(person) by Starke Tue Aug 07 2001 at 8:10:07

Al Pacino is an Academy Award winning actor who is best known for his roles in mobster movies, most notably, The Godfather Trilogy.

Alfredo James Pacino was born in 1940 in New York City. His parents separated when he was 2 years old, and he was raised by his mother and grandparents in the Bronx. Pacino had always been interested in acting. When he was only 3 years old, he acted out scenes from movies to his grandfather's delight.

In his teenage years, he was more interested in actual performances than learning to act. At 17, he left the High School of Performing Arts in New York to follow his dreams of an acting career. He then did a bit of studying at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio and the Harbert Bercov Studio.

Pacino began his career in theatre, as many actors do. He has stated before that he prefers theatre acting to film acting. Before he even started film acting, Pacino had won a Tony in 1969 for "Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?".

His first taste in film acting was a role in Me Natelie. This was a small role, but his first true film was The Panic in Needle Park (1971), in which he was able to grab the lead. His portrayal of a heroin addict was able to catch the eye of director/producer Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola cast Pacino as Michael Corleone in this now-legendary mobster movie. The movie was a blockbuster hit, placing itself on The Top Grossing Movies of All Time list(at that time). The movie won Best Picture as well as 2 other Oscars (including a Best Actor which Marlon Brandon refused) and although Pacino was nominated for Best supporting actor for The Godfather (along with James Caan and Robert Duvall) he lost it to Joel Grey in Cabaret (1972).

This was the beginning of a long streak of academy award nominations that he did not win. He would later be nominated for a five acting academy awards (six if you count the year where he was nominated twice) before he finally won.

His following two movies were both successful. The films were Scarecrow (1973), in which he shared the screen with Gene Hackman and Serpico (1973), a Sidney Lumet picture, the true story about an honest cop. Another Oscar nomination was given to Pacino for his acting in Serpico.

In 1974 Pacino reprised to his role as Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974). This movie became known as one of the best sequels ever created. Pacino only was paid $47,000 for The Godfather. For The Godfather Part II, however, he was paid $500,000 +%5 of the profits. Once again, he was nominated, this time for Best Actor.

After The Godfather Part II, Pacino collaborated with Sidney Lumet once more, for Dog Day Afternoon. In this film, Pacino played a man trying to rob a bank to pay for his lover's sex-change operation. This was the second based on a true story Sidney Lumet film in which Pacino starred. For the fourth year in a row, he was nominated for an academy award.

Other than his role in De Palma's Scarface (1982), and perhaps ...And Justice for All (1979), Pacino's movies from 1975 to 1985 were regarded as failures. This was not because of Pacino's acting; his acting was as superb as ever, but rather because the movies themselves were not considered to be very good.

From 1985 to 1989, Pacino took a break from cinema, spending most of his time in doing theatre acting. He returned to Hollywood with quite a few hits, including Sea of Love, Dick Tracy, and the long awaited The Godfather Part III.

Then came Scent of a Woman (1992) and Glengarry Glen Ross (1992). Pacino was double-nominated for best actor oscars, and finally won the Oscar that had been escaping him, with Scene of a Woman. The rest of the 90' were a good period of time for Pacino, he starred in a number of well-received pictures, such as Heat and The Insider.

From his classic Michael Corleone character, to his role as Satan himself, in the 1999 movie The Devils Advocate, Al Pacino is widely accepted as one of the most intense actors to ever step in front of the camera.

IMDb Filmography

Sources

  • http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/2300/Al.html
  • http://us.imdb.com/Name?Pacino,+Al
  • http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Pacino,+Al
  • http://alpacino.4mg.com/life.html
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