Al Pacino to Receive AFI Life Achievement Award

Eight-time Oscar-nominee and two-time Tony Award-winner Al Pacino has been selected by the American Film Institute's (AFI) Board of Trustees to receive the 35th AFI Life Achievement Award, the highest honor for a career in film, it was announced today by Sir Howard Stringer, chair of the AFI Board of Trustees.  The award will be presented to Pacino at a gala tribute in Los Angeles on June 7, 2007.

"I am moved and honored to be considered for such a prestigious award," said Pacino.

"Al Pacino is an icon of American film," said Stringer.  "He has created some of the great characters in the movies -- from Michael Corleone to Tony Montana to Roy Cohn.  His career inspires audiences and artists alike, with each new performance a master class for a generation of actors to follow.  AFI is proud to present him with its 35th Life Achievement Award."

"Al Pacino is that rare combination of consummate craftsman and genuine star," said Bonnie Hammer, President, USA Network and SCI FI Channel.  "We're thrilled to join AFI in a celebration of his outstanding career."

USA Network will broadcast the 35th AFI Life Achievement Award tribute in June, 2007.  Bob Gazzale, who served as executive producer and writer of AFI's Tributes to George Lucas, Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro and Sean Connery, will continue in these roles.

Al Pacino is an eight-time Academy Award nominee.  After having received Best Actor nominations for ... And Justice for All, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico (which also earned him a Golden Globe Award), Pacino won an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance as Lt. Colonel Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman (for which he also won a Golden Globe Award).

He received three nominations as Best Supporting Actor for his roles as Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Dick Tracy (he also won a 1990 American Comedy Award for this role), and in David Mamet's screen adaptation of Glengarry Glen Ross.

In 2005, Pacino starred as Shylock in an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, directed by Michael Radford.  In 2004, he won an Emmy for his portrayal of Roy Cohn in HBO's television adaptation of Tony Kushner's play Angels in America for director Mike Nichols.  Earlier that year he was seen on-stage as King Herod in Oscar Wilde's Salome both off-Broadway in Brooklyn and on Broadway and as Arturo Ui in Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at Pace University.

His other  film credits include Miramax Film's People I Know for director Dan Algrant and Disney's The Recruit, in which he starred with Colin Farrell, as well as Insomnia, Simone, Any Given Sunday, Donnie Brasco, The Devil's Advocate, Two Bits, City Hall, Carlito's Way, The Godfather Part III, Sea of Love, Scarface, and Author! Author!.  He also directed the films Chinese Coffee and Looking for Richard.  He made his film debut in 1971 in The Panic in Needle Park.

After studying with Herbert Berghof and later with Lee Strasberg at the Actor's Studio, Pacino made his professional acting debut in off-Broadway productions of The Connection and Hello, Out There.  He then won an Obie Award for Israel Horovitz's The Indian Wants The Bronx.

Pacino has won two Tony Awards for his starring roles in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel and Does A Tiger Wear A Necktie?  He is a longtime member of David Wheeler's Experimental Theatre Company of Boston, where he has performed in Richard III and in Arturo Ui.  In New York and London, he acted in David Mamet's American Buffalo.  Also in New York, he appeared in Richard III and as Marc Antony in Julius Caesar at the late Joseph Papp's Public Theatre.

During the spring and summer of 1994, Pacino appeared in repertory at Circle in the Square.  He presented the New York debut of Oscar Wilde's Salome and the premiere presentation of Ira Lewis' Chinese Coffee.  He directed and starred in Eugene O'Neill's Hughie, which opened in early July 1996 at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, and moved to Circle in the Square in New York in mid-July where it continued its run through the end of August.

Pacino won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Independent Feature Project (IFP) at their 1996 Gotham Awards.  In 2000, Pacino was honored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. He also received the Cecil B. De Mille Award by the Hollywood Foreign Press in 2001.

In late 2005, Pacino starred as Walter Abrams in Universal's Two for the Money.  In 2006, he reprised his role as King Herod Antipas in Oscar Wilde's Salome at the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles.

The highest honor given for a career in film, the AFI Life Achievement Award was established by the AFI Board of Trustees on February 26, 1973. 

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