Tragic Details About Al Pacino

al pacino is one of the most acclaimed actors in cinematic history but he didn't have an easy climb to fame his tragic real-life story includes a tough family life a struggle with his craft and even a temporary departure from acting pacino's early years were no walk in the park he was born in new york city in 1940 and never got to enjoy a happy and steady two-parent home life as his parents separated when he was just two in a 2015 interview with the guardian he mentioned that his schoolteachers felt that he needed a father figure in his life as his own dad wasn't an active presence at that point as pacino described it i wasn't an out of control teenager but i was close when pacino was growing up he was surrounded by his mom his sister and his grandparents even though they weren't well off financially he still felt lucky and got a chance to experience a life of adventure as he told interview magazine it was tough for me growing up i will say but pretty much my grandmother she ruled and my mother was second they were relatively young my mother had me young i owe a lot to that period in my life i owe a lot to those women and my grandfather pacino has always felt indebted to his family for taking care of him in those turbulent times and helping him become the person he was meant to be pacino has also always been fascinated by the arts from a young age he would often take to performing wherever he was even on the streets in fact in his neighborhood he was known by the nickname of the actor as he told the new yorker in 2014 we'd act out parts from joke books and comic books kids make videos today but it was kind of an unusual thing then to get street urchins to join you in acting out comics of course it never got off the ground there's a comedy in there somewhere according to his old neighbor ken lipper pacino was full of drama furthermore he wasn't afraid to warm up to play different characters and would often experiment out in public he was also handsome his looks and talent both got him noticed early on as girls in the neighborhood admired him calling him sonny pacino the lover bambino on top of all that he was also witty and he would use his acting skills to befriend other kids and confuse bullies something that definitely worked to his advantage it was almost like he was destined to become an acting legend i had this ability to mimic i would i would mimic the movies i would mimic any of the current singers pacino was intrigued enough by the arts to take a drama class when he was in junior high while helping his mom rose run the house he also got a chance to attend the high school of performing arts in manhattan this was something his mother struggled to come to terms with simply put she wasn't pleased as she told her son acting isn't for our kind of people poor people don't go into this nevertheless pacino wasn't discouraged as he was determined to succeed and believed that he was a survivor as he told the new yorker survivors only hear what they want to hear he did experience a setback though when his stint at the high school turned out to be a short one because the non-acting subjects were more rigorous than he had anticipated spanish class for instance was actually held in spanish the style of teaching didn't appeal to him either he was too young for it so he dropped out at the age of 16 but he didn't give up on his future and he started focusing on auditioning and working on his craft when he was a struggling actor pacino didn't have a lot of money or connections but he was resilient enough to get through the tough times as he explained to the guardian there were times when i was young when i could have used money after college i was often unemployed and at one time i slept in a storefront for a few days but i've never been materialistic except that i am of course because my lifestyle makes me a spender it also helped that pacino truly loved what he was learning he would read voraciously and meet all kinds of characters on the streets of downtown new york it was also fortunate that he was young and that poverty didn't seem like that big of a deal at that point in his life he could survive it with his youth and with the age-old street slice of pizza as he told interview magazine you just have yourself to deal with a piece of pizza goes a long way you could live on anything at that age it doesn't matter you extract every bit of that piece of pizza his enthusiasm for acting didn't fade in the least and he continued working on it as he learned to survive in the real world pacino lived through loss at an early age he was just 21 and struggling through his early acting days when his 43 year old mother passed away it was a huge blow for someone who'd grown up around mostly strong maternal figures and he wasn't sure how to deal with it before he could truly comprehend this loss his grandfather james passed away the following year by 1962 he found himself struggling to make sense of it all it was an incredibly difficult time for him indeed one of the worst periods he's ever lived through as he told the new yorker and i had no father i think that was my darkest period i felt lost despite what he was going through pacino didn't give up on his dream as he learned to navigate uncharted territory and cope with loss he continued looking for work getting through rejections and doing his best to try and land good roles it was tough getting through life you got to be tough i guess we're all tough when pacino was 23 he benefited from joining the actor studio where he evolved as an actor and polished his skills under the guidance of studio director lee strasberg but pacino knew he wasn't like his contemporaries who came from privileged backgrounds he felt inadequate and different because of that as he told the telegraph in 2015 i knew i was this vagabond kid pacino realized that as an italian-american he didn't look like his fellow actors at the auditions he went to he felt like an outcast but he didn't let that bring him down as he knew he needed to be patient for the right gig to come along but he nevertheless found himself struggling and filled with self-doubt at times when he started working on the play creditors alongside actors who'd received classical training he worried he couldn't go through with it and wanted to leave the show luckily for him director charlie lawton was there to quell his fears and doubts sticking with the hard material of creditors proved to be so transformative for pacino that an image of him in the play still sits on his mantelpiece pacino wasn't always lucky to get into broadway and the movies he had to work hard and it took quite a bit of time before he got opportunities that paid off even being a part of productions was taxing for him at times especially as he worried about connecting with his audience for example while performing in his off off broadway debut he found himself tearing up during the intermission convinced that the performance wasn't working charlie lawton counseled him through it and he decided to go back to his performance as pacino recalled to the new yorker it was a very important moment for me i went back in there and finished the run before broadway getting to the point where pacino could bag rolls mend milking every opportunity that came along he would put up plays and cafes with his peers and focus on making the most of what he had as he told inquirer.net in 2020 we passed the hat around after each performance somebody would drop in coins here and there that's how we ate and it was right in new york city he added that the experiences he lived through helped him to hone his creativity and understand the importance of cultivating the desire to grow and do new things pacino has often turned to alcohol to cope with his struggles in fact he had his first drink when he was just a teen being the method actor that he is he found himself feeling overwhelmed after his performances and felt the need to reward himself he liked the way alcohol made him feel but it eventually started getting in the way of his relationships when he was dating fellow actor jill clayburgh and had one of his binges he was barely able to focus on anything around him she told him that she was lonesome but he was too drunk to hear it pacino wasn't able to kick his addiction for a long time but his loved ones eventually knew that it could no longer be avoided in 1977 he finally acknowledged his drinking problem thanks to his friends and made a decision to get sober in the biography al pacino a life on the wire he's quoted as saying my friends finally made me realize that drinking was an addiction after each show i felt entitled to a reward but now it's ice cream and oreo cookies how did you defeat alcoholism well i i didn't defeat it one doesn't look at it that way how long are you sober all i could say is i'm never sober it's safe to say that al pacino played one of the most iconic roles in cinema as michael corleone in the godfather trilogy but he almost didn't land the part in fact other actors such as robert redford warren beatty jack nicholson and ryan o'neill were being considered for the role luckily for pacino though mario puzo who wrote the godfather novel was keen to listen to director francis ford coppola who was set on casting pacino however pacino still almost lost the part when he showed up hungover at the screen test without having learned his lines it took him three attempts to deliver his dialogue and he was left feeling agitated after the experience a bit of back and forth ensued and pacino was finally offered the part there was still one snag though as it conflicted with another role he'd agreed to do a few months earlier he had to lobby hard and pull a few strings to get out of this sticky situation after he finally landed the role for which he earned a flat fee of 35 000 he spent time thinking about how to do it justice as he explained to the new yorker i didn't see michael as a gangster i saw his struggle as something that was connected to his intelligence that innate sense of what's around and being able to adjust to things this wasn't enough time michael it wasn't enough time we'll get there pop we'll get there al pacino may be an iconic film legend but he's clearly witnessed his share of highs and lows during his career for example his 1985 film revolution was a much anticipated project that ended up flopping he later said of the movie nobody saw this film but we love it and we hung in for the next 20 years and changed this movie a little revolution's failure was a major letdown and something that affected pacino on a personal level afterwards he decided to step away from films for four years as he needed to take a break and reflect but eventually he had to return because he was going broke and his then girlfriend diane keaton pushed him to get back out there with the 1989 thriller sea of love amidst all the struggles pacino's passion for acting has never subsided he believes that if the passion is still there a person should keep doing what they've been doing as he told the guardian in 2015 i believe i have reached my stride which is why i persist as long as you have passion for the art keep working because age catches up with you [Music] just when i thought i was out they pulled me back in check out one of our newest videos right here plus even more grunge videos about your favorite stars are coming soon subscribe to our youtube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one you

Channel: Grunge

Views: 535,406

Rating: 4.8159676 out of 5

Keywords: grunge, grunge channel, al pacino, pacino, who played scarface, what happened to al pacino, al pacino growing up, al pacino life, al pacino scarface, al pacino movies, al pacino drop out, al pacino dropped out of school, al pacino turning to the bottle, al pacino drinking problem, al pacino alcohol adiction, where is al pacino now, al pacino 2020, why did al pacino drop out, al pacino poverty, al pacino struggling, al pacino actor, al pacino mother, al pacino the god father

Id: GkRJemaB0Ec

Length: 12min 26sec (746 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 19 2020