Al Pacino

One of the greatest actors of all time and perhaps the most consistent of his generation (the actors who started in the Seventies), more than Robert De Niro with whom he competes for the title of greatest actor of that period, also considering his career duration, given that actors like Jack Nicholson, who is now retired, started in the sixties and De Niro began later than Pacino to collect the rewards of celebrity. Pacino is also one of the few to have won the three major awardsfor acting in television, theatres and cinema. In fact, he won an Emmy, a Tony and an Oscar, those who can are called "triple crown of acting." Alfredo James Pacino was born in April 25, 1940, in the east area of Harlem, in New York, from Sicilian parents, Salvatore and Rose. However, they divorced when Alfred was only two years old, so he moved with his mother in the Bronx by her parents. Coincidentally his maternal grandparents were from a country named Corleone (we'll see what a great coincidence that is). His father instead was from the province of Messina and went to California to be an insurance agent and a restaurant owner. As a teenager Al Pacino had the nickname "Sonny", he wanted to be a baseball player and finishedschool at the age of 17 years old. In the meantime,since he was young he had started to drink and smoke marijuana, but never anything heavy. He was rejected at the Actor's studio, so he attended the Herbert Berghof Studio where he met his mentor and friend, the actor Charlie Laughton (he has the same name but he’s not the famous British actor). In 1962 he lost his mother and his grandfather, his two only references, so he became homeless and jobless, he used to sleep by friends or on the streets of cinemas and theatres. Then he tried again at the Actor's Studio where he was finally accepted by Lee Strasberg who, like Laughton,Al said had a great weight on his future career. Now he is still co-president with Ellen Burstyn and Harvey Keitel of the Actor's studio. In 1967 he started to play in theatres in Boston and debuted in New York in January 17, 1968. Then he met Martin Bregman who became his manager. He went on tour in Italy too, in Spoleto. In 1969 he won the first Tony Award for the theatre (he will win another one in the Seventies). The same year he made his film debutwith a minor roleinMe, Natalie with Patty Duke. The first great cinematographic interpretation came with the role of the heroin addictin The Panic in Needle Park. He already deserved an Oscar, instead the film competed for the Palme d'Or and itwas the actress Kitty Winn who won the Cannes award, but her career from then on will be unfortunate and Kitty will be unjustly forgotten, perhaps the role as a drug addict marked her. Sonny instead was noticed by Francis Ford Coppola who wanted him in The Godfatherfor the role of Michael Corleone (as the birthplace of his maternal grandparents). Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, Warren Beatty are put aside, even Robert De Niro tried to get the role but he failed. Fate wants that he will have a smaller role and win an Oscar before Al (one of the reasons of theeternal rivalry between them). Then the curious decision to appoint the Academy Award for Best Actor to Marlon Brando who made a brief appearance and appoint Al Pacino as Best Supporting Actor. Result: double boycott, Pacino was offended and didn’t go, Marlon Brando won it but didn’t accept it to promote the cause of Native Americans. From this point on, you can’t count the times Pacino would deserve an Oscar, starting from The Scarecrowto Serpico, from Dog Day Afternoonto Cruising and ... And Justice for All (an undervalued film, but then it will become a cult classic directed by William Friedkin). Al is not afraid to make a piece that could damage him, he has great courage and professionalism. In the Eighties there are De Palma's Scarface and Author! Author!, abrilliant comedy. In 1990 he also filmed a beautiful medium-length film of one hour, The Local Stigmatic, that will be rediscovered much later. The Nineties are even more important for Al with a series of well-aimed shots: The Godfather Part III, Dick Tracy, Glengarry Glen Ross, Scent of a Woman (finally he won the Oscar), Carlito's Way, Heat (with Robert De Niro, but they never act together) and Donnie Brasco to mention only the most famous. In the same decade he made his debut as a film-maker inLooking for Richard in 1996 and repeated the experiment very well in 2000 with the beautiful and little-known Chinese coffee. His career continued until now, in 2011 he was the film-maker of Wilde Salome then he made another great performance in Phil Spector, a 2013television movie but he didn’t win the Emmy because of two previous statuettes receivedfor his participation in Mike Nichols’ Angels in America and especially as the main character of Barry Levinson's You do not know Jack. An actor for all seasons who, like Harvey Keitel, dropped the economically advantageous roles in favourof art films. Moreover, as opposed to De Niro, he has always continued acting in theatre and on television. The perfect actor par excellence.