Occupation: Actor, Director
Date of Birth: April 25, 1940
Place of Birth: New York, NY, USA
Sign: Sun in Taurus, Moon in Sagittarius
Relations: Kid: Julie Marie (mother, Jan Tarrant); companion: Beverly D'Angelo Education: High School of the Performing Arts dropout; studied acting at the Actors Studio and the Herbert Berghof Studio, both in New York City.
AL PACINO IS one of America's greatest modern film actors, up there with DeNiro, Brando and Hoffman. He has received Oscar nominations for The Godfather, Serpico, The Godfather: Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, ...And Justice For All, Dick Tracy, and Glengarry Glen Ross, before finally winning for his performance as a hard-living blind ex-colonel in 1992's Scent of a Woman. Pacino is one of the few actors to be nominated four years in a row, from 1972-1975. Others who have achieved this milestone are Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Jennifer Jones, and Thelma Ritter. Only Bette Davis and Greer Garson have gone one better.
The actor was born Alfredo James Pacino in New York City on April 24, 1940. Raised in the South Bronx by his Italian-American mother and grandparents (his father left home when the boy was two), he was a born performer. He began by entertaining his grandparents and telling tales in the schoolyard. "I was acting on my roof at age three in the South Bronx," recalls Pacino. After dropping out of New York's famous High School of the Performing Arts, " I lived in [Greenwich] Village at 16, 17, working at the Living Theater, at cafe theaters, where we'd pass the hat around. I think that scene no longer exists the same way; television and movies have altered it." Eventually Pacino continued his studies at the Herbert Berghof Studio and the Actors Studio, where he honed his method acting style. Perhaps it was some method investigation into character which led to his mysterious arrest in January 1961 on concealed weapon charges.
While his occasional theater gigs have been well chosen and critically acclaimed (Pacino has won two Tonys and an Obie for his work), the quality of Pacino's films has been inconsistent, especially for an actor of such standing. After 1975's Dog Day Afternoon, he chose a series of iffy projects, leading critics such as Time's Richard Corliss to pose the question, "Is he a failed great actor or a great bad one?" But when the man succeeds, as he does as the hapless criminal Lefty in the current Donnie Brasco, or as a hungry businessman in Glengarry Glen Ross, he's phenomenal. In 1996, Pacino merged his love for theater and film with the critically acclaimed Looking for Richard, a documentary that marked his debut as a producer, writer, and director.
From the doomed hero of the under-rated Carlito's Way, through Dog Day Afternoon's misbegotten Sonny, and, perhaps his most famous role, that of the conflicted Michael Corleone in the Godfather trilogy, Pacino's best work is a roster of portraits of small, tragic men. As critic Pauline Kael notes, "Pacino has an unusual gift for conveying the divided spirit of a man whose calculations often go against his inclinations."
His most recent roles, in the highly regarded The Insider and Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday, continue that trend, bringing empathy to morally ambiguous characters.
Movies:
1999 Any Given Sunday
1999 The Insider
1999 Chinese Coffee
1997 Affirmative Action
1997 Devil's Advocate
1997 Donnie Brasco
1996 City Hall
1996 Looking for Richard
1995 Heat
1995 Two Bits
1994 Jonas in the Desert
1993 Carlito's Way
1992 Glengarry Glen Ross
1992 Scent of a Woman
1991 Frankie and Johnny
1990 The Local Stigmatic
1990 Dick Tracy
1990 The Godfather: Part III
1989 Sea of Love
1985 Revolution
1983 Scarface
1982 Author! Author!
1981 Acting: Lee Strasberg and the Actors Studio
1980 Cruising
1979 . . . And Justice For All
1977 Bobby Deerfield
1975 Dog Day Afternoon
1974 The Godfather: Part II
1973 Scarecrow
1973 Serpico
1972 The Godfather
1971 Panic in Needle Park
1969 Me, Natalie
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
