Born: 25 April 1940
Where: New York, New York, USA
Awards: Won 1 Oscar, 2 BAFTAs, 3 Golden Globes
Height: 5' 6"
It's those coal-black eyes, glistening with absolute conviction and (probably) malicious intent. Glaring out from millions of film-posters on millions of bedroom walls, they have at some point given us all the shivers. Because, cinematically speaking, we all know what those eyes have seen, we all know what terrors their owner has perpetrated. With just two of his many roles, Al Pacino has lodged himself in solidly our imaginations. As Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, we watched him evolve from a hopeful student innocent into an all-powerful, all-controlling tyrant. And in Scarface, we saw him grow from a sassy street-kid into a paranoid, murderous despot ("Say hello to my leedle friend!"). These characters were the ultimate anti-social anti-heroes, genuine threats to our way of life - genuine because Pacino, the consummate professional, made them so very real. Add to these roles his other classic performances, in Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and The Insider, and you realise why the man is an undeniable and deserved screen icon.
Getting there wasn't easy. Alfredo James Pacino was born to a family of Italian immigrants in East Harlem, New York, on the 25th of April, 1940, his grandparents having crossed the Atlantic from Sicily. His father, Salvatore, was an insurance agent who split from Alfredo's mother Rose when the boy was just two - mother and child moving in with her parents in a dirt-poor area near the Bronx zoo. As an only child, he was zealously protected by his grandparents, hardly leaving the house till the age of seven. When he was older, his mother would take him to the cinema (he was terribly hurt when she died young in 1962) and he'd act out the plotlines to his grandma on his return. Shy and insular, he'd impress his school-mates with a fictional past he'd invented for himself, claiming for instance that he'd been raised in Texas.
Thankfully, his teachers spotted his talent, cast him in school plays and asked him to read from the Bible at assembly. He enjoyed this but did not consider acting as a profession till, at age 14, he saw Chekov's The Seagull performed at the Elsmere Theatre in the South Bronx. This led to him enrolling at the prestigious High School of the Performing Arts but, flunking everything but English, he eventually, at 17, dropped out.
Yet Pacino, like many of the characters he'd later play, was remorseless in his ambition. He worked his ass off to finance his further studies, toiling as a messenger-boy, a movie-usher, an apartment superintendant and as a mail-deliverer at Commentary magazine. He attended acting classes and gained experience in basement plays before joining the Herbert Berghof Studio, under the tutelage of the legendary Charles Laughton. No elitist wimp - in January 1961 he was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon - he threw himself into the theatrical underground. Off-Broadway, he wrote, directed and acted, kept moving, and finally and crucially, in 1966, he came to the Actor's Studio to study the Method under Lee Strasberg (later to play Hyman Roth in The Godfather Part 2).
Pacino's stage career was a tough grind. In 1962, he'd done Jack And The Beanstalk at the Children's Theatre, then honed his craft in many a production, in 1963 making his off-Broadway debut when directed by Laughton in William Saroyan's Hello Out There, where he played a kid accused of rape and jailed. 1965 would see him directed by Laughton again, in August Strindberg's The Creditors. In 1966 alone he appeared in Tiger At The Gates, The Connection, Why Is A Crooked Letter (for which he'd win an off-Broadway Obie) and The Peace Creeps, playing in the latter alongside James Earl Jones. That year would also see him make a major breakthrough with The Indian Wants The Bronx at the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theatre in Connecticut where he'd play Murph, a street punk tormenting an elderly Indian gent. When the production moved on to New York, Pacino would win an Obie award as Best Actor of the 1967-68 season - as expected of Strasberg's star pupil.
On he went, 1967 had seen him spend a season at the Charles Playhouse in Boston, performing in Awake And Sing and America, Hurrah. Now, after The Indian Wants at Astor Place in New York, he'd play young hoodlum Graham in The Local Stigmatic at the Actors' Playhouse, then star as Bickham, a sadistic psycho in a drug rehab centre, in Does The Tiger Wear A Necktie? at the Belasco. This was another storming performance and deservedly won him a Tony. 1970 would see him move on to direct and perform in Rats and also star in Tennessee Williams' Camino Real at the Lincoln Centre. In theatre, he was now big news.
With his very Italian combination of menacing contemplation and terrifyingly focused rage, he was chosen above Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson to play Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather. Thoughtful, dignified, self-righteous and utterly ruthless, he was superb as Marlon Brando's initially reluctant heir, charged with the task of legitimising an ugly business.
Pacino found himself rightly Oscar-nominated for his efforts ands, aside from 1973's The Scarecrow, wherein he crosses the existential emptiness of America along with Gene Hackman, he would be nominated for his next three roles too. First, he was the incorruptible cop in Sidney Lumet's gritty Serpico: then Corleone once more, even whacking his own brother in Godfather Part 2 (poor, silly Fredo!): and finally there was 1975's Dog Day Afternoon, again with Lumet, where he played a bi-sexual, horribly botching a bank robbery he'd hoped would pay for his lover's sex-change operation
The list of movies Pacino has turned down is nearly as impressive as his filmography. There was Kramer Vs Kramer, Born On The 4th Of July, Apocalypse Now, Pretty Woman, Crimson Tide, even the part of Han Solo in Star Wars. But, in general, his choices have been good. Offscreen, he's had a harder time. He was once quoted as saying "The actor becomes an emotional athlete. The process is painful - my personal life suffers", and this does seem to have been the way for much of the time.
Given Pacino's leanings and his introduction to theatre back in the South Bronx, it would be very surprising if their son was not so-named after Chekov. With theatre in his blood, Pacino - without doubt one of the greatest actors of his generation - now has it in his blood-line. Is a new dynasty beginning? Fugg-ED about it.
Source: >Tiscali.co.uk
Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
88 Minutes (2007)
Two For The Money (2006)
The Merchant of Venice (2005)
Angels in America (TV Miniseries) (2003)
Gigli (2003)
The Recruit (2003)
People I Know (2002)
Simone (2002)
Insomnia (2002)
Chinese Coffee (2000)
Any Given Sunday (1999)
The Insider (1999)
The Devil's Advocate (1997)
Donnie Brasco (1996)
Looking For Richard (1996)
Two Bits (1996)
Airport (TV, as himself) (1996)
City Hall (1995)
Heat (1995)
Jonas In The Desert (as himself) (1994)
Carlito's Way (1993)
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
Scent Of A Woman (1992)
Frankie And Johnny (1991)
The Godfather Family: A Look Inside (TV, as himself) (1991)
In Bed With Madonna (as himself) (1991)
Dick Tracy (1990)
The Godfather Part 3 (1990)
Sea Of Love (1989)
Revolution (1985)
Scarface (1983)
Author! Author! (1982)
The Godfather 1902-1959: The Complete Epic (1981)
Cruising (1980)
And Justice For All (1979)
Bobby Deerfield (1977)
America At The Movies (1976)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
The Godfather Part 2 (1974)
Scarecrow (1973)
Serpico (1973)
The Godfather (1972)
Panic In Needle Park (1971)
Me, Natalie (1969)
NYPD (TV) (1968)