorkian in an HBO Films movie called You Don't Know Jack, which came out in 2010. He won his second Emmy Award and fourth Golden Globe award for this role.
In February 2012, President Barack Obama gave Pacino the National Medal of Arts. Pacino also starred in a Broadway revival of the play Glengarry Glen Ross from 2012 to 2013. In 2015, he starred in another play called China Doll.
Pacino starred in a 2013 HBO movie about record producer Phil Spector's murder trial, called Phil Spector. He played an aging rock star in the comedy-drama Danny Collins (2015), which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. In 2016, Pacino received the Kennedy Center Honors. In 2018, he played former football coach Joe Paterno in the HBO film Paterno.
Recent Work (2019–Present)
In 2019, Pacino starred with Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio in Quentin Tarantino's film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Later in 2019, Pacino played Teamsters chief Jimmy Hoffa in Martin Scorsese's Netflix film The Irishman. He starred alongside Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. This was the first time Pacino was directed by Scorsese, and he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Critics praised his performance.
In 2020, Pacino starred as Meyer Offerman, a fictional Nazi hunter, in the Amazon Prime Video series Hunters. This was his first TV series since Angels in America. Hunters was renewed for a second season. In 2021, Pacino played Aldo Gucci in Ridley Scott's House of Gucci. His performance was highlighted as a standout.
In 2024, Pacino starred in Modì, Three Days on the Wing of Madness, a film about artist Amedeo Modigliani. He also helped produce this film. On March 10, 2024, Pacino presented the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 96th Academy Awards.
Personal Life
Family
Pacino has four children. His oldest daughter, Julie Marie, was born in 1989. He has twins, a son named Anton James and a daughter named Olivia Rose, born in 2001, with actress Beverly D'Angelo. He also has a son, Roman, born in 2023. Pacino has never been married.
Pacino had a relationship with his The Godfather Trilogy co-star Diane Keaton. Their relationship ended after the filming of The Godfather Part III. Keaton said that Pacino was "the most entertaining man." He has also had relationships with other actresses and partners over the years.
Acting Credits and Awards
Al Pacino has won and been nominated for many awards throughout his acting career. These include nine Oscar nominations (winning one) and five BAFTA nominations (winning one) for his film work. He has received 19 Golden Globe nominations (winning four) and seven SAG Award nominations (winning two) for both his film and TV work. For his television work, he has three Primetime Emmy Award nominations (winning two). For his stage work, he has three Tony Award nominations (winning two).
In 2007, the American Film Institute gave Pacino a lifetime achievement award. In 2003, British TV viewers voted Pacino the greatest film star of all time in a poll.
See also
In Spanish: Al Pacino para niños
