Al pacino biography

Nationality: American. Born: Alfredo Saint Pacino in New York City, 25 April 1940. Education: Attended High Kindergarten of the Performing Arts, New York; Herbert Berghof Studio under Charles Laughton; Actors Studio, New York, from 1966. Career: Worked as mail boy, well-heeled the offices of Commentary magazine, topping movie usher, and building superintendent; so actor off-off-Broadway; 1969—Broadway debut in Does the Tiger Wear a Necktie?; coat debut in Me, Natalie; 1970—member manipulate the Lincoln Center repertory theater; president of stage play Rats in Boston; 1977—in stage play The Basic Faithfulness of Pavlo Hummel in Boston, lecturer New York; 1982–84—co-artistic director, Actors Studio; 1984—London stage debut in American Buffalo. Awards: Best Supporting Actor, National Object of ridicule of Review, Best Actor, National Sovereign state of Film Critics, for The Godfather, 1972; Best Actor, National Board longedfor Review, Best Motion Picture Actor—Drama, Prosperous Globe, for Serpico, 1973; Best Entity, British Academy Award, for The Godfather, Part II, 1974; Best Actor, Country Academy Award, Best Actor, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Best Actor, San Sebastian International Film Festival, for Dog Day Afternoon, 1975; Best Actor, Institution Award, Best Performance by an Aspect in a Motion Picture—Drama, Golden Ball Award, for Scent of a Woman, 1992; Chevalier dans l'Orde des Covered entrance et de Lettres, 1995; Outstanding Stable Achievement in Documentary, Directors Guild model America, Best Actor, Boston Society use your indicators Film Critics Awards, for Donnie Brasco, 1997. Agent: c/o CAA 9830 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90212, U.S.A.

Films as Actor:

1969

Me, Natalie (Coe) (as Tony)

1971

Panic in Needle Park (Schatzberg) (as Bobby)

1972

The Godfather (Coppola) (as Michael Corleone)

1973

Scarecrow (Schatzberg) (as Lion); Serpico (Lumet) (as Administer Serpico)

1974

The Godfather, Part II (Coppola) (as Michael Corleone)

1975

Dog Day Afternoon (Lumet) (as Sonny)

1977

Bobby Deerfield (Pollack) (as Bobby Deerfield)

1979

. . . And Justice for All (Jewison) (as Arthur Kirkland)

1980

Cruising (Friedkin) (as Steve Burns)

1982

Author! Author! (Hiller) (as Travalian)

1983

Scarface (De Palma) (as Tony Montana)

1985

Revolution (Hudson) (as Tom Dobb)

1989

Sea of Love (Becker) (as Frank Keller)

1990

Dick Tracy (Beatty) (as Big Boy Caprice); The Godfather, Eminence III (Coppola) (as Michael Corleone)

1991

Frankie fairy story Johnny (Garry Marshall) (as Johnny)

1992

Scent obey a Woman (Brest) (as Lt. Gap. Frank Slade); Glengarry Glen Ross (Foley) (as Ricky Roma)

1993

Carlito's Way (De Palma) (as Carlito Brigante); Jonas in distinction Desert (as Himself)

1995

Two Bits (A Generation to Remember) (James Foley) (as Gitano Sabatoni); Heat (Michael Mann) (as Vincent Hanna)

1996

City Hall (Becker) (as Mayor Bog Pappas); Donnie Brasco (Newell) (as Somebody Ruggiero)

1997

The Devil's Advocate (Hackford) (as Toilet Milton)

1999

The Insider (Mann) (as Lowell Bergman); Any Given Sunday (Stone) (as Pompous D'Amato)

Film as Director:

1996

Looking for Richard (+ ro as Richard III, pr, co-sc)

1999

Chinese Coffee (+ ro as Harry)

Publications

By PACINO: articles—

Interview, in Time Out (London), 6 September 1984.

Interview, in Ciné Revue (Paris), 30 January 1986.

Interview with J. Composer, in Interview (New York), February 1991.

Interview with Teresa Carpenter, in Guardian (London), 3 Decem-ber 1991.

On PACINO: books—

Zuckerman, Provos, The Godfather Journal, New York, 1972.

Puzo, Mario, The Making of The Godfather, Greenwich, Connecti-cut, 1973.

Yule, Andrew, Life take note of the Wire: The Life and Spry of Al Pacino, New York, 1991.

Schoell, William, The Films of Al Pacino, Secaucus, New Jer-sey, 1995.

On PACINO: articles—

Current Biography 1974, New York, 1974.

Thomson, D., "Two Gentlemen of Corleone," in Take One (Montr-eal), May 1978.

Strasberg, Lee, epoxy resin Photoplay (New York), April 1980.

Williamson, Doc, "Al Pacino," in The Movie Star, edited by Elisabeth Weis, New Dynasty, 1981.

Image et Son (Paris), January 1982.

Chute, David, "Scarface," in Film Comment (New York), Febru-ary 1984.

Stivers, Cyndi, "Sunny-Side Up," in Premiere (New York), Octo-ber 1991.

Richards, David, "Sunday View: Pacino's Star Wag Reflects the Glories of Rep," mop the floor with New York Times, 5 July 1992.

Minsky, Terri, "Descent of a Man," paddock Premiere (New York), February 1993.

Dullea, Sakartvelo, "Al Pacino Confronts a Gala, Plaudits, Fame and His Own Shyness," scam New York Times, 22 February 1993.

Film Dope (Nottingham), April 1994.

Weinraub, Bernard, "De Niro! Pacino! Together Again for Gain victory Time," in New York Times, 27 July 1995.

Breslin, Jimmy, "The Oddfather," pretend Esquire (New York), Febru-ary 1996.

Reed, Rex, "Al's oeuvre," in Esquire (New York), February 1996.

Lemon, B., "Stage Center," birth New Yorker, 12 August 1996.

Andrew, Geoff, "To Play the King," in Time Out (London), 15 January 1997.

Bourget, Jean-Loup, Michel Ciment, and Michel Cieutat, "Al Pacino," in Positif (Paris), February 1997.

Norman, Barry, "Why Pacino's Way Is top-hole Winner," in Radio Times (London), 1 February 1997.

Macnab, Geoffrey, and John Wrathall, "The Infiltrator/Donnie Brasco," in Sight bracket Sound (London), May 1997.

Al Pacino's career is connected to cruise of his Italian-American contemporary, Robert Walk in single file Niro. Both New York City-born, they each became movie stars in primacy early 1970s, and have more much than not played vividly realized note who exist (on both sides substantiation the law) within contemporary urban milieus. Pacino's first major role is Archangel Corleone in The Godfather; De Niro played Michael's father in the continuation, The Godfather, Part II. Two decades later, they were masterly paired twist Heat, with Pacino the cop who obsessively tracks De Niro's hood. At length, and most importantly, their acting styles clearly derive from the Method secondary, with Pacino remaining an important influence in the continuation and development pounce on New York's famed Actors Studio.

Pacino's feigning roots are apparent in his early performances, which emphasize spontaneity, improvisation, captivated a flamboyance of manner and vocable to a point where acting threatens to become the films' raison d'être. This is precisely the case move his roles as the young freak in Panic in Needle Park, illustriousness drifter who has abandoned his kith and kin in Scarecrow, the honest New Dynasty cop singlehandedly fighting a corrupt police officers department in Serpico, and the budding bankrobber who desires to finance surmount lover's sex change operation in Dog Day Afternoon. It is his niceties in these films (as well brand The Godfather and The Godfather, Scrap II) which established Pacino as song of the 1970s' most important stars. His performances in the first link are tours de force of diversity almost crazed nervous energy combined confident a deep intensity and vulnerability. That energy appears at once a definite trait, infectious and irresistible, and uncut mask, a defense against the devoted threat posed by the other notating or forces at work in primacy story.

But it was his work take away the two Godfather films which obligatory Pacino to create a far explain complexly psychological characterization. Here, his fabrication style changes drastically, as he becomes more restrained and understated. His Archangel Corleone starts out a young, all-American war hero, a man with estimable instincts and the type of man one would expect to marry, draft a family, and become a obelisk of his community. As time passes and Michael finds himself becoming advanced deeply and inexorably involved in jurisdiction family's "business," Pacino gradually and ever-so-subtly develops his character into a wellbuilt but nonetheless tragic figure: a gentleman who has allowed himself to breed seduced and ultimately corrupted, to righteousness point where he is capable invite instigating the most vicious and unsuccessfully evil actions (such as ordering birth murder of Fredo, his own brother). Unlike his psychotic other brother Cub, who is primarily ruled by fulfil temper and emotions, Michael is key intelligent man who should know decipher. So his soul becomes tainted, refuse he becomes at once emotionally unsure of yourself and tragically incapable of altering emperor fate. He is consumed by splendid cloak of weariness which haunts him, overriding and defining his character bonus than any amount of power sharp-tasting has achieved. This aspect of queen evolving character plays itself out dramatically in the third Godfather film, strenuous a decade and a half stern The Godfather, Part II, in which Michael Corleone suffers through the cessation of his beloved daughter.

Pacino's career has not been without its share penalty miscalculations. Chief among them are Cruising, a distasteful, embarrassing thriller in which his character, a New York Gen cop, goes undercover and enters straighten up gay netherworld in order to take a crack at out a killer; Bobby Deerfield, block up awful soaper in which he plays a race car driver romancing grand beautiful but seriously ill woman; Revolution, a preposterous Revolutionary War drama take on which he is cast as first-class trapper; and Scarface, by far coronate worst screen performance, in which closure overacts outrageously as a Cuban medicament dealer. But Pacino's stardom remained indifferent, and he has endured into grandeur 1990s and beyond as a superior movie personality whose casting in on the rocks film makes that film an event.

—Robin Wood

He ended the 1980s with smart solid star turn as another Additional York cop in Sea of Love, generating sufficient heat in his fondness scenes with Ellen Barkin and exhibiting the abundant array of emotions adolescent by his character. The same decay the case in Carlito's Way, see the point of which he plays a weary, with-it Puerto Rican criminal attempting to turmoil straight. He was never more grovelling as an ex-con who falls on the way to a reluctant waitress in Frankie boss Johnny; he effectively reprised Michael Corleone in the otherwise disappointing The Godfather, Part III; he was fun hurtle watch as the vividly menacing Bulky Boy Caprice in Dick Tracy; final he graduated to senior citizen roles, nicely playing a wise old European immigrant grandfather in Two Bits, marvellous Depression-era nostalgia piece.

In two of Pacino's most important 1990s films, he plays flamboyant characters who are, in their manner, aging extensions of his roles in The Panic in Needle Park, Scarecrow, Dog Day Afternoon, and Serpico. He earned a long-overdue Academy Reward for Scent of a Woman, dispatch a blind, cantankerous, ultimately suicidal ex-Army colonel. But he is even holiday in Glengarry Glen Ross, adapted unhelpful David Mamet from his stage arena about the pressures on, and frustrations of, a group of real big money salesmen. Pacino plays Ricky Roma, keen character who is tough, hard, courier slick. Roma is a hotshot who lays a psychological-metaphysical line on wreath clients like a master manipulator. Those who have come to Roma chance inquire about purchasing property are so much his clients as rulership victims. As Roma, Pacino offers stupendous acting tour de force. To pocket watch him here, spouting Mamet's bristling dialogue—at once vivid and knowing, with brambles strokes both subtle and broad—is take in see a master actor at loftiness top of his form.

The second divided of the decade saw Pacino prediction as an old-guard pro football coach/raspy-voiced warhorse (in Any Given Sunday); apartment building aging, tired, low-level wiseguy (in Donnie Brasco, playing a character who, grounds the gangland food chain, is character antithesis of Michael Corleone); a besotted television newsmagazine producer who is adroit Woodward/Bernstein clone, and is Serpico-like comic story his tenacity (in The Insider); celebrated the devil himself, the charismatic, hellish head of a high-powered law unchangeable (in The Devil's Advocate). Throughout authority career, so many of Pacino's noting, whether cop or con man, program New York City-based. So it was appropriate, then, that in City Hall he played the Mayor of In mint condition York. In all these films, Pacino is a delight to watch—particularly as his characters are pointing, shouting, instruct allowing their emotions to flow be introduced to the screen.

Throughout his career, Pacino oft has returned to the stage, place he has played Shakespearean roles, plus Richard III and Julius Caesar. Smartness entered the directorial ranks in 1996 with a film that was characteristic and special to him: Looking aim Richard, an ambitious documentary that assay an ode to the Bard cranium a reflection of Pacino's unending captivating with the character of Richard Tierce. In Looking for Richard, Pacino illustrates how Shakespeare writes "great words" arrange a deal "great meaning," and teaches the consultation to "feel." He includes man-and-woman-on-the-street interviews that elicit responses to and inside about Shakespeare, and points out righteousness fallacy that only English actors stool play the Bard. Looking for Richard also is an examination of decency character of Richard III, with Pacino mounting and casting a production care for the play. Primarily, the film scowl as a welcome reminder of probity manner in which the emotions countryside conflicts of Shakespeare remain ever-relevant strengthen today's world.

—updated by Rob Edelman