Al Pacino reflects on how his late mother influenced his Oscar-winning career in his new book Sonny Boy: A Memoir.
Raised in the Bronx by his mother Rose and grandparents after his parents’ divorce, the Godfather star, now 84, believes his love of movies guided him toward his future path.
Though Rose battled addiction, including a suicide attempt when Al was six and a fatal overdose when he was 22, the actor said he realized how grateful he was to have had her in his life while preparing a 1992 Oscar acceptance speech for Scent of a Woman.
“One day, at 52, I look in my vanity mirror and wonder who I should thank in my acceptance speech,” he wrote in Sonny Boy, according to an excerpt from The New Yorker‘I realise that I am still here thanks to my mother. Of course, it is she who I have to thank. She was the one who steered me away from a path that led me to crime and violence, to heroin.
“I lost three friends that way. I wasn’t under strict surveillance, but my mother was keeping an eye on where I was. She saved my life.”
Al Pacino reflects on how his late mother influenced his Oscar-winning career in his new autobiography Sonny Boy: A Memoir; (photo from 2023)
Raised in the Bronx by his mother Rose (pictured) and grandparents after his parents’ divorce, the Godfather star, now 84, believes his love of movies guided him towards his future path.
She also spoke about Rose’s mental health issues, revealing that she “occasionally visited a psychiatrist when Grandpa had money to pay.”
She continued: ‘I didn’t realise my mother was having problems until one day when I was six and getting ready to go out to play.
‘I was sitting in a chair in the kitchen while my mother tied my shoes and put a sweater on me, and I noticed she was crying.
“I wondered what was wrong, but I didn’t know how to ask. He was kissing me all over and just before I left he gave me a big hug. It was unusual, but I was looking forward to meeting the other kids and didn’t think about it any further.”
He recalled that he was playing outside near his grandparents’ house at the time and suddenly noticed a commotion nearby. He soon realized that his mother was at the center of the commotion.
“There was an ambulance in front of the building and there, coming out of the main door, carried on a stretcher, was my mother. She had tried to commit suicide.”
In the book, Pacino fondly recalls how his mother introduced him to film, which ignited his passion for acting, although they eventually clashed over his career choice, prompting him to leave home.
Despite abandoning traditional classes, he was accepted into the Higher School of Performing Arts after a successful audition.
Pacino photographed as a baby with Sal and Rose in 1940. His father abandoned them when he was only two years old.
In the past, the Scarface actor has cited his father Sal’s abandonment at the age of two as a driving factor in his rebellious teenage years.
After Rose’s overdose, Pacino doubted it was another suicide attempt, noting that she had not left a note.
“Some people thought he had committed suicide, as he had tried to do so almost 15 years earlier. But he didn’t leave a note. He just walked away. That’s why I’ve always left a question mark next to his death.”
In the past, the Scarface actor has cited his father Sal’s abandonment at the age of two as a driving factor in his rebellious teenage years, saying: “The conclusion from my teachers was that I needed a father.”
Sal abandoned the Hollywood star and her mother after the couple split up.
Sal was married five times and Pacino told Esquire in 2003: “What does that tell me? That he liked married life. Well, what does that tell me? It tells me that we are creatures of habit.”
Sal was an insurance salesman for 30 years before becoming a restaurateur.According to the Los Angeles Times.
“My teachers’ conclusion was that I needed a father. I wasn’t a wild teenager, but I was close to it,” he said. The actor pictured with Sal in 1997
Pacino famously danced the tango with Gabrielle Anwar in her Oscar-winning performance in 1992’s Scent of a Woman.
He owned Pacino’s Lounge restaurant and bar in Covina, outside Los Angeles, until he retired in 1991..
Sal’s fifth wife was actress Katherine Kovin-Pacino. She died of a heart attack in 2005.
The memoir comes as Pacino was praised as an “amazing” father by his girlfriend Noor Alfallah, 30, who had their baby last year.
Al is also the father of three other children with two different women: he shares 22-year-old twin daughters Olivia Pacino and Anton James Pacino with Beverly D’Angelo, as well as daughter Julie Pacino, 33, with Jan Tarrant.