Engage in a spot of pub chatter about the greatest actors in history and you can put a safe bet on Al Pacino's name cropping up pretty early on. Hollywood's go-to gangster turned 77-years-old today and over the course of his 50-plus-year career, he's left quite a mark.
Pacino has appeared in some of the greatest movies of all time (and a few pretty awful ones, too, but when you've been in more than 50 titles it kind of comes with the territory), inspired the next generation of Hollywood legends and is one of the few actors to have won an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony award, otherwise known as the 'Triple Crown of Acting'. Impressive stuff for a kid from the Bronx who grew up wanting to be an athlete. However, none of it may have even happened if it wasn't for an eighth-grade teacher who spotted his potential.
Credit: Heat/ Warner Bros.
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Al Pacino - or Sonny, as he was known back then to his friends - spent his youth living in the Bronx with his mother and grandparents. Like other boys his age, he had ideas of growing up to be a professional baseball player, but unlike most he always showed a real flair for acting, too. He used to enjoy entertaining others by performing scenes from films, but never imagined that he could one day be starring in them himself. "Where I came from, you didn't become an actor," he said in an interview with The Scotsman. "It wasn't as accessible as it is now. So being an actor was far removed from our life, from our lifestyle, our thoughts."
Scarface / Credit: PA Images
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The future Scarface star took up smoking and drinking before the age of 10 and had a reputation as a troublemaker in school. However, one of his teachers, Blanche Rothstein, took a shine to the young tearaway and clearly saw something in him. "She took a liking to me," he says. "I would read the Bible aloud in assembly - and I did it with a certain verve and gusto - and I'd do plays with her ... I was very lucky because [she was] the most wonderful teacher. I love teachers and I have had them in my life, my mentors [sic]."
Rothstein was so convinced of young Pacino's acting abilities that one day she made the trip to the flat he shared with his mother and grandparents, telling his grandmother: "Your grandson, he should do this with his life. You have to make him." Speaking of her visit, Pacino says: "So I didn't want to be an actor; I was an actor!"
His teacher's support was arguably the catalyst that spurred Pacino on and made him take his acting seriously. After dropping out of school at the age of 17, he took a string of poorly paid jobs to finance his acting studies and would spend any spare time he had performing in basement plays in New York's underground theatrical scene. It wasn't all a fairytale from then on, though. Pacino was rejected from the Actors Studio, a membership organisation for professional actors, several times and was forced to live on the streets due to unemployment.
Dog Day Afternoon / Credit: PA Images
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In spite of his setbacks, Pacino stuck at it and was eventually accepted into the Actors Studio, where he landed parts in several off-Broadway productions during the '60s. However, it was his performance in a 1971 film called Panic in Needle Park that thrust his career to new heights. Pacino's performance caught the eye of Francis Ford Coppola, who was busy casting for The Godfather. Having initially considered stars such as Robert Redford and Jack Nicholson, Coppola ultimately chose the little known Al Pacino to play the role of Michael Corleone.
Pacino's acting career continued to go from strength to strength. He now even co-runs the acting studio that once knocked him back. It's odd to think how different things might have been if his grade school teacher hadn't recognised his potential.
Happy Birthday, Al!
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Words: Paddy Maddison
Featured Image Credit: Heat / Warner Bros.Topics: Al Pacino