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Rise to Fame
Paramount called him 'that midget Pacino' and didn't want him anywhere near The Godfather. Coppola pushed for him anyway. During filming, Pacino was nearly fired. The restaurant scene (Michael executing the cop and the drug dealer) got moved up in the schedule specifically to give him one last shot. He delivered. Before that, he'd had two film credits, years on the New York stage, and a reputation that stopped at the Hudson.
In the Spotlight
At 85, he's still signing on to projects at a pace that suggests he doesn't know what else to do. He's filming with Anthony Hopkins in Maserati: The Brothers and joining a Luc Besson action thriller alongside Kiefer Sutherland. His Oscar came in 1993 for Scent of a Woman, a win that arrived well after nominations for Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon, among others. He became a father again at 83 and broke up with the mother the following year.
Side Notes
Before The Godfather, Pacino was reportedly sleeping on floors and couch-surfing, working as a janitor and postal clerk to pay for drama classes. He dropped out of school as a teenager. Two of his closest childhood friends died from drug overdoses, one at 19, one at 30. His maternal grandparents had emigrated from Corleone, Sicily. Not a metaphor. That's the actual town Mario Puzo's fictional Vito Corleone borrowed his name from.