Q 01/05

In which New York neighbourhood was Al Pacino born in 1940?

A) The South Bronx

B) East Harlem

C) Bensonhurst

D) Little Italy

Answer · why

B) 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 02/05

Pacino's maternal grandparents had emigrated from which Sicilian town, later famous from his films?

A) Messina

B) Corleone

C) San Fratello

D) Palermo

Answer · why

B) Corleone

His father came from San Fratello and moved to California to sell insurance and run a restaurant.

Q 03/05

Pacino's memoir title 'Sonny Boy' was his mother's nickname for him, from a song by whom?

A) Enrico Caruso

B) Bing Crosby

C) Frank Sinatra

D) Al Jolson

Answer · why

D) Al Jolson

His teenage friends preferred 'Pistachio', after his favourite ice-cream flavour, and 'The Actor'.

Q 04/05

Which junior high teacher visited Pacino's grandmother to say he was 'made to do this'?

A) Stella Adler

B) Uta Hagen

C) Blanche Rothstein

D) Jan Tarrant

Answer · why

C) 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 05/05

Rejected by the Actors Studio as a teen, Pacino trained at which school, where he met mentor Charlie Laughton?

A) HB (Herbert Berghof)

B) Neighborhood Playhouse

C) Juilliard

D) Stella Adler Conservatory

Answer · why

A) HB (Herbert Berghof)

He cleaned the hallways and dance studios in exchange for free classes, and practised Shakespeare soliloquies wandering the streets at night.