Al Pacino Trivia
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57 free Al Pacino trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This Al Pacino trivia quiz follows the actor from a South Bronx tenement to the Kennedy Center. The early questions cover the childhood nicknames, the junior-high teacher who told his grandmother he was 'made to do this', the years of odd jobs and homelessness, HB Studio and Charlie Laughton, the Actors Studio and Lee Strasberg, and the two Tony Awards he won before he was a film star. Then come the films: The Godfather and the rumour about the boycotted Oscars, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Scarface, the Revolution flop that sent him back to the stage, Sea of Love, Dick Tracy, the double nomination year of Scent of a Woman and Glengarry Glen Ross, Heat, The Devil's Advocate, Donnie Brasco and The Irishman. A final strand covers the rest: the Emmys for Angels in America and You Don't Know Jack, the Razzie for Jack and Jill and the accountant who made it necessary, Looking for Richard and his Shakespeare obsession, the four children, the sobriety since 1977, the AFI 100 lines he owns, and the memoir Sonny Boy. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our Robert De Niro and The Godfather quizzes next.
30 of 57 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Raised in the South Bronx, Pacino was born in which Manhattan neighbourhood?
East Harlem
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.
Q 02Pacino's maternal grandfather had emigrated to New York from which Sicilian town?
Corleone
Corleone: his mother's father came from the very town Mario Puzo made the birthplace of Don Vito in The Godfather.
Q 03Which ice cream flavour gave the teenage Pacino his nickname among his Bronx friends?
Pistachio
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.
Q 04Pacino trained at which New York acting studio, where Charlie Laughton became his mentor?
HB (Herbert Berghof)
HB (Herbert Berghof) Studio: his years there led him on to the Actors Studio, which later accepted him as a member.
Q 05Under which teacher did Pacino study method acting at New York's Actors Studio?
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg, who ran the Actors Studio, later played gangster Hyman Roth opposite his former student in The Godfather Part II.
Q 06At the 2024 Oscars, which Best Picture winner did Pacino announce without first reading out the nominees?
Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer: Pacino later said leaving the nominees unnamed was the producers' choice, since each film had been highlighted earlier in the show.
Q 07For which 1968 off-Broadway play did Pacino win an Obie Award?
The Indian Wants the Bronx
The Indian Wants the Bronx won Pacino his Obie and led Martin Bregman to take him on as his manager.
Q 08Which actress did Pacino meet on stage in Boston, beginning a five-year romance?
Jill Clayburgh
Jill Clayburgh: after they split she married playwright David Rabe, whose play had already won Pacino his second Tony.
Q 09Pacino won his first Tony Award for which 1969 Broadway debut?
Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?
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.
Q 10Pacino's first lead film role, in 1971, cast him as what?
A heroin addict
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.
Q 11Paramount considered firing Pacino from The Godfather until executives saw which scene?
The restaurant shooting
The restaurant shooting: when Coppola showed the studio Michael killing Sollozzo and McCluskey, Pacino recalls, 'something was there,' and he kept the part.
Q 12Why does Pacino say he skipped the Oscars ceremony for The Godfather?
Fear of his sudden fame
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.
Q 13Which 1973 road movie starred Pacino and Gene Hackman as drifters bound for Pittsburgh?
Scarecrow
Q 21Which 1985 Hugh Hudson flop drove Pacino away from films until 1989?
Revolution
Revolution, Hugh Hudson's costly Revolutionary War epic, flopped, and Pacino spent the next four years working on the stage instead.
Q 22Pacino returned to film in 1989 playing a detective hunting a killer who finds victims through what?
Rhyming singles ads
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.
Q 23For playing which villain in Dick Tracy (1990) did Pacino earn an Oscar nomination?
Big Boy Caprice
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.
Q 14In Serpico, the real New York cop Pacino plays did what?
Went undercover to expose corrupt fellow officers
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.
Q 15What Oscar first did The Godfather Part II achieve?
First sequel to win Best Picture
First sequel to win Best Picture: Coppola had suggested Martin Scorsese as its director before directing the sequel himself.
Q 16Dog Day Afternoon (1975) was based on the true story of which bank robber?
John Wojtowicz
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.
Q 17In Bobby Deerfield, Pacino played what kind of sportsman?
A racing driver
A racing driver: Bobby Deerfield was a box-office failure, though co-star Marthe Keller became his real-life partner.
Q 18Pacino turned down the lead in which film, whose star then beat him to the Best Actor Oscar?
Kramer vs. Kramer
Kramer vs. Kramer: Dustin Hoffman had first turned the part down too, before the film's makers talked him into taking it.
Q 19Which 1980 Pacino film drew protests from New York's gay community during filming?
Cruising
Cruising: activists perched on nearby rooftops to shine light onto scenes and blew whistles near the set, ruining takes.
Q 20What is the name of the Cuban drug lord Pacino plays in Scarface (1983)?
Tony Montana
Tony Montana: Pacino credits rappers and the hip-hop community with embracing Scarface and turning it into a classic.
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.
Q 24Which Scarface co-star reunited with Pacino as the waitress in Frankie and Johnny (1991)?
Michelle Pfeiffer
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.
Q 25For which film did Pacino finally win the Academy Award for Best Actor?
Scent of a Woman
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.
Q 26The year he won Best Actor, Pacino was also a supporting nominee for which film?
Glengarry Glen Ross
Glengarry Glen Ross: he played hotshot salesman Ricky Roma, and 20 years later returned to the story on Broadway as washed-up Shelly Levene.
Q 27Which film first put Pacino and Robert De Niro in a scene together?
Heat
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.
Q 28Pacino's 1996 directorial debut, a docudrama, explored which Shakespeare play?
Richard III
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.
Q 29Pacino's law-firm boss opposite Keanu Reeves in a 1997 thriller turns out to be whom?
Satan
Satan: Pacino's John Milton lures Keanu Reeves's young lawyer, who has just won an acquittal for a client he knows is guilty.
Q 30In Donnie Brasco (1997), Pacino played a gangster known by what nickname?
Lefty
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.