He is well known for his roles as Michael Corleone in the The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Sonny Wortzik in Dog Day Afternoon, Frank Serpico in Serpico, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman, and Roy Cohn in Angels in America. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1992 for his role in Scent of a Woman after being nominated 7 times beforehand for various roles.

Early life & education

Pacino was born in East Harlem, Manhattan, the son of Italian American parents Rose (née Gerardi) and Salvatore Alfred Pacino, who divorced when he was two years old. His mother subsequently moved to the South Bronx, to live with her parents, Kate and James Gerardi, who originated from Corleone, Sicily. His father moved to Covina, California, working as an insurance salesman and owner of his own restaurant called Pacino's Lounge, which closed down in 1992. Pacino attended a school officially named The School of Performing Arts: A Division of the Fiorello H La Guardia High School of Music and the Arts in New York City, the main school of which was attended by fellow Godfather II actor Robert De Niro.

Career

1960s

In 1966, he 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 enjoyable and realized he had a gift for it. However, it did put him in financial straits until the end of the decade, when he had won an Obie Award for his work in The Indian Wants the Bronx and the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Play for Does the Tiger Wear a Necktie?. He made his first screen appearance in an episode of the television series N.Y.P.D. in 1968, and his largely unnoticed movie debut in Me, Natalie came the following year. The movie was a complete failure.

1970s

It was the 1971 film The Panic in Needle Park, in which he played a heroin addict, that would bring Pacino to the attention of director Francis Ford Coppola. Pacino's rise to fame subsequently 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 also wanted to portray Michael Corleone, director Coppola selected the relatively unknown Pacino, much to the dismay of studio executives. Pacino's performance earned him an Academy Award nomination, and offered one of the finest examples of his early acting style, described by Halliwell's Film Guide as "intense" and "tightly clenched".

In 1973, Pacino starred in the very popular Serpico and the less popular Scarecrow alongside Gene Hackman. In 1974, he reprised his role as Michael Corleone in the successful sequel The Godfather Part II, acclaimed as being comparable to the original. In 1975, he enjoyed further success with the release of Dog Day Afternoon, based on the true story of a bank robber John Wojtowicz. 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 Bobby Deerfield, losing out to Richard Burton, who won for Equus.

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. He continued his dedication to the stage, winning a second Tony Award for The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel and performing the title role in Richard III for a record run on Broadway, despite poor notices from critics.

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. However, 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 US$45 million domestically. Pacino earned a Golden Globe nomination for his role as a Cuban drug dealer. Years later, he told interviewer Barbara Walters that Tony Montana represented the best work of his career.[citation needed]

In 1985, Pacino worked on his most 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. It was later released as part of the Pacino: An Actor's Vision box set in 2007.

1985's film 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. 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 film in 1989's Sea of Love.

His greatest stage success of the decade was David Mamet's American Buffalo, for which Pacino was nominated for a Drama Desk Award.
1990s

Pacino received an Oscar nomination for playing Big Boy Caprice in the box office hit Dick Tracy (1990), followed by a return to arguably his most famous character, Michael Corleone, in The Godfather Part III (1990).[8] In 1991, Pacino starred in Frankie and Johnny with Michelle Pfeiffer, who co-starred with Pacino in Scarface. 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 year, he was also 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 2004). Also in 1990, Pacino was offered to voice Batman villain Two-Face in the hugely successful Batman The Animated Series but turned down the role.

During the 1990s, Pacino had 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 also starred in Oliver Stone's critically acclaimed Any Given Sunday in 1999, playing the team coach.

Pacino has not received another nomination from the Academy since Scent of a Woman, but has won two Golden Globes during the last decade, the first being the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2001 for lifetime achievement in motion pictures, and the second for his role in the highly praised HBO miniseries Angels in America in 2004.

Pacino has turned down several key roles in his career, including that of Han Solo in Star Wars, Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas, Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, Ted Kramer in Kramer Vs. Kramer, Paul Sheldon in Misery, Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now, Richard Sherman in a never-filmed remake of The Seven Year Itch, and Edward Lewis in Pretty Woman.[citation needed] 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's greatest stage successes of the decade were in revivals of Eugene O'Neill's Hughie and Oscar Wilde's Salome.

2000s

Pacino 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 remake of 1983's Scarface, titled Scarface: The World is Yours. However, Pacino did not voice his character in this game for the same given reason. Pacino allowed his likeness to be used for the game, but not his voice.

Rising director Christopher Nolan worked with Pacino for Insomnia, a remake of the Norwegian Film of the same name. The film and Pacino's performance were critically lauded and the film did moderately well at the box office. Pacino next starred as lawyer Roy Cohn in the 2003 HBO miniseries of Tony Kushner's play Angels in America. Pacino still acts on stage and has dabbled in film directing. 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. Pacino starred as Shylock in Michael Radford's 2004 film The Merchant of Venice.

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.

With his box office earnings relatively modest of late, Pacino looks to be gearing up with several new projects. He starred in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Thirteen alongside George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Andy Garcia as the villain Willy Bank, a casino tycoon who is targeted out of revenge by Danny Ocean and his crew. The film received generally favorable reviews.

On June 19, 2007, a boxset titled Pacino: An Actor's Vision was released, containing 3 rare Al Pacino films: The Local Stigmatic (Disc 1), Looking For Richard (Disc 2) and Chinese Coffee (Disc 3), and also a documentary, Babbleonia (Disc 4). Each piece (Except for Disc 4) also has a Prologue & Epilogue by Al Pacino.

88 Minutes was released on April 18, 2008 in the United States, having already been released in various other countries in 2007. The film was critically panned, although critics found the fault to be in the plot instead of Pacino's acting. In Righteous Kill, Pacino's next scheduled film, Pacino and Robert De Niro co-star as New York detectives searching for a serial killer. Rapper 50 Cent also stars in it as well as professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek. The film is expected to be released to theaters on September 12, 2008. Two promotional trailers have been released so far, as of March 2008. In 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. Also Pacino is set to play surrealist Salvador Dalí in the film Dali & I: The Surreal Story. Pacino also won several awards during this time including one for being named the greatest actor of all time in Channel 4's poll of the greatest actors.
Personal life

On January 7, 1961, Pacino and two others were seen by police circling in their vehicle in a suspicious manner, and wearing black masks and gloves. When police pulled them over, Pacino was found to be carrying a concealed weapon and was arrested. Pacino, who was 21 years old and living in New York City, stayed in the Rhode Island ACI for three days before being released when it was found that the weapons were, in fact, props from a movie set.

While Pacino has never married, he has three children. The first, Julie Marie, (b. 1989) is his daughter with acting coach Jan Tarrant. He also has twins, Anton James and Olivia Rose (b. January 25, 2001), with ex-girlfriend Beverly D'Angelo, whom he dated from 1997 until 2001.