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Al Pacino

Al Pacino is an eight-time Academy Award nominee. He made his film debut in 1971 in The Panic In Needle Park. After having received Best Actor nominations for And Justice for All, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, and Serpico (which also earned him a Golden Globe Award), Pacino won an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance as Lt. Colonel Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman (for which he also won a Golden Globe Award).

After studying with Herbert Berghof and later with Lee Strasberg at the Actor's Studio, Pacino made his professional acting debut in off-Broadway productions of The Connection and Hello, Out There. He then won an Obie Award for Israel Horovitz's The Indian Wants The Bronx.

He received three nominations as Best Supporting Actor for his roles as Michael Corleone in The Godfather, as Big Boy Caprice in Dick Tracy (he also won a 1990 American Comedy Award for this role), and as Ricky Roma in David Mamet's screen adaptation of Glengarry Glen Ross.

In 2007, Pacino joined Matt Damon, George Clooney and Brad Pitt in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's 13, the final installment in the series.

In 2005, Pacino starred as Walter Abrams in Universal's Two for the Money, a thriller about the high-stakes world of sports betting co-starring Matthew McConaughey and Rene Russo, and also as Shylock in the Shakespearean adaptation of Merchant of Venice, directed by Michael Radford.

In 2004, he won an Emmy for his portrayal of Roy Cohn in HBO's television adaptation of Tony Kushner's play Angels in America for director Mike Nichols. Earlier that year he was seen on stage both off-Broadway in Brooklyn and on Broadway as King Herod in Oscar Wilde's Salome (a role which he reprised in 2006 at the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles) and as Arturo Ui in Bertolt Brecht's The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui at Pace University.

In 2002 Pacino starred with Robin Williams and Hilary Swank in Christopher Nolan's Insomnia and in writer-director Andrew Niccol's Simone. In late 1999, he portrayed 60 Minutes reporter Lowell Bergman in Touchstone Pictures' The Insider. The film which was directed by Michael Mann also starred Russell Crowe and Christopher Plummer, received 7 Academy Award nominations. Pacino also starred in Oliver Stone's football saga, Any Given Sunday, where he portrayed a football coach and starred opposite Cameron Diaz, James Woods, and Dennis Quaid.

In 2000 Pacino completed his second directorial effort, Chinese Coffee, a film which he also produced and starred in. This film is based on a play written by Ira Lewis that Pacino performed at Circle in the Square in 1992. The story revolves around a conversation between a Greenwich Village writer and his friend, as they talk about friendship, love, and dreams.

He also directed and starred in Looking for Richard, a meditation on Shakespeare's Richard III, which he conceived and directed (and for which he received the Outstanding Directorial Achievement for a Documentary award from the Director's Guild of America). The film also starred Winona Ryder, Alec Baldwin, and Aidan Quinn.

Pacino produced, starred in and co-directed the independent film adaptation of the play The Local Stigmatic, presented in March 1990 at New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Public Theatre. In 2007, 20th Century Fox released An Actor's Vision, a four-DVD set compromised of Chinese Coffee, The Local Stigmatic, Looking for Richard, and Babbleonia, an overview of Pacino's career, his body of work and his perspectives on acting.

Pacino's other film credits include Mike Newell's Donnie Brasco, a film which co-starred Johnny Depp; The Devil's Advocate, with Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron; Miramax's Two Bits, with Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio; Heat, with Robert De Niro and Val Kilmer, directed by Michael Mann; City Hall, which also starred John Cusack, Bridget Fonda, and Danny Aiello; Brian de Palma's Carlito's Way; Miramax Film's People I Know for director Dan Algrant, and Disney's The Recruit in which he starred with Colin Farrell. Additional films include Frankie & Johnny, The Godfather, Part III, Sea Of Love, Revolution, Scarface, Author! Author!, Bobby Deerfield, and Scarecrow, for which he received the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973.

Pacino has won two Tony Awards for his starring roles in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel and Does A Tiger Wear A Necktie? He is a longtime member of David Wheeler's Experimental Theatre Company of Boston, where he has performed in Richard III and in Bertolt Brecht's Arturo Ui. In New York and London, he acted in David Mamet's American Buffalo. Also in New York, he appeared in Richard III and as Marc Antony in Julius Caesar at the late Joseph Papp's Public Theatre.

During the spring and summer of 1994, Pacino appeared in repertory at Circle in the Square. He presented the New York debut of Oscar Wilde's Salome and the premiere presentation of Ira Lewis' Chinese Coffee. He directed and starred in Eugene O'Neill's Hughie, which opened in early July 1996 at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, and moved to Circle in the Square in New York in mid-July where it continued its run through the end of August.

Pacino won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Independent Feature Project (IFP) at their 1996 Gotham Awards. In 2000, he was honored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. In addition, he received the Cecil B. De Mille Award by the Hollywood Foreign Press in 2001 and the American Cinematheque Award in 2005. In June of 2007, he received AFI's highest honor for a career in Film, the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award.

Pacino is currently directing an independent documentary based on Oscar Wilde's Salome, titled Salomaybe. This mixture of documentary, fiction, and improvisation is based on behind-the-scenes footage from his stage show.

He recently starred in Righteous Kill, a gritty and sophisticated New York City crime thriller which also stars Robert De Niro. The film, directed by Jon Avnet, is slated for release in 2008.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2008.
Read earlier biographies on this page.

Al Pacino Facts

Birth NameAlfredo Pacino
OccupationActor, Director
BirthdayApril 25, 1940 (83)
SignTaurus
BirthplaceNew York, New York, USA
Height5' 6" (1m68)  How tall is Al Pacino compared to you?
Awards2011 Golden Globe Awards: Best Actor In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television (for You Don't Know Jack)
2011 Screen Actors Guild Awards: Best Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries (for You Don't Know Jack)
2010 Emmy Awards: Outstanding Lead Actor In A Miniseries Or A Movie (for You Don't Know Jack)
2004 Golden Globe Awards: Best Actor in a Mini-Series or TV Movie (for Angels in America)
2004 Screen Actors Guild Awards: Best Male Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries (for Angels in America)
2004 Emmy Awards: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie (for Angels in America)
2001 Golden Globe Awards: Cecil B. DeMille Award
1993 Academy Awards: Best Actor (for Scent of a Woman)
1993 Golden Globe Awards: Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama (for Scent of a Woman)
1974 Golden Globe Awards: Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama (for Serpico)

Selected Filmography

Heat
Danny Collins
Scarface
Ocean's Thirteen
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II
The Godfather 3-Movie Collection
Phil Spector
The Godfather Collection
Jack and Jill
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