Al Pacino

Alfredo James Pacino was born in the East Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on April 25, 1940, the only child of Sicilian Italian-American parents Rose (née Gerardi) and Salvatore Pacino. His father had emigrated from San Fratello.: xix :2  His parents divorced when he was two years old.: 2  Following the separation, his mother took him to the South Bronx and they lived with his maternal grandparents, Kate and James Gerardi, who had emigrated from Corleone when young.: 1–2  Pacino's father moved to California to work as an insurance salesman and restaurateur in Covina, California. From the age of three or four, his mother would take him to the movies, and he began to run the characters' lines through his head. "Sonny Boy" was his mother's nickname for Pacino, taken from the popular song by Al Jolson, which she often sang to him. During his teenage years, Pacino's friends called him "Sonny", "Pacchi", and "Pistachio" (derived from his favorite flavor of ice cream).:xix  He had ambitions to become a baseball player and was also nicknamed "The Actor".: xix  Pacino began smoking and drinking at age nine and used marijuana casually at age 13, but he abstained from hard drugs.:9  His two closest friends died from drug abuse at the ages of 19 and 30.: 8  Growing up in the South Bronx, Pacino got into occasional fights and was considered something of a troublemaker at school.: 6  He attended Herman Ridder Junior High School in Morrisania, but soon dropped out of most of his classes except for English. Blanche Rothstein, who was his junior high school teacher, saw his acting potential at a young age, casting him in school plays and having him read the Bible passages at their student assemblies. She notably visited their family's tenement apartment to speak with his grandmother, who said that he was "made to do this [acting]," which Pacino credited as the turning point in his life. He subsequently attended the High School of Performing Arts, after gaining admission by audition. His mother disagreed with his decision, believing that "poor people don't do acting." After an argument, he left home. To finance himself and pursue his dreams, Pacino took low-paying jobs as a messenger, busboy, janitor, switchboard operator, usher, and postal clerk, as well as once working in the mailroom for Commentary. He acted in basement plays in New York's theatrical underground. As a teenager, he tried to join the membership organization Actors Studio but was rejected.: xix  Instead, Pacino joined HB Studio, where he met acting teacher Charlie Laughton, who became his mentor and best friend.: xix  The studio let him go to classes for free in exchange for cleaning the hallways and dance studios. At night, Pacino would practice Shakespeare soliloquies while wandering the streets. In this period, he was often unemployed or homeless and sometimes slept on the street, in theaters, or at a friend's home.: 14  In 1962, Pacino's mother died at the age of 43.: 10  The following year, his maternal grandfather also died. Pacino recalled it as the lowest point of his life and said, "I was 22 and the two most influential people in my life had gone, so that sent me into a tailspin." After four years at HB Studio, Pacino successfully auditioned for the Actors Studio.  Pacino studied "method acting" under acting coach Lee Strasberg, who appeared with Pacino in the films The Godfather Part II and ...And Justice for All. During later interviews, he spoke about Strasberg and the Studio's effect on his career. "The Actors Studio meant so much to me in my life. Lee Strasberg hasn't been given the credit he deserves ... Next to Charlie, it sort of launched me. It really did. That was a remarkable turning point in my life. It was directly responsible for getting me to quit all those jobs and just stay acting.": 15  In another interview, he added, "It was exciting to work for him [Lee Strasberg] because he was so interesting when he talked about a scene or talked about people. One would just want to hear him talk, because things he would say, you'd never heard before ... He had such a great understanding ... he loved actors so much."