Al Pacino

**Alfredo James Pacino** (/pəˈtʃiːnoʊ/; Italian: [paˈtʃiːno]; born April 25, 1940), known professionally as **Al Pacino**, is an American actor and filmmaker[1] who has had a career spanning more than five decades. He has received numerous accolades and honors both competitive and honorary, among them an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, four Golden Globe Awards, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute, the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award and the National Medal of Arts. He is one of few performers to have won a competitive Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony Award for acting, dubbed the "Triple Crown of Acting".

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 notice for his lead role as a heroin addict in *The Panic in Needle Park* (1971). He achieved international acclaim and recognition for his breakthrough role as Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's *The Godfather* (1972) receiving his first Oscar nomination and would reprise the role in the sequels *The Godfather Part II* (1974) and *The Godfather Part III* (1990). Pacino's performance as Michael Corleone in these films is regarded as one of the greatest screen performances in film history.

Pacino received his first Best Actor Oscar nomination for *Serpico* (1973); he was also nominated for *The Godfather Part II*, *Dog Day Afternoon* (1975) and *...And Justice for All* (1979) and won the award in 1993 for his performance as blind Lieutenant Colonel Slade in *Scent of a Woman* (1992). For his performances in *The Godfather*, *Dick Tracy* (1990) and *Glengarry Glen Ross* (1992), Pacino was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Other notable roles include Tony Montana in *Scarface* (1983), Carlito Brigante in *Carlito's Way* (1993), Lieutenant Vincent Hanna in *Heat* (1995), Benjamin Ruggiero in *Donnie Brasco* (1997), Lowell Bergman in *The Insider* (1999) and Detective Will Dormer in *Insomnia* (2002). In television, Pacino has acted in several productions for HBO, including the miniseries*Angels in America* (2003) and the Jack Kevorkian biopic *You Don't Know Jack* (2010); he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for each role.

In addition to his work in film, Pacino has had an extensive career on stage. He is a two-time Tony Award winner, in 1969 and 1977, for his performances in *Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?* and *The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel*, respectively. A lifelong fan of Shakespeare, Pacino directed and starred in *Looking for Richard* (1996), a documentary film about the play *Richard III*, a role which Pacino had earlier portrayed on stage in 1977. He has also acted as Shylock in a 2004 feature film adaptation and a 2010 stage production of *The Merchant of Venice*.

Having made his filmmaking debut with *Looking for Richard*, Pacino has also directed and starred in the independent film *Chinese Coffee* (2000) and the films *Wilde Salomé* (2011) and *Salomé* (2013), about the play *Salomé* by Oscar Wilde. Since 1994, Pacino has been the joint president of the Actors Studio with Ellen Burstyn and Harvey Keitel. In 2016, he received the Kennedy Center Honor.[2]