50 interesting facts about Al Pacino: He is a method actor, has never been married

Alfredo James "Al" Pacino is an American actor and filmmaker. He is well known for playing mobsters, especially Michael Corleone in The Godfather films and Tony Montana in Scarface

1. His full name is Alfredo James Pacino.
2. Pacino was born on April 25, 1940 in New York City.
3. His grandparents originate from Corleone, Sicily.
4. He is the stepson of actress and make-up artist Katherin Kovin-Pacino.
5. Pacino dropped out of school at the age of 17.
   
6. He worked in the mail room of Commentary magazine.
7. He began smoking at age nine, and drinking, and took up casual marijuana use at age thirteen, but never used hard drugs. His two closest friends died from drug abuse at the ages of 19 and 30. Growing up in The Bronx, he got into occasional fights and was considered something of a troublemaker at school.
8. Al Pacino briefly worked as a stand-up comic early in his career.
9. Al Pacino was nominated for a total of seven Oscars before he finally won his first one in 1992 for his role of Frank Slade in the film "Scent of a Woman."
10. Pacino grew up in East Harlem and the Bronx, Pacino moved to Greenwich Village at the age of 19 to pursue acting.
11. He attended Herbert Berghof Studio, and soon began landing parts in theatre productions, including Out There in 1963.
12. A few years later, in 1969, Pacino performed in the Broadway play Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?-for which he received a Tony Award-as well as Me, Natalie, a coming-of-age film about a young woman living in New York City.
13. He is an avid William Shakespeare fan.
14. His performance in the Broadway play "Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?" won him a Tony Award for Best Dramatic Supporting Actor, and a Drama Desk Award and Theatre World Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1969.
15. Al Pacino was rejected repeatedly by studio heads while auditioning for the role of Michael in The Godfather (1972) but Francis Ford Coppola fought for him. This film was shot briskly because both the director and the leading actor were in constant fear of being fired. Ironically, it turned out to be a breakthrough for both.
16. The film received wide critical acclaim, winning three Academy Awards. The performance propelled Pacino into Hollywood stardom.
17. In 1974, Pacino reunited with Coppola for the second part of the Godfather series, the Academy Award-winning The Godfather: Part II, again playing Michael.
18. Al Pacino turned down the role as Michael Corleone in the Godfather videogame.
19. He was frequently referred to as "that midget Pacino" by producers of The Godfather (1972) who didn't want him for the part of Michael Corleone.
20. He shares a birthday with Talia Shire, his co-star in The Godfather films.
21. He was John Schlesinger's original pick for Marathon Man (1976) but producer Robert Evans insisted that Schlesinger cast Dustin Hoffman instead.
22.  During the filming of "Serpico" Al Pacino truly threw himself into his character so much that he actually pulled over a taxi driver and then threatened to arrest the driver for the excessive exhaust fumes coming from the vehicle.
23. "Scarface" became a touchstone for rappers, who considered Tony Montana more of a role model than a cautionary tale. On the 20th anniversary DVD, Sean "Diddy" Combs claimed he'd seen the movie 63 times.
24. Pacino recalled (at a "Scarface" screening two years ago) that, after the movie's New York premiere, most of showbiz was appalled. The entertainment industry figures present were " like statues, like wax figures," Pacino said. "So I came in and there was Liza Minnelli, who hadn't seen ["Scarface"], and she came up to me and she said, 'Al, what did you do to these people?'" Pacino added, "But I remember Eddie Murphy was there and he came up to me and said 'I loved it, Al!'"
25. Pacino once said in an interview that the movie he most wanted to be in but couldn't get the role was Slap Shot (1977). Director George Roy Hill opted not to go with Pacino because he could not ice skate.
26. He has a daughter, named Julie Marie (b. 1989), with acting teacher Jan Tarrant.
27. He was asked by Steven Spielberg to play the part of Ray Neary in the now famous film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." He turned down the role for reasons best known to himself.
28. Alec Baldwin, who co-starred with Pacino in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) and Looking for Richard (1996), wrote a 65-page final thesis on Pacino and method acting for his degree at NYU.
29. In 1996, he directed and produced Looking for Richard, a documentary about William Shakespeare and one of Shakespeare's known plays, Richard III.
30. In 1997 he received his own cement imprint outside the famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
31. After seeing a yet undiscovered Kevin Spacey perform on Broadway, Al Pacino was so impressed by his acting that he contacted the director of "Glengarry Glen Ross" and convinced him to hire him for the part of John Williamson.
32. Pacino has a production company called Chal Productions. The "Ch" is in tribute his friend "Charlie Laughton" (not the actor Charles Laughton) while the "Al" is for himself.
33. Pacino has suffered from chronic insomnia.
34. In a "Playboy" magazine interview, he claimed that he was fired from his job as a movie theater usher while walking down the staircase and admiring himself in the mirrored wall.
35. Pacino is an avid fan of opera.
36. His first child was born just six months before he turned 50. Eleven years later at the age of 61, he fathered twins with actress Beverly D'Angelo.
37. In 2002, he starred as a homicide detective alongside Robin Williams in Insomnia, a film about a young woman's mysterious murder; as well as in People I Know, in which he plays press agent Eli Wurman.
38. Newsweek stated that "he [Pacino] can play small as rivetingly as he can play big, that he can implode as well as explode". The film and Pacino's performance were well received, gaining a favorable rating of 93 percent on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.
39. Five years later, in 2007, he played a part in the blockbuster hit Ocean's Thirteen.
40. Pacino received an Emmy Award and Golden Globe-for his role as Dr. Jack Kevorkian, an assisted-suicide advocate, in the 2010 TV movie You Don't Know Jack.
41. In 2011, he directed a film about writer Oscar Wilde, Wilde Salome.
    
42. He turned down a part in the cult-film "The Usual Suspects." To this day he turning down this role is his one regret during all his years of acting.
43. Al Pacino has publicly stated that his all-time favorite actress is Julie Christie.
44. He is a method actor, taught mainly by Lee Strasberg and Charlie Laughton at the Actors Studio in New York.
45. The Internal Revenue Service filed a tax lien against Pacino, claiming he owes the government a total of $188,000 for 2008 and 2009. A representative for Pacino blamed his former business manager Kenneth Starr for the discrepancy.
46. Pacino and Robert De Niro are reportedly set to star in the upcoming project The Irishman, to be directed by Martin Scorsese and co-star Joe Pesci.
    
47. It was announced in January 2013 that Pacino will play the late former Penn State University football coach Joe Paterno in the movie tentatively titled Happy Valley and based on a 2012 biography of Paterno by sportswriter Joe Posnanski.
48. Al Pacino's net worth is $135 million.
49. He currently lives in Beverly Hills, California.
50. Al Pacino has never been married.