Al Pacino was born ‘Alfredo James Pacino’ on April 25, 1940. He is an American actor and filmmaker.
Al Pacino was born in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City to Italian-American parents Rose Gerardi and Salvatore Pacino.
His parents divorced when he was two years old. He then moved with his mother to the Bronx to live with her parents, Kate and James Gerardi, who were Italian immigrants from Corleone, Sicily.
Pacino’s father was from San Fratello, Sicily, and moved to work as an insurance salesman and restaurateur in Covina, California.
In his teenage years, Pacino was known as “Sonny” to his friends. He had ambitions to become a baseball player and was also nicknamed “The Actor”.
He attended Herman Ridder Junior High School, but soon dropped out of most of his classes except for English.
He subsequently attended the High School of Performing Arts, after gaining admission by audition. His mother disagreed with his decision and, after an argument, he left home.
To finance his acting studies, Pacino took low-paying jobs as a messenger, busboy, janitor, and postal clerk, as well as once working in the mailroom for Commentary magazine.