12 things we learned about al pacino, 84, from his new memoir ‘sonny boy’ | members only

Al Pacino, 84, came from a gritty childhood in the South Bronx to establish himself as one of the most iconic film stars. In his new memoir, _Sonny Boy_, the intense, brooding actor details

his passion for his craft and not-always-smooth rise to the Hollywood A-List — including how he landed and nearly lost his defining role as Michael Corleone in 1972’s _The Godfather_.  Here

are 12 things we learned about Pacino from his new book:  1. HIS UPBRINGING AS AN ONLY CHILD WAS HIGHLY UNSTABLE Pacino’s parents split up when he was two, and he barely knew his father. His

anxious mother, Rose, attempted suicide when he was six, and when he was 22 she died after choking on pills. It’s not clear whether she intended to kill herself, Pacino writes: “When drugs

are involved, people often die when they don’t intend to kill themselves. I don’t know that she did. I’d like to give my mother that benefit of the doubt, that dignity, to be fair to her

memory.” His maternal grandparents, with whom he lived in a walk-up tenement, offered him crucial emotional stability. 2. HE FELT DESTINED TO BE AN ACTOR Pacino showed so much acting promise

in junior high school plays that a teacher scaled the five flights of his tenement to tell his grandmother, “This boy must be allowed to continue to act. This is his future.” After

performing in a series of school productions, he writes, “I must have been ok at [acting], because a guy came up to me after one performance and said, ‘Hey, kid, you’re the next Marlon

Brando!’ I looked at him and said, ‘Who’s Marlon Brando?’” 3. PACINO CHEATED DEATH MORE THAN ONCE Around the age of ten, he was “ice skating” in sneakers on the frozen Bronx River, leaping

in the air like a dancer and showing off for his friend Jesus. Then the surface broke and he fell into the frigid waters, unable to crawl out. “I think I would have drowned that day if it

wasn’t for Jesus Diaz,” who pulled him to safety with a stick, Pacino writes. He also says he almost died when he had COVID a few years ago: “I didn’t have a pulse.” 4. HE WASN’T GREAT AT

NON-ACTING JOBS Before stardom, Pacino couldn’t seem to keep any job for long. He was fired as a busboy for eating leftovers while clearing tables (“that’s how hungry I was”), let go as a

moving man for wandering off into an office Christmas party (“I was having a little food, sipping a Scotch, and flirting with a couple of girls”), and dismissed as a Carnegie Hall usher for

seating people in the wrong rows (“I always felt, who cares where you sit when you go to the movies or a play or a concert?”).