57 Fun Facts About Al Pacino

Raised in the South Bronx, Pacino was born in which Manhattan neighbourhood?

East Harlem: he was born there in 1940, but after his parents split, his mother took him to live with her parents in the South Bronx.

Pacino's maternal grandfather had emigrated to New York from which Sicilian town?

Corleone: his mother's father came from the very town Mario Puzo made the birthplace of Don Vito in The Godfather.

Which ice cream flavour gave the teenage Pacino his nickname among his Bronx friends?

Pistachio: those friends drifted into drugs, but his mother kept him in when they called for him, and Pacino credits her with saving his life.

Pacino trained at which New York acting studio, where Charlie Laughton became his mentor?

HB (Herbert Berghof) Studio: his years there led him on to the Actors Studio, which later accepted him as a member.

Under which teacher did Pacino study method acting at New York's Actors Studio?

Lee Strasberg, who ran the Actors Studio, later played gangster Hyman Roth opposite his former student in The Godfather Part II.

At the 2024 Oscars, which Best Picture winner did Pacino announce without first reading out the nominees?

Oppenheimer: Pacino later said leaving the nominees unnamed was the producers' choice, since each film had been highlighted earlier in the show.

For which 1968 off-Broadway play did Pacino win an Obie Award?

The Indian Wants the Bronx won Pacino his Obie and led Martin Bregman to take him on as his manager.

Which actress did Pacino meet on stage in Boston, beginning a five-year romance?

Jill Clayburgh: after they split she married playwright David Rabe, whose play had already won Pacino his second Tony.

Pacino won his first Tony Award for which 1969 Broadway debut?

Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? closed after just 39 performances, yet Pacino's role as troubled teenager Bickham still won him the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

Pacino's first lead film role, in 1971, cast him as what?

A heroin addict: Coppola urged The Godfather's producers to watch Pacino play this addict in The Panic in Needle Park, and after seeing it they cast him.

Paramount considered firing Pacino from The Godfather until executives saw which scene?

The restaurant shooting: when Coppola showed the studio Michael killing Sollozzo and McCluskey, Pacino recalls, 'something was there,' and he kept the part.

Why does Pacino say he skipped the Oscars ceremony for The Godfather?

Fear of his sudden fame: Pacino says it scared him while he was working in Boston theatre, and he denies the rumour that he boycotted over a supporting nomination.

Which 1973 road movie starred Pacino and Gene Hackman as drifters bound for Pittsburgh?

Scarecrow: Hackman's short-tempered ex-con and Pacino's childlike ex-sailor meet on the road and team up to open a car wash together.

In Serpico, the real New York cop Pacino plays did what?

Went undercover to expose corrupt fellow officers: after superiors ignored him, Frank Serpico helped The New York Times expose the graft, and the mayor set up the Knapp Commission.

What Oscar first did The Godfather Part II achieve?

First sequel to win Best Picture: Coppola had suggested Martin Scorsese as its director before directing the sequel himself.

Dog Day Afternoon (1975) was based on the true story of which bank robber?

John Wojtowicz said he robbed the Brooklyn bank to pay for his lover's sex-change operation, though a Village Voice reporter said the Mafia had planned the heist.

In Bobby Deerfield, Pacino played what kind of sportsman?

A racing driver: Bobby Deerfield was a box-office failure, though co-star Marthe Keller became his real-life partner.

Pacino turned down the lead in which film, whose star then beat him to the Best Actor Oscar?

Kramer vs. Kramer: Dustin Hoffman had first turned the part down too, before the film's makers talked him into taking it.

Which 1980 Pacino film drew protests from New York's gay community during filming?

Cruising: activists perched on nearby rooftops to shine light onto scenes and blew whistles near the set, ruining takes.

What is the name of the Cuban drug lord Pacino plays in Scarface (1983)?

Tony Montana: Pacino credits rappers and the hip-hop community with embracing Scarface and turning it into a classic.

Which 1985 Hugh Hudson flop drove Pacino away from films until 1989?

Revolution, Hugh Hudson's costly Revolutionary War epic, flopped, and Pacino spent the next four years working on the stage instead.

Pacino returned to film in 1989 playing a detective hunting a killer who finds victims through what?

Rhyming singles ads: in Sea of Love his detective places a rhyming ad himself and dates the women who answer, lifting their fingerprints from glasses.

For playing which villain in Dick Tracy (1990) did Pacino earn an Oscar nomination?

Big Boy Caprice, the hunchbacked mob boss under heavy prosthetics in Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy, earned Pacino a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the 1991 Oscars.

Which Scarface co-star reunited with Pacino as the waitress in Frankie and Johnny (1991)?

Michelle Pfeiffer, who had played Elvira in Scarface, was the waitress Frankie to Pacino's short-order cook Johnny; Kathy Bates had originated the role off-Broadway in 1987.

For which film did Pacino finally win the Academy Award for Best Actor?

Scent of a Woman: Pacino picked up 'Hoo-ah!' from the army officer who taught him to handle a pistol while he prepared to play the blind colonel.

The year he won Best Actor, Pacino was also a supporting nominee for which film?

Glengarry Glen Ross: he played hotshot salesman Ricky Roma, and 20 years later returned to the story on Broadway as washed-up Shelly Levene.

Which film first put Pacino and Robert De Niro in a scene together?

Heat (1995): the two had appeared only separately in The Godfather Part II, and Michael Mann filmed their diner face-off with cameras on both actors at once.

Pacino's 1996 directorial debut, a docudrama, explored which Shakespeare play?

Richard III: Pacino made Looking for Richard in the gaps between his paid film roles, mixing scenes from the play with rehearsals and interviews about Shakespeare.

Pacino's law-firm boss opposite Keanu Reeves in a 1997 thriller turns out to be whom?

Satan: Pacino's John Milton lures Keanu Reeves's young lawyer, who has just won an acquittal for a client he knows is guilty.

In Donnie Brasco (1997), Pacino played a gangster known by what nickname?

Lefty: Pacino's Benjamin 'Lefty' Ruggiero is the ageing Bonanno soldier who vouches for Johnny Depp's newcomer, never guessing he is an undercover FBI agent.

In The Insider (1999), Pacino played Lowell Bergman, a producer for which TV programme?

60 Minutes: Bergman coaxed tobacco whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand into talking, then battled CBS executives who feared a lawsuit if the interview aired.

Christopher Nolan directed Pacino opposite Robin Williams in which 2002 remake of a Norwegian film?

Insomnia: Pacino's detective can't sleep, kept awake by Alaska's endless daylight and by a secret that binds him to the killer he is hunting.

Pacino won his first Emmy playing lawyer Roy Cohn in which 2003 HBO miniseries?

Angels in America: Pacino's Roy Cohn is a homophobic power broker who is himself dying of AIDS, the role that won him the Emmy.

Which Shakespeare role did Pacino play in a 2004 film and on Broadway in 2010, earning a Tony nomination?

Shylock: critics praised Pacino for playing the moneylender as a human being, with dignity in the face of prejudice.

Which Star Wars role did Pacino say he turned down because he couldn't understand the script?

Han Solo: Pacino says he was offered 'so much money' but couldn't make sense of the script, and jokes that he gave Harrison Ford a career.

Pacino played casino tycoon Willy Bank, the villain of which 2007 heist sequel?

Ocean's Thirteen: after Pacino's Willy Bank double-crosses Reuben, Danny Ocean's crew plots to wreck Bank's new casino and his Five Diamond record.

Pacino won his second Emmy playing which real-life doctor in a 2010 HBO film?

Jack Kevorkian: convicted of second-degree murder in 1999, the assisted-suicide campaigner spent more than eight years in prison before his release on parole in 2007.

Pacino 'won' a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor for playing himself in which 2011 Adam Sandler comedy?

Jack and Jill was the first film Pacino made after he went broke, and he says he did it because he had nothing else.

Which real-life college football coach did Pacino play in a 2018 HBO film?

Joe Paterno: the film follows the Penn State coach through the days in 2011 when the Jerry Sandusky abuse scandal ended his career.

Whom did Pacino play in Martin Scorsese's The Irishman (2019)?

Jimmy Hoffa: the film rests on Frank Sheeran's claim that he killed Hoffa, a confession that others have since disputed.

In the Amazon series Hunters (2020-2023), Pacino played Meyer Offerman, a hunter of what?

Nazis: Pacino's Meyer Offerman guides a team in 1977 New York who uncover hundreds of Nazi officials plotting a Fourth Reich in America.

Which member of the fashion dynasty did Pacino play in Ridley Scott's House of Gucci (2021)?

Aldo Gucci: Ridley Scott's film is built around the murder of Aldo's nephew Maurizio, who went on to head the family fashion house.

Which artist is the subject of Johnny Depp's 2024 film featuring Pacino as a collector?

Amedeo Modigliani: Depp's film follows the painter on the run from the police in wartime Paris, desperate to quit painting and leave the city.

Which actress had twins with Pacino?

Beverly D'Angelo: she and Pacino, a couple since 1997, conceived their twins through IVF, and the babies were born in 2001.

With which Godfather co-star did Pacino have an on-off relationship that ended after Part III?

Diane Keaton: she played Kay, whom his Michael marries on screen, and only later did the two begin their real-life romance.

When Pacino was acting in school plays, a man told him he'd be the next which actor?

Marlon Brando: years later, Pacino was cast as the son of Brando's character in The Godfather.

Which Pacino line made AFI's greatest quotes?

Say hello to my little friend!: while filming Scarface, Pacino burned his hand on a hot gun barrel, and production was halted.

Pacino played New York politician John Pappas opposite John Cusack in which 1996 film?

City Hall: after a street shootout kills a six-year-old boy, Pappas's idealistic young deputy, played by Cusack, starts digging into the case.

Which 2012 comedy casts Christopher Walken as an ageing hitman ordered to kill his old friend, played by Pacino?

Stand Up Guys: instead of killing Pacino's Val on the day he leaves prison, Walken's Doc spends one last wild night with him.

Pacino played agent Marvin Schwarz opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in which 2019 film?

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: Pacino's Schwarz urges DiCaprio's fading TV cowboy Rick Dalton to go and make spaghetti westerns in Italy.

Which 1993 Brian De Palma film starred Pacino as an ex-convict trying to go straight?

Carlito's Way reunited him with De Palma and paired him with Penelope Ann Miller, who later became his real-life partner.

A nurse said Pacino's pulse had stopped while he was sick with which illness?

COVID-19: an ambulance soon arrived, and Pacino was revived by paramedics and doctors at his home.

Which director made both Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon with Pacino?

Sidney Lumet: on the Dog Day Afternoon set, an assistant director whispered 'Attica' to Pacino, who improvised the famous chant with the crowd.

Which record producer did Pacino play in David Mamet's 2013 HBO film about a murder trial?

Phil Spector: the film follows his first murder trial, which ended in a mistrial with a deadlocked jury, though he was convicted at a second trial.

Pacino earned a Drama Desk nomination starring in which David Mamet play?

American Buffalo: Pacino kept returning to the play, starring in productions off-Broadway and on Broadway.

Which US president presented Pacino with the National Medal of Arts in 2011 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2016?

Barack Obama presented Pacino's 2011 National Medal of Arts at a White House ceremony in February 2012 and hosted the December 2016 Kennedy Center Honors class, his last as president.

Which 2015 film cast Pacino as an ageing rocker who finds a letter from John Lennon?

Danny Collins: the long-undelivered letter from John Lennon spurs Pacino's jaded rocker to seek out the grown son he never knew, played by Bobby Cannavale.