Actors tend to have sometimes really weird lives, and we are about to dive into some of the world’s most famous actors lives.
Let’s find out more about some famous actors lives!
You are here: Home / Movies / Al Pacino Trivia: 38 interesting facts about the actor!
April 25, 2017 By Maria-Elpida Flessa Leave a Comment (Edit)
Al Pacino is an American actor of stage and screen, filmmaker, and screenwriter.
Let’s find out some fun facts about him!
1. Alfredo James “Al” Pacino was born April 25, 1940, in New York City (East Harlem).
2. His parents were Sicilian-American Salvatore Pacino and Rose, who divorced when he was two years old.
3. His mother moved to The Bronx to live with her parents, Kate and James Gerardi, who, coincidentally, had come from a town in Sicily named Corleone.
4. His father, who was from San Fratello in the Province of Messina, moved to Covina, California, and worked as an insurance salesman and restaurateur.
5. In his teen years “Sonny”, as he was known to his friends, aimed to become a baseball player, and was also nicknamed “The Actor”.
6. Pacino went through Herman Ridder Junior High School, but in secondary school dropped out of many classes, though not English.
7. He attended the High School of Performing Arts, but dropped out of school at age 17.
8. His mother disagreed with his decision; they argued and he left home.
9. He worked at low-paying jobs; messenger, busboy, janitor, and postal clerk, to finance his acting studies. He once worked in the mail room for Commentary magazine.
10. He began smoking and drinking at age nine, and took up casual cannabis use at age 13, but never used hard drugs.
11. His two closest friends died from drug abuse at the ages of 19 and 30.
12. Growing up in The Bronx, he got into occasional fights and was considered something of a troublemaker at school.
13. He acted in basement plays in New York’s theatrical underground but was rejected for the Actors Studio while a teenager.
14. Pacino then joined the Herbert Berghof Studio (HB Studio), where he met acting teacher Charlie Laughton (not to be confused with the British actor Charles Laughton), who became his mentor and best friend.
15. In this period, he was often unemployed and homeless and sometimes slept on the street, in theaters, or at friends’ houses.
16. In 1962, his mother died at the age of 43.
17. The following year, Pacino’s grandfather James Gerardi, one of the most influential people in his life, also died.
18. After four years at HB Studio, Pacino successfully auditioned for the Actors Studio.
19. The Actors Studio is a membership organization of professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City.
20. Pacino studied “method acting” under acting coach Lee Strasberg, who appeared with Pacino in the films The Godfather Part II and in …And Justice for All.
21. During later interviews he spoke about Strasberg and the Studio’s effect on his career.
22. Pacino is currently co-president, along with Ellen Burstyn and Harvey Keitel, of the Actors Studio.
23. 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 notices for his lead role as a heroin addict in The Panic in Needle Park (1971).
3. His mother moved to The Bronx to live with her parents, Kate and James Gerardi, who, coincidentally, had come from a town in Sicily named Corleone.
4. His father, who was from San Fratello in the Province of Messina, moved to Covina, California, and worked as an insurance salesman and restaurateur.
5. In his teen years “Sonny”, as he was known to his friends, aimed to become a baseball player, and was also nicknamed “The Actor”.
6. Pacino went through Herman Ridder Junior High School, but in secondary school dropped out of many classes, though not English.
7. He attended the High School of Performing Arts, but dropped out of school at age 17.
8. His mother disagreed with his decision; they argued and he left home.
9. He worked at low-paying jobs; messenger, busboy, janitor, and postal clerk, to finance his acting studies. He once worked in the mail room for Commentary magazine.
10. He began smoking and drinking at age nine, and took up casual cannabis use at age 13, but never used hard drugs.
11. His two closest friends died from drug abuse at the ages of 19 and 30.
12. Growing up in The Bronx, he got into occasional fights and was considered something of a troublemaker at school.
13. He acted in basement plays in New York’s theatrical underground but was rejected for the Actors Studio while a teenager.
14. Pacino then joined the Herbert Berghof Studio (HB Studio), where he met acting teacher Charlie Laughton (not to be confused with the British actor Charles Laughton), who became his mentor and best friend.
15. In this period, he was often unemployed and homeless and sometimes slept on the street, in theaters, or at friends’ houses.
16. In 1962, his mother died at the age of 43.
17. The following year, Pacino’s grandfather James Gerardi, one of the most influential people in his life, also died.
18. After four years at HB Studio, Pacino successfully auditioned for the Actors Studio.
19. The Actors Studio is a membership organization of professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City.
20. Pacino studied “method acting” under acting coach Lee Strasberg, who appeared with Pacino in the films The Godfather Part II and in …And Justice for All.
21. During later interviews he spoke about Strasberg and the Studio’s effect on his career.
22. Pacino is currently co-president, along with Ellen Burstyn and Harvey Keitel, of the Actors Studio.
23. 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 notices for his lead role as a heroin addict in The Panic in Needle Park (1971).READ ΝΕΧΤ The Nutcracker and the Four Realms: 13 facts about the movie!
24. He achieved international acclaim and recognition for his breakthrough role as Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972).
25. He received his first Oscar nomination and would reprise the role in the equally successful sequels The Godfather Part II (1974) and The Godfather Part III (1990).
26. Pacino’s performance as Corleone is now regarded as one of the greatest screen performances in film history.
27. 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 a blind Lieutenant Colonel in Scent of a Woman (1992).
28. 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.
29. 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).
30. 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), both of which won him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie.
31. In addition to his work in film, Pacino has had an extensive career on stage and 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.
32. 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.
33. He has also acted as Shylock in a 2004 feature film adaptation and a 2010 production of The Merchant of Venice.
34. 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.
35. Although he has never married, Pacino has three children. The eldest, Julie Marie (born 1989), is his daughter with acting coach Jan Tarrant. He also has twins, son Anton James and daughter Olivia Rose (born January 25, 2001), with actress Beverly D’Angelo, with whom he had a relationship from 1996 until 2003.
36. Pacino had a relationship with Diane Keaton, his co-star in the Godfather trilogy. The on-again, off-again relationship ended following the filming of The Godfather Part II.
37. He has had relationships with Tuesday Weld, Jill Clayburgh, Marthe Keller, Kathleen Quinlan and Lyndall Hobbs.
38. 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.
39. Joaquín Rafael Bottom was born in October 28, 1974 in the Río Piedras district of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
40. is parents were from the U.S. mainland.
41. He is the third of five children, including River (1970–1993), Rain (b. 1972), Liberty (b. 1976) and Summer (b. 1978), all of whom have also acted.
42. He also has a half-sister named Jodean (b. 1964) from a previous relationship of his father’s.
43. Phoenix’s father, John Lee Bottom, originally from Fontana, California, was a lapsed Catholic of English, German and French Huguenot ancestry.
44. Phoenix’s mother, Arlyn (née Dunetz), was born in the Bronx, New York, to Jewish parents whose families emigrated from Russia and Hungary.
45. Arlyn left her family in 1968 and moved to California, later meeting Phoenix’s father while hitchhiking.
46. They married in 1969, then later joined a religious group, the Children of God, and began traveling throughout South America.
47. His parents eventually became disenchanted with the Children of God; they made the decision to leave the group and returned to the U.S. in 1978.
48. They changed their last name to Phoenix, after the mythical bird that rises from its own ashes, symbolizing a new beginning.
49. Around this time, Joaquín began calling himself “Leaf,” desiring to have a nature-related name like his siblings, and inspired by spending time outdoors raking leaves with his father.
50. “Leaf” became the name he used as a child actor, until at age 15, when he changed it back to Joaquin.
51. In order to provide food and financial support for the family, the children performed on the streets and at various talent contests, singing and playing instruments.
52. In Los Angeles, his mother started working as a secretary for NBC, and his father worked as a landscaper.
53. Phoenix and his siblings were eventually discovered by one of Hollywood’s leading children’s agents, Iris Burton, who got the five children acting work, mainly doing commercials and television show appearances.
54. He went on to establish himself as a child actor before deciding to withdraw from acting for a while and travel to Mexico and South America with his father.
55. Three days after Phoenix’s 19th birthday, his older brother River suffered a fatal drug overdose on October 31, 1993.
56. The call he made to 911 seeking help for his brother was repeatedly played on radio and television. In response, he retreated from the public eye for about a year.
57. Phoenix started acting in television shows with his brother River Phoenix and sister Summer Phoenix.
58. His first major film release was in the comedy-drama film Parenthood (1989). During his period as a child actor he was credited as Leaf Phoenix, his self-given name.
59. He later went back to his birth name, Joaquín, and received positive reviews for his supporting work in a wide range of films, most notably in the film adaptation of the novel To Die For (1995) and the period film Quills (2000).
60. He received international attention for his portrayal of Commodus in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
61. He has subsequently earned Best Actor nominations for portraying musician Johnny Cash in the biopic Walk the Line (2005) and for his role as Freddie Quell, a sex-obsessed alcoholic World War II veteran in the drama film The Master (2012), which won him the Volpi Cup for Best Actor.
62. To this date, he and River Phoenix hold the distinction of being the first and only brothers to be nominated for acting Academy Awards.
63. Some of his other notable films include the satire film Buffalo Soldiers (2001), the science fiction thriller Signs (2002), the animated film Brother Bear (2003), the historical drama film Hotel Rwanda (2004), the psychological thriller The Village (2004), the documentary Earthlings (2005), the romantic drama Two Lovers (2008), the drama The Immigrant (2013), the romantic science fiction drama Her (2013), the crime comedy-drama film Inherent Vice (2014), and the thriller You Were Never Really Here (2017), for which he won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor.
64. Aside from his acting career, he has also ventured into directing music videos, as well as producing films and television shows.
65. He has recorded an album, the soundtrack to Walk The Line, for which he won the Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media.
66. Phoenix is a social activist, lending his support to a number of charities and humanitarian organizations.
67. He is on the board of directors for The Lunchbox Fund, a non-profit organization that provides daily meals to students of township schools in Soweto of South Africa.
68.Phoenix is also widely known for his animal rights advocacy.
69. He has been a vegan since the age of three and campaigns for PETA and In Defense of Animals.
70. Since 2006, he has been living on top of the Hollywood Hills.[131]
71. In early April 2005, Phoenix checked into rehab to be treated for alcoholism.
72. Phoenix unexpectedly announced in late 2008 that he had retired from acting to pursue a rapping career, and that the forthcoming Two Lovers would be his last film. On February 11, 2009, Phoenix appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman to promote Two Lovers. He seemed incoherent and was largely unresponsive towards David Letterman’s questions about the film and his career plans.
73. Phoenix appeared on Late Show again on September 22, 2010, and revealed that his “retirement” and eccentric behavior were for a mockumentary, I’m Still Here (2010), that he and Casey Affleck were filming.
74. In October 2012, Phoenix proclaimed the Academy Awards to be “bullshit”. He later gave an interview amending his earlier comments and acknowledging that the Oscars provide an important platform for many deserving filmmakers.
75. Phoenix dated his Inventing the Abbotts co-star Liv Tyler from 1995 to 1998, and South-African model Topaz Page-Green from 2001 to 2005.
76. He had a year-long relationship with model Heather Christie in 2012.
77. He was in a relationship with DJ Allie Teilz from late 2013 to early 2015.
78. Since late 2016, he has been dating actress Rooney Mara.
79.Anthony Hopkins was born on New Year’s Eve 1937, in Margam, a suburb of Port Talbot, Glamorgan.
80.His parents are Annie Muriel and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker.
81. His school days were unproductive; he would rather immerse himself in art, such as painting and drawing, or playing the piano than attend to his studies.
82. In 1949, to instill discipline, his parents insisted he attend Jones’ West Monmouth Boys’ School in Pontypool. He remained there for five terms and was then educated at Cowbridge Grammar School in the Vale of Glamorgan.
83. Anthony Hopkins was influenced and encouraged by Welsh compatriot Richard Burton, whom he met at the age of 15.
84. Anthony Hopkins promptly enrolled at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, from which he graduated in 1957.
85. After two years in the British Army doing his national service, he moved to London, where he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
86. Anthony Hopkins made his first professional stage appearance in the Palace Theatre, Swansea, in 1960 with Swansea Little Theatre’s production of Have a Cigarette.
87. In 1965, after several years in repertory, he was spotted by Laurence Olivier, who invited him to join the Royal National Theatre in London
88. Anthony Hopkins became Olivier’s understudy and filled in when Olivier was struck with appendicitis during a production of August Strindberg’s The Dance of Death.
89. Olivier later noted in his memoir, Confessions of an Actor, that “A new young actor in the company of exceptional promise named Anthony Hopkins was understudying me and walked away with the part of Edgar like a cat with a mouse between its teeth.”
90. Despite his success at the National, Hopkins tired of repeating the same roles nightly and yearned to be in films. He made his small-screen debut in a 1967 BBC broadcast of A Flea in Her Ear. His first starring role in a film came in 1964 in Changes, a short directed by Drewe Henley, written and produced by James Scott and co-starring Jacqueline Pearce.
91. Although Hopkins continued in theatre (most notably at the National Theatre as Lambert Le Roux in Pravda by David Hare and Howard Brenton and as Antony in Antony and Cleopatra opposite Judi Dench as well as in the Broadway production of Peter Shaffer’s Equus) he gradually moved away from it to become more established as a television and film actor.
92.He portrayed Charles Dickens in the BBC television film The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens in 1970, and Pierre Bezukhov in the BBC’s mini series War and Peace (1972).
93. In 1972 he starred as WWI British Prime Minister David Lloyd George in Young Winston, and in 1977 he played British Army officer John Frost in Richard Attenborough’s WWII film A Bridge Too Far.
94. In 1980, he starred in The Elephant Man as the English doctor Sir Frederick Treves, who attends to Joseph Merrick (portrayed by John Hurt), a severely deformed man in 19th century London.
95. That year he also starred opposite Shirley MacLaine in A Change of Seasons and famously said “she was the most obnoxious actress I have ever worked with.”
96. Anthony Hopkins was Britain’s highest-paid performer in 1998, starring in The Mask of Zorro and Meet Joe Black, and also agreed to reprise his role as Dr. Hannibal Lecter for a fee of £15 million.
97. In 2000, Hopkins narrated Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Hopkins received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003.
98. Anthony Hopkins’ most famous role is as the cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1991, with Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, who also won for Best Actress.
99. The film won Best Picture, Best Director and Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Hopkins reprised his role as Lecter twice; in Ridley Scott’s Hannibal (2001), and Red Dragon (2002).
100. His original portrayal of the character in The Silence of the Lambs has been labeled by the AFI as the number-one film villain.
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