Al Pacino and Diane Keaton. Hed spot a guy on the street and go, Wait, wait, wait! Wed follow the person for hours, just to observe the walk, the posture. It was directly responsible for getting me to quit all those jobs and just stay acting. Its a denser narrative, and the set-pieces especially the initial nightclub sequence (which reminded me of the Goodfellas tracking shot) and the climactic escalator-shootout are sheer genius. Pacino, however, craves the derring-do of working in front of a live audience, an activity he compares to tightrope walking. Salary. [97] Later in 2019, Pacino played Teamsters chief Jimmy Hoffa, alongside Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, in Martin Scorsese's Netflix film The Irishman, based on the 2004 book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt; this was the first time Pacino was directed by Scorsese, and he received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination. Early Life of Al Pacino. [84][85] Its US premiere on the evening of March 21, 2012, before a full house at the 1,400-seat Castro Theatre in San Francisco's Castro District, marked the 130th anniversary of Oscar Wilde's visit to San Francisco. HALF HOUR AFTER THEY PUT HIM IN THE LOCKUP, HE HANGED HIMSELF!, made me bawl like a baby. He is one of the few performers to have received the Triple Crown of Acting. I got that from my dad.. This year, Pacino will turn 74. Once, when they were twelve and sitting on the steps of a tenement after finishing a game of stickball, Lipper said, some guy came over who was thirtyish and started menacing us. He seems resigned to the idea that his best performances are behind him. Al Pacino children-American actor, Al Pacino was born on April 25th, 1940 in the East Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York in the United States. [5]:xix In this period, he was often unemployed and homeless, and sometimes slept on the street, in theaters, or at friends' houses. I dont know now bullshitting comes more natural to me.. [59] He did allow his likeness to appear in the video game adaptation of 1983's Scarface, the quasi-sequel Scarface: The World is Yours. . There were normal things he had no acquaintance with, like the whole idea of enjoying a meal in the company of others. While Sola plunged into the crowd of chatty celebrants, Pacino took a barstool at a table behind them and ordered a plate of barbecued chicken. (Wilde Salom will be released in tandem with a film of the play itself.) There he settled, he said, into something that was wonderful with Diane and my life. Tonight, the fans approached him solemnly, like communicants, uncertain how to arrange themselves beside their icon. A method actor, he studied at HB Studio and the Actors Studio, where he was taught by Charlie Laughton and Lee Strasberg. . In the films best moment, a hip-hop ad for Dunkin Donuts, Pacino can be seen dancing and pitching the Dunkaccino: You want creamy goodness/Im your friend/Say hello to my chocolate blend., Ive recently come to terms with the fact that I can only do something I am creatively connected to, Pacino told me. [65], He played a publicist in People I Know, a small film that received little attention despite Pacino's well-received performance. [8][49], In 1996, Pacino starred in his theatrical docudrama Looking for Richard, a performance of selected scenes of William Shakespeare's Richard III and a broader examination of Shakespeare's continuing role and relevance in popular culture. Pacino guttered his first ball. [7][6]:2 He then moved with his mother to the South Bronx to live with her parents, Kate and James Gerardi, who were Italian emigrants from Corleone. Al Pacino aka Alfredo James Pacino is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. Shed say, The audience is out there waiting for you. And Id say, Fuck off! Shed say, Im coming to get you. Shed grab at me, and shed throw me out of the dressing room. He did not relate to tables or the conversations people had at them., Pacino refers to acting as close to magic. To invoke that spell, he observes many rituals, which sometimes include shaking hands with everyone on a film set before shooting a scene, and heading off for a walk before going onstage. I never understood why they were laughing, because I didnt think it was funny, he said. [57] Chinese Coffee was included with Pacino's two other rare films he was involved in producing, The Local Stigmatic and Looking for Richard, on a special DVD box set titled Pacino: An Actor's Vision, which was released in 2007. He was once employed as an usher at the iconic Carnegie Hall. [8] Pacino won the Academy Award for Best Actor next year. - Los Angeles, Kalifornia, 2003. jnius 12.) The films hes interested in now tend to dwell, like The Humbling, Manglehorn, and Danny Collins, on old age and the issues of decline. In those knockabout years, he added, I dealt with whatever was bothering me through reading. I was often unemployed', "Herman Ridder Junior High School (Public School 98)", "Fire Destroys Former Performing Arts High School,", "Pacino, Burstyn and Keitel To Lead the Actors Studio", Al Pacino and the cast and crew talk Scarface | | South Africa, "Al Pacino to Headline Lyle Kessler's Orphans on Broadway", "2011 Tony Nominations Announced; Book of Mormon Earns 14 Nominations", "David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, Starring Al Pacino, Ends Limited Broadway Run Jan. 20", "David Mamet's China Doll, Starring Al Pacino, Turns a Profit", "With More Work Needed, David Mamet Drama China Doll, Starring Al Pacino, Delays Opening", "Pacino re-focuses on film career: After five-year absence, actor returns to the big screen", "Is The Godfather Part III really that bad? [5]:14[8], In 1962, Pacino's mother died at the age of 43. He is also known by his stage name, Al Pacino. Yes, there are flaws, but in them are things youll remember., Pacino protects his talent by leaving it alone, which accounts for his vaunted moodiness. [6], His role as a heroin addict in The Panic in Needle Park (1971) brought Pacino to the attention of director Francis Ford Coppola, who cast him as Michael Corleone in what became a blockbuster Mafia film, The Godfather (1972). Now I was looking at my navel twenty-four-seven. Over a career that has lasted for five decades, he has won an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Sleepless in Seattle and Serendipity - Love. The play opened January 17, 1968, and ran for 177 performances; it was staged in a double bill with Horovitz's It's Called the Sugar Plum, starring Clayburgh. His role as Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman won him the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1992 after receiving seven previous Oscar nominations. Al Pacino is pacing in his camper, parked on Waverly Place in Greenwich Village, the location for the day's shooting of his latest and most controversial picture, Cruising. That same year, Pacino was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor after starring in Serpico, based on the true story of New York City policeman Frank Serpico, who went undercover to expose the corruption of fellow officers. Pacino played third base for the Police Athletic League team, the Red Wings, which became a quasi street gang, with Al as its de-facto leader. Author!, were critically panned. He walked the edges of rooftops and jumped between tenement buildings. In a radical move, at the height of his celebrity, Pacino called a halt to movie-making and moved to Snedens Landing, in Palisades, New York, with Diane Keaton. I think Warren [Beatty] was gorgeous, very pretty, but Al's face is like whoa. Al Pacino, a signature which has long been connected with cold-blooded murder and villainous characters in some of the most famous movies of Hollywood, is an epoch-making actor who took acting to a whole new level.He is often been counted among one of the most legendary villains of Hollywood, known for his extremely . Pacino: Does he really? On my second day with Pacino, I happened to be parked in front of his house as a tour bus rolled up. The Humbling is about as homemade a movie as you can make. (his first major paycheck: US$125 a week); and in Jean-Claude Van Itallie's America Hurrah. "[100], In February 2020, Pacino starred as Meyer Offerman, a fictional Nazi hunter, in the Amazon Video series Hunters. Once that starts, its over, she said. (Pacino, who has never married, also has a twenty-four-year-old daughter, Julie Marie, an aspiring writer and filmmaker.) My son painted this when he was four. Critcs praised him for bringing compassion and depth to a character traditionally played as a villainous caricature. Above all, Pacino had to be in the film, he said. In the garage, he fumbled for his parking ticket and couldnt find it. Pacino held odd jobs to support the family. There are more demands put on you when it is on the stage, he said. Pacino, a method actor and former student of the HB Studio and the Actors Studio in New York City, where he was taught by Charlie Laughton and Lee Strasberg, made his feature film debut with a minor role in Me, Natalie (1969) and received positive reviews for his lead role as a heroin addict in The Panic in Needle Park (1971). Its strictly business; he shouted, Attica! Grow your brand authentically by sharing brand content with the internets creators. [109], Pacino has admitted to abusing drugs and alcohol early in his career, partly because he found his sudden fame after The Godfather difficult to cope with. He was also hired to work in the mailroom of Commentary magazine. The event was a benefit for the GLBT Historical Society. I didnt feel I had changed. 2023 Getty Images. I knew, when the opportunity came, all Id have to do is be there, he said. Therell be a crowd at the airport, Pacino warned me, as the bags were loaded into his two-car convoy. Secondary characters and plots do take center stage here. It was a great character study, he said. . Pacino was lauded by critics for his wide range of acting abilities, and nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for a fourth time. 3. Medal of Arts. [5]:9 His two closest friends died from drug abuse at the ages of 19 and 30. And the audience connected to this terrible sense of humiliation, of unworthiness. Pacino won an Obie for Best Actor, and a Tony the following year, for his performance in Don Petersens Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?. He just loved talking to me, like we were on some little rowboat. The roof, Pacino added, was our terrace. [66][67] The Recruit, released in 2003, featured Pacino as a CIA recruiter and co-stars Colin Farrell. They had a five-year romance and moved back together to New York City. I am his longest relationshipseven years, she said, by way of introduction. The den is a sort of Camp Pacino, overflowing with toys: a pinball machine, a drum kit, electric guitars, dolls, a mound of games, balls, rackets, and swimming gear crammed into baskets against the back wall. A bookshelf extended from the entrance into the large underlit space; jokey signagea poster advertising 10 Rules for Sleeping Aroundhung from the walls; from a distance, beyond the bar, came the echo of ricocheting pins. He is a method actor who has led a rich life and inspired generations with his talent and unique persona on screen. People my age are described as baby boomers, but our experiences call for a different label altogether. [62] The film and Pacino's performance were well received, gaining a favorable rating of 93 percent on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. The studio lobbied for such bright box-office names as Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, and Ryan ONeal. The genesis of my rave lies in Carlitos Way, which I watched yesterday. Inevitably, they stop in front of his rented house, which, like the actor, is elegantly dishevelled. Sorry to disturb you, he said, holding up his cell phone to indicate a promotional photo op. Rakan kongsi domestik. He usually comes over by the weekend. [22] The production was a critical success in which "Pacino grabs and holds the attention like a coiled spring about to snap. I have to say, she was right., Sea of Love (1989), the story of a cop in a midlife crisis who falls for a woman who may be the killer hes pursuing, made a star of Ellen Barkin and restored Pacinos box-office clout. It was a whirlwind. Pacino disappeared into work, and, after hours, into a bottle. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. I dont remember much of the seventies, he said. For the next twenty years I kept losing a man I never had. Sola expounded on the astuteness of Keatons observation. [24] The acclaimed production moved to Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre in October, earning US$1million at the box office in its first week. [25][26] The performance also garnered him a Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Play. The very first movie of his that I remember watching was And Justice For Alland it was a most emotional experience. [8], His 1985 film Revolution about a fur trapper during the American Revolutionary War, was a commercial and critical failure, which Pacino blamed on a rushed production,[41] resulting in a four-year hiatus from films. At Logan International, a private jet was waiting to take Pacino and his crew to New York. Huh? Hes consulting somewhere else. "[9], After four years at HB Studio, Pacino successfully auditioned for the Actors Studio. A method actor who learned his craft as a student at the feet of coaches Charles Laughton and Lee Strasberg, the East Harlem native honed his chops at the HB Studio and The Actors Studio (of which . Biography. I had no one wanting it to work or not work. I was still me. . With a gunseven million. It has taken Pacino four years to work himself back to a position where, he says, compared to a normal person, I have a significant amount. He sold a Snedens Landing property, did commercials, took out a loan, and signed on for Adam Sandlers dismal but profitable Jack and Jill (2011)a kids movie, according to Pacino, in which he sent up both his legend and his financial predicament. You cant go back. Al Pacino has also been honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the National Medal of Arts. Al Pacino has admitted he doesn't "remember much" of the 70s. The circumstance of the play was bringing him to a deep place of pain. Hes there, but hes not there. It seemed like every young, non-union actor in New York City showed up that day, Horovitz recalled. . And I understand myself in that way. Pacino has given complex shape to some of his eras most memorable creations: Michael Corleone, the college boy turned Mafioso, in The Godfather trilogy (1972-90); Frank Serpico, the police whistle-blower, in Serpico (1973); Tony Montana, the Cuban drug lord, in Scarface (1983); the hapless thief Teach, in American Buffalo (1983); Sonny Wortzik, the would-be bank robber, in Dog Day Afternoon (1975); the gangster Big Boy Caprice, in Dick Tracy (1990); Ricky Roma, the smooth-talking salesman, in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992); and Roy Cohn, the closeted lawyer, in the HBO version of Tony Kushners Angels in America (2003)to name just a few of the more than a hundred roles he has taken onscreen and onstage. [104] Principal photography will commence in 2023. [7] So thats part of the gestalt. Say hello to my little friend!. 'I just felt connected to him,' Pacino recollected. The barricade finally lifted. When he was working on his performance in The Indian Wants the Bronx, he would walk for hours with Horovitz. After Salvatore left, Rose and Sonny (as Pacino was known throughout his childhood) moved in with her parents, James Gerardi, a plasterer who was an illegal immigrant from Corleone, Sicily, and his wife, Kate. Al Pacino Facts. He was, like, O.K., now what do we do? Not one day I saw him down or depressed, Sola said. Pacino received his training as a method actor at HB Studios and Actor Studio under the direction of Charlie Laughton and Lee Strasberg. "It's all adjectives and bitchery, signifying nothing.". Most of Pacinos house has been ceded to his kids. You killed in that Liberace shit, man.. He was born April 25, 1940 in Manhattan, New York City, to Italian-American parents, Rose (nee Gerardi) and Sal Pacino. Pacino visited him in his last days, at a hospital in Santa Monica, and they got to talking about the time that Pacino was taking Laughtons class at the Berghof Studio and performed a scene from Reginald Roses Crime in the Streets in front of Berghof and the rest of the school. [5]:xix He attended Herman Ridder Junior High School,[10] but soon dropped out of most of his classes except for English. Im the What am I, the go-between? It felt like I was back on the block, back home, he said. Al Pacino abimizin Chal Productions adnda bir prodksiyon irketi var. To Pacino, there is no such thing as a fourth wall. I couldnt get him out of my head, said Francis Ford Coppola, who nearly got fired from The Godfather (1972) for insisting that Pacino play Michael Corleone, the educated youngest son of Don Corleone, the Mafia kingpin. [104], Pacino has three children. Its very hard for me to write dispassionately about Alfredo James Pacino. Train. American actor, Al Pacino was born on April 25th, 1940 in the East Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York in the United States. Pacino describes himself as a method actor and credits his acting techniques to his time at the Actors Studio in New York. Watch John Lahrs commentary on films from Al Pacinos career. "[14], In 2000, Pacino was co-president, along with Ellen Burstyn and Harvey Keitel, of the Actors Studio. (Its there for Pacinos son; when I asked Pacino if he used it, he said, Like Oscar Wilde, whenever I get the urge to exercise I lie down until it passes.) Pacino usually spends weekends with the twins, because their mother knows Im a slacker at the homework.. 16. Brown. with it all, and I could say, Mom, we got it. I roused so many things in myself., Pacinos allegiance to the stage, his compulsion to connect with a live audience, is due, perhaps, to a need to re-create his relationship with the person he calls his first and indeed my best audience, his mother, Rose. Al Pacino has been in 12 on-screen matchups, including Diane Keaton in The Godfather Part II (1974), Diane Venora in Heat (1995), Dyan Cannon in Author! In the final movie, Pacino lip-synchs to Frank Sinatras version of the song; according to Mirren, the studio had to pay a huge sum for the rights, but it was worth it., Pacino sometimes develops his characters by observing others. You think youre on the A-list, but youre not. He played Mark Antony, in a disastrous Julius Caesar at the Public, a role he could never find his way into. Al Pacino has his own studio called Chal Production. Olivia: I dont think Mike knows anybody there. And I thought, Well, how do you get to that? [57] Shot almost exclusively as a one-on-one conversation between two main characters, the project took nearly three years to complete and was funded entirely by Pacino. Lee Strasberg hasn't been given the credit he deserves Next to Charlie, it sort of launched me. Pacino had buried the two people to whom he was closest. They called me out six times after I bowed. After the show, he added, I would bawl my eyes out. They never were. He took De Niro, and he got two options on Pacino and two on De Niro, Horovitz said. You know Al? I nodded. I can almost not forgive myself for that., When preparing for a role, Pacino has a tendency to circle the airport before arriving at his destination. Trending. Once on the theater scene, Pacino entered a period of depression . If an effort is being made to produce something that has appetite and passion and isnt done just to get the golden cup, it isnt a fucking waste. Renowned acting coach Charlie Laughton saw Pacino when he was nineteen in the stairwell of a Bronx tenement, and the first words out of Laughton . [112], Pacino at the US Embassy, Argentina, in 2016, Not to be confused with the British actor, The Barbara Walters Special, February 29, 2004, Last edited on 18 February 2023, at 20:36, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie, two acting nominations for two movies in the same year, Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor, Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally, List of awards and nominations received by Al Pacino, "Ready for My deMille: Profiles in Excellence - Al Pacino, 2001", "Al Pacino accepts National Medal of Arts at White House", "Kennedy Center Honors: Al Pacino, The Eagles, James Taylor Among Those Feted", "Al Pacino: 'It's never been about money. Luckily for me, the Sollozzo scenein which Michael earns his Mafia spurs by executing two men in a Bronx restaurantwas the next day. Age. When Pacino's junior-high-school drama teacher, Blanche Rothstein, climbed the five flights of stairs to talk to his grandmother about his acting skills, it was, he said, "the first time I . The real Al is easygoing, self-deprecating, with very few close friends that hes not let go of since he was 20 (including the person responsible for everything hes achieved Charlie Laughton). I paint the way I see it, and some of the colors are a little broader and a little bolder than others, he said, adding, Sometimes you take it to the limit, sometimes you may go a little overboard, but thats all part of a vision. But purely in the context of Carlitos Way, youre willing to look past that given the constantly eventful story. But hes not sad. Poverty took her down, he said. . image source. These people are asking me to do things for them? [110][111] He achieved sobriety in 1977. "The Actors Studio meant so much to me in my life. Pacino is the director yelling at the crew to hurry up; hes the lubricious Herod eying his gorgeous daughter; hes the interviewer prodding Tom Stoppard, Tony Kushner, Gore Vidal, and Bono to talk about Wilde; hes the professor offering tidbits of Wildeana; and hes the anthropologist trudging through the desert with kaffiyeh and camel. He subsequently attended the High School of Performing Arts,[11] after gaining admission by audition. He gained favorable notice for his first lead role as . To be seen and to be accepted was the promise behind his early performances. Puzo felt that Pacino was terrible. The first time the two ever spoke, Laughton walked up to Pacino and said, "Do you . The very final shotin The Godfather, when he lies very unequivocally to Diane Keaton, before the door shuts with him officially taking up his fathers place still brings chills to my spine. He just couldnt do it, Horovitz recalled. The film received generally favorable reviews. Pacino boycotted the Academy Award ceremony, insulted at being nominated for the Supporting Acting award, as he noted that he had more screen time than co-star and Best Actor winner Marlon Brandowho also boycotted the awards, but for unrelated reasons. [43], Pacino received an Academy Award nomination for playing Big Boy Caprice in the box office hit Dick Tracy in 1990, of which critic Roger Ebert described Pacino as "the scene-stealer". What he was doing was finding a character in life, Horovitz told me. It is perhaps best to take it just like any other job which it is. [29] The previews were done in October 2015. He is a two-time Tony Award winner, winning Best Featured Actor in a Play in Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? [13], In 1967, Pacino spent a season at the Charles Playhouse in Boston, performing in Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing! . (HB Studio), where he met acting teacher Charlie Laughton (not to be confused with Charles Laughton), who became his mentor and best friend. The film was panned by critics, and Pacino "won" the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor at the 32nd ceremony. I think that was my darkest period. He has lent his services to cringe-worthy films like Righteous Kill, Stand-up Guys, and the unpardonable Jack and Jill. Pacino se uni a HB Studio, donde conoci al maestro de actuacin Charlie Laughton, quien se convirti en su mentor y mejor amigo. If they sneeze or talk back to the stage, you make it part of what youre doing. Once, when he was performing The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, the first play in David Rabes Vietnam trilogy, in Boston, in 1972, Pacino made a strong connection with a pair of penetrating eyes in the audience. All rights reserved. Ask Mike if he could just find out. He spent much of the next year in Boston doing plays (Clifford Odetss Awake and Sing!, Jean-Claude van Itallies America, Hurrah), in which, he said, I played notes that fell flat and I didnt connect. But when Israel Horovitz delivered his one-act The Indian Wants the Bronx to Pacino, in a messy basement room in a building on West Sixty-eighth Street, where he was earning fourteen dollars a week as a superintendent, Pacino found the perfect vehiclea script about two taunting teen-age louts in the Bronx who take out their frustrations on an Indian man at a bus stop. Youve got to go back to work. Keaton added, This script. [8], Pacino's career slumped in the early 1980s; his appearances in the controversial Cruising, a film that provoked protests from New York's gay community,[37] and the comedy-drama Author! I just felt a connection. $20 million (The Irishman) Sponsors. [27], Pacino starred in the 30th-anniversary Broadway revival of David Mamet's play, Glengarry Glen Ross, which ran from October 2012 to January 20, 2013. The Getty Images design is a trademark of Getty Images. New York in the Fall, he said, then steered me back into the living room and deposited me on a sofa to watch Wilde Salom, a docudrama he directed, starred in, and largely bankrolled, which premires this month. The film represents Pacinos eight-year attempt to inhale Oscar Wilde by chronicling the mounting of a 2006 Los Angeles production of Wildes 1891 tragedy, in which he was Herod to Jessica Chastains Salom. At the exit, he struggled again, this time to fit his new ticket correctly into the machine. [66] Pacino next starred as lawyer Roy Cohn in the 2003 HBO miniseries Angels in America, an adaptation of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same name. Organize, control, distribute and measure all of your digital content. (1982), Ellen Barkin in Sea of Love (1989) and Karen Allen in Cruising (1980). He assumes their identity so completely that he continues to live a role long after a play or movie is over. Once, when Pacino was playing Richard III in Boston, Jacqueline Kennedy came backstage to greet him. He pointed out a watercolor beside the fireplace. Al Pacino is a member of the following lists: Emmy Award winners, American film actors and Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners. Pacino made his filmmaking debut with the documentary Looking for Richard (1996); Pacino had played the lead role on stage in 1977. (Its my second-most loved ending with the first being that in Bourne Ultimatum). The first part of its name consists of 2 parts. Outside, a punching bag hangs incongruously beside the patio barbecue. Pacinos legend is based on the films of his youth, for which he drew on his anger, his sexuality, his energy. 'Charlie introduced me to other worlds, to certain aspects of life I wouldn't have come in contact with. [5]:xix Pacino joined the HB Studio, where he met acting teacher Charlie Laughton,[a] who became his mentor and best friend. Pacino has three films awaiting release in the next year: Barry Levinsons The Humbling, in which he plays an aging actor who has lost his magic; David Gordon Greens Manglehorn, a film about an eccentric small-town locksmith; and Dan Fogelmans Danny Collins, an amiable redemptive fable about a slick pop star who wants to turn his art and his lush life around. He joined the Actors Studio and was able to further his craft under the tutelage of famed acting visionaries like Charles Laughton and . But would you mind?. When Pacino was thirteen and performing in a school play, an adaptation of Home Sweet Homicide, he already identified so strongly with his role that when his character was supposed to get sick onstage he became nauseated. [39] Pacino earned a Golden Globe nomination for his role as Cuban drug lord Tony Montana. Having children has helped a lot. A method actor and former student of the HB Studio and the Actors Studio in New York City, where he was taught by Charlie Laughton and Lee Strasberg, Pacino made his feature film debut with a minor role in Me, Natalie (1969) and gained favorable notices for his lead role as a heroin addict in The Panic in Needle Park (1971). A method actor and former student of the HB Studio and the Actors Studio, where he was taught by Charlie Laughton and Lee Strasberg, Pacino's film debut came at the age of 29 with a minor role in Me, Natalie (1969). When he was two years old, his parents got divorced, and he and his mother relocated to the South Bronx to live with Kate and James . [99] Justin Chang wrote, "De Niro, Pesci and Pacino are at the top of their game, in part because they aren't simply rehashing the iconic gangster types they've played before. I would do well, my mother would be O.K. He appeared in Dennis McIntyres National Anthem at the Long Wharf Theatre, in New Haven. Its my dreamI dont know how to get to it yet, but Ill give it another year. Still, he said, Im fine not having anonymity. Im blessed. Al Pacino on the path of new heights After 'The Godfather' . The language of great writing frees you of yourself.. "[47], For his portrayal of the irascible, blind U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in Martin Brest's Scent of a Woman (1992).