Alfredo James “Al” Pacino (born April 25, 1940) is an American film and stage actor and director. He is well known for playing mobsters, especially Michael Corleone in The Godfather films and Tony Montana in Scarface, and often appeared on the other side of the law—as a police officer, a detective and lawyer.
Pacino won the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 65th Academy Awards in 1992 for his performance as Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman. Prior to his win he had received seven Oscar nominations, including one that same year.
He made his feature film debut in 1969 in the film Me, Natalie in a minor supporting role, before playing the lead role in the 1971 drama The Panic in Needle Park. Pacino’s major breakthrough came in 1972 with the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. His other Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor were for Dick Tracy and Glengarry Glen Ross. Oscar nominations for Best Actor include The Godfather Part II, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and …And Justice for All.
In addition to a career in film, he has enjoyed a successful career on stage, winning Tony Awards for Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? and The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. A longtime fan of Shakespeare, he made his directorial debut with Looking for Richard, a quasi-documentary on the play Richard III. Pacino has received numerous lifetime achievement awards, including one from the American Film Institute. He is a method actor, taught mainly by Lee Strasberg and Charles Laughton at the Actors Studio in New York.
Pacino has been nominated and has won many awards during his acting career, including eight Oscar nominations (winning one), 15 Golden Globe nominations (winning four), five BAFTA nominations (winning two), two Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on television, and two Tony Awards for his stage work. In 2007, the American Film Institute awarded Pacino with a lifetime achievement award and, in 2003, British television viewers voted Pacino as the greatest film star of all time in a poll for Channel 4.
Although he has never married, Pacino has had several relationships with actresses and has three children.
