60 free Al Pacino trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 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.
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Q 01In which New York neighbourhood was Al Pacino born in 1940?
East Harlem
After his parents divorced when he was two, his mother took him to the South Bronx to live with her parents, who had emigrated from Corleone.
Q 02Pacino's maternal grandparents had emigrated from which Sicilian town, later famous from his films?
Corleone
His father came from San Fratello and moved to California to sell insurance and run a restaurant.
Q 03Pacino's memoir title 'Sonny Boy' was his mother's nickname for him, from a song by whom?
Al Jolson
His teenage friends preferred 'Pistachio', after his favourite ice-cream flavour, and 'The Actor'.
Q 04Which junior high teacher visited Pacino's grandmother to say he was 'made to do this'?
Blanche Rothstein
She cast him in school plays and had him read Bible passages at assemblies; he then auditioned into the High School of Performing Arts.
Q 05Rejected by the Actors Studio as a teen, Pacino trained at which school, where he met mentor Charlie Laughton?
HB (Herbert Berghof)
He cleaned the hallways and dance studios in exchange for free classes, and practised Shakespeare soliloquies wandering the streets at night.
Q 06Under which teacher did Pacino study method acting at the Manhattan academy that had once rejected him?
Lee Strasberg
Strasberg later acted alongside him in The Godfather Part II and ...And Justice for All.
Q 07How old was Pacino when his mother died in 1962, a year before his grandfather also died?
22
'The two most influential people in my life had gone, so that sent me into a tailspin,' he recalled.
Q 08For which 1968 off-Broadway play, in which he played the street punk Murph, did Pacino win an Obie Award?
The Indian Wants the Bronx
Manager Martin Bregman saw it and signed him; John Cazale won the supporting Obie for the same show.
Q 09Which actress did Pacino meet on stage in Boston in 1967, beginning a five-year romance?
Jill Clayburgh
Her father sent the struggling couple money every month; she was then playing Grace Bolton on the soap Search for Tomorrow.
Q 10Pacino won his first Tony Award in 1969 for which play, which closed after just 39 performances?
Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?
It was his Broadway debut, at the Belasco Theater; the reviews were raves even as the show folded.
Q 11In his first lead film role, The Panic in Needle Park (1971), Pacino played what?
A heroin addict
His screen debut had been a brief appearance in Me, Natalie two years earlier.
Q 12Which character did Pacino play in The Godfather?
Michael Corleone
Studio executives wanted a bigger name; Nicholson, Redford, Beatty and an unknown Robert De Niro had all tried out.
Q 13According to his 2024 memoir, why did Pacino really skip the Oscars ceremony for The Godfather?
He was terrified by his sudden fame and working in Boston theatre
Q 21What is the name of the Cuban drug lord Pacino plays in Scarface (1983)?
Tony Montana
Critics panned the violence at first; the film has since been quoted by Jay-Z, Nas, Nicki Minaj and Bob Dylan.
Q 22Which 1985 flop about a Revolutionary War fur trapper sent Pacino into a four-year break from films?
Revolution
He blamed a rushed production and went back to the stage, including Julius Caesar for Joseph Papp in 1988.
Q 23Pacino returned to film in 1989 playing a detective hunting a killer who finds victims through what?
Newspaper singles ads
Sea of Love earned solid reviews and relaunched his career.
He called the long-standing rumour that he was insulted at being nominated as supporting actor 'appalling'.
Q 14Which 1973 film pairing Pacino with Gene Hackman won the Palme d'Or at Cannes?
Scarecrow
The same year Serpico brought his first Best Actor nomination.
Q 15Serpico (1973) told the true story of a New York policeman who did what?
Went undercover to expose corrupt fellow officers
Frank Serpico is now on the AFI's list of the 100 greatest screen heroes.
Q 16What Academy Awards milestone did The Godfather Part II (1974) achieve?
It was the only sequel yet to win Best Picture
Newsweek called Pacino's performance 'arguably cinema's greatest portrayal of the hardening of a heart'.
Q 17Dog Day Afternoon (1975) was based on the true story of which bank robber?
John Wojtowicz
Sidney Lumet directed, as he had Serpico; 'Attica! Attica!' made the AFI list of great movie quotes.
Q 18In Bobby Deerfield (1977), Pacino played what kind of sportsman?
A racing driver
Sydney Pollack directed and the title role brought a Golden Globe nomination.
Q 19Pacino lost the 1979 Oscar to Hoffman for Kramer vs. Kramer, a role Pacino had done what with?
Turned it down
Pacino's own nomination that year was for the courtroom drama ...And Justice for All: 'The whole trial is out of order!'
Q 20Which 1980 film, protested by New York's gay community, did Pacino later call 'exploitative'?
Cruising
He revealed the anonymous donation to an irrevocable trust in his memoir Sonny Boy.
Q 24For playing which villain in Dick Tracy (1990) did Pacino earn an Oscar nomination?
Big Boy Caprice
Roger Ebert called him 'the scene-stealer' of the film.
Q 25Which Scarface co-star reunited with Pacino as the waitress in Frankie and Johnny (1991)?
Michelle Pfeiffer
Kathy Bates had played the part in Terrence McNally's original off-Broadway play.
Q 26For which film did Pacino finally win the Academy Award for Best Actor?
Scent of a Woman
He played the blind Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade; 'Hoo-ah!' followed him for the rest of his career.
Q 27The year he won Best Actor, Pacino was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor for which film, a first for a man?
Glengarry Glen Ross
He was the first man nominated for two different films in the same year to win the lead award.
Q 28Which Michael Mann film first put Pacino and Robert De Niro in a scene together?
Heat
They had both been in The Godfather Part II but never shared a scene; Righteous Kill and The Irishman came later.
Q 29Pacino's 1996 directorial debut, a docudrama, explored which Shakespeare play?
Richard III
The docudrama won him a Directors Guild award; Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey and Winona Ryder took part.
Q 30Whom did Pacino play opposite Keanu Reeves in The Devil's Advocate (1997)?
Satan
Roger Ebert said the part was played 'with relish bordering on glee'.