Al Pacino

Alfredo James Pacino was born on April 25, 1940, in East Harlem, New York. He was the fourth child of Italian-American parents Rose Gerardi and Salvatore Pacino. His parents divorced when he was two years old. Along with his mother, he moved to the Bronx to live with other family members who had emigrated from Corleone, Sicily, Italy, including Kate and James Gerardi. His father, also from San Fratello, Sicily, Italy, moved to Covina, California, to work for an insurance company after their divorce. During his youth, friends called him "Sonny" or "The Actor." He wanted to become a baseball player. He attended Herman Riddler Junior High School but was expelled shortly thereafter for failing courses other than English. He then enrolled at the High School of Performing Arts. His mother opposed this decision, leading to an argument between them. Following this argument, he left home. To finance his acting lessons, he worked as a mail carrier, waiter, postal worker, and cleaner, even at low wages. He also once worked for Commentary magazine. He began smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol at the age of nine. At thirteen, he used marijuana but avoided other drugs.

His closest friends died from high-dose drug use at ages 19 and 30. Growing up in the Bronx drove him to frequent fights and made him a troublemaker at school. He appeared in some plays in New York but was rejected when he tried to join Actors Studio. He then joined HB Studio, where he met Charlie Laughton, who would later become his mentor and closest friend. During this period, he often went without work, sleeping on the streets, in theaters, or sometimes at his friends' homes. In 1962, his mother died at age 43. That same year, his grandfather James also passed away. Al Pacino described these periods as the worst of his life. In a later interview, he spoke about this time saying: "I was 22 years old and two people who affected me most had died. This changed my life." After working at HB Studio for four years, he was selected to join Actors Studio, an organization composed of professional actors, theater directors, and playwrights. Later, he studied method acting with Lee Strasberg, with whom he would go on to co-star in The Godfather: Part II and.And Justice For All.

In his later-published biography Grobel, he recounted how Lee Strasberg's and the Actors Studio's careers were influenced as follows: "The Actors Studio means a great deal to me. I believe Lee Strasberg has not received the praise he deserves. When I was considering giving up all this acting work, he held my hand and brought me here. This was a turning point worth marking in my life." In another interview, he also said: "Working with Lee Strasberg was very exciting. Because he was such an interesting person. You couldn't hear what he said about a scene or a character from anyone else. He was truly someone who valued this industry and its actors."