Al Pacino
New York City’s Famous Celebrities
Al Pacino
Alfredo James “Al” Pacino (born April 25, 1940) is an American film and stage actor and director, widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential actors of all time.
Al Pacino is well known for his roles as Michael Corleone in the The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Sonny Wortzik in Dog Day Afternoon, Frank Serpico in Serpico, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman, and Roy Cohn in Angels in America. Al Pacino won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1992 for his role in Scent of a Woman after being nominated 7 times beforehand for various roles.
Al Pacino turned down an offer to reprise his role as Michael Corleone in The Godfather: The Game, ostensibly because his voice had changed dramatically since playing Michael in the first two Godfather films. As a result, Electronic Arts was not permitted to use Al Pacino’s likeness or voice in the game, although his character does appear in it. It is rumored Al Pacino actually declined the role due to a conflict with Electronic Arts’ rival, Vivendi Universal, which launched a competing game adaptation of the remake of 1983’s Scarface, titled Scarface: The World is Yours. However, Al Pacino did not voice his character in this game for the same given reason. Al Pacino allowed his likeness to be used for the game, but not his voice.
Rising director Christopher Nolan worked with Al Pacino for Insomnia, a remake of the Norwegian Film of the same name. The film and Al Pacino’s performance were critically lauded and the film did moderately well at the box office. Al Pacino next starred as lawyer Roy Cohn in the 2003 HBO miniseries of Tony Kushner’s play Angels in America. Al Pacino still acts on stage and has dabbled in film directing. His film festival-screened Chinese Coffee has earned good notices. On the AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Heroes and Villains, he is only the second actor to appear on both lists: on the "heroes list" as Frank Serpico and on the "villains list" as Michael Corleone. Al Pacino starred as Shylock in Michael Radford’s 2004 film The Merchant of Venice.
On October 20, 2006, the American Film Institute named Al Pacino the recipient of the 35th AFI Life Achievement Award. On November 22, 2006, the University Philosophical Society of Trinity College, Dublin awarded Al Pacino the Honorary Patronage of the Society.
With his box office earnings relatively modest of late, Al Pacino looks to be gearing up with several new projects. Al Pacino starred in Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Thirteen alongside George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Andy Garcia as the villain Willy Bank, a casino tycoon who is targeted out of revenge by Danny Ocean and his crew. The film received generally favorable reviews.
On June 19, 2007, a boxset titled Pacino: An Actor’s Vision was released, containing 3 rare Al Pacino films: The Local Stigmatic (Disc 1), Looking For Richard (Disc 2) and Chinese Coffee (Disc 3), and also a documentary, Babbleonia (Disc 4). Each piece (Except for Disc 4) also has a Prologue & Epilogue by Al Pacino.
88 Minutes was released on April 18, 2008 in the United States, having already been released in various other countries in 2007. The film was critically panned, although critics found the fault to be in the plot instead of Al Pacino’s acting. In Righteous Kil, Al Pacino’s next scheduled film, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro co-star as New York detectives searching for a serial kilr. Rapper 50 Cent also stars in it as well as professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek. The film is expected to be released to theaters on September 12, 2008. Two promotional trailers have been released so far, as of March 2008. In Rififi, a remake of the 1955 French original based on the novel by Auguste Le Breton, Al Pacino plays a career thief just out of prison who finds his wife has left him; in his anger, he starts planning a heist. Also Al Pacino is set to play surrealist Salvador Dalí in the film Dali & I: The Surreal Story,. Al Pacino also won several awards during this time including one for being named the greatest actor of all time in Channel 4’s poll of the greatest actors.
