Al Pacino: Sonny Boy

From one of the most iconic actors in the history of film, an astonishingly revelatory account of a creative life in full

To the wider world, Al Pacino exploded onto the scene like a supernova. He landed his first leading role, in The Panic in Needle Park, in 1971, and by 1975, he had starred in four movies—The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon—that were not just successes but landmarks in the history of film. Those performances became legendary and changed his life forever. Not since Marlon Brando and James Dean in the late 1950s had an actor landed in the culture with such force.

But Pacino was in his midthirties by then, and had already lived several lives. A fixture of avant-garde theater in New York, he had led a bohemian existence, working odd jobs to support his craft. He was raised by a fiercely loving but mentally unwell mother and her parents after his father left them when he was young, but in a real sense he was raised by the streets of the South Bronx, and by the troop of buccaneering young friends he ran with, whose spirits never left him. After a teacher recognized his acting promise and pushed him toward New York’s fabled High School of Performing Arts, the die was cast. In good times and bad, in poverty and in wealth and in poverty again, through pain and joy, acting was his lifeline, its community his tribe. 

Sonny Boy is the memoir of a man who has nothing left to fear and nothing left to hide. All the great roles, the essential collaborations, and the important relationships are given their full due, as is the vexed marriage between creativity and commerce at the highest levels. The book’s golden thread, however, is the spirit of love and purpose. Love can fail you, and you can be defeated in your ambitions—the same lights that shine bright can also dim. But Al Pacino was lucky enough to fall deeply in love with a craft before he had the foggiest idea of any of its earthly rewards, and he never fell out of love. That has made all the difference.

Review

“Pacino’s high energy proves to be as mesmerizing in print as it is onscreen. Sonny Boy is a page-turner that allows the reader to experience the struggles, inspirations, tragedies, and triumphs of an artist from humble beginnings who becomes infatuated with ‘the power of expression’ at a very young age . . . So touchingly reflective that [it] left me in tears.” —The Washington Examiner

“A movie superstar of rare stature . . . In Sonny Boy, Mr. Pacino still sounds like the actor who dazzled in his heyday. The book, written with Dave Itzkoff, preserves Mr. Pacino’s personality, with all his intelligence, his wit and his eagerness to talk about the theater history he loves.” —Farran Smith Nehme, Wall Street Journal
 
“At its best, reading [Sonny Boy] feels like pulling up a stool next to the actor as he unspools one anecdote after another . . . A glimpse into the idiosyncratic mind of our most mercurial movie star, who’s more than happy to wax poetic about the lifesaving qualities of Chekhov or to share his imagined conversations with Bertolt Brecht.” —Chris Stanton, Vulture
 
“Startlingly cinematic . . . A fine memoir. From fish out of water to Hollywood star, the method actor traces his path to success, spending as much time on the films that flopped as the greatest hits.” —The Guardian

“[Sonny Boy] is a spectacular book. This is the best autobiography I can remember reading.” —Conan O’Brien, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend

“Reading Sonny Boy, you get the feel of something restless and almost nameless—until it coheres, white-hot, at the moment of dramatic expression. The moment of ignition . . . ‘The profession of acting,’ Strasberg said, ‘the basic art of acting, is a monstrous thing because it is done with the same flesh-and-blood muscles with which you perform ordinary deeds, real deeds.’ Sonny Boy gives us the Pacino of ordinary deeds, bumbling around and having his experiences, and we see that he is in service—in thrall—to Pacino the actor. And if a certain fuzziness or impressionism attends his memories, well, we get it: He doesn’t want to violate, with too much insight, the precious mystery at the core of his craft. Doesn’t want to compromise who he is when he’s listening to Beethoven.” —James Parker, The Atlantic
 
“Discursively soulful . . .  Reading Sonny Boy often feels like hanging out within a history of American movies over the last 50 years . . .  Shot through with what certainly feels like self-deprecating honesty to go with the well-worn Pacino swagger.” —Chris Vognar, Los Angeles Times

About the Author

Actor and director Al Pacino is a unique and enduring figure in the world of American stage and film. He grew up in New York City’s South Bronx, attended the High School of Performing Arts, and studied acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio with Charles F. Laughton and the Actors Studio with mentor Lee Strasberg.  

He has been nominated for the Academy Award nine times, for movies including The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, The Godfather: Part II, and The Irishman, and won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1992 for Scent of a Woman. He has been nominated for nineteen Golden Globe Awards and won four; three Tony Awards and won two; and three Emmy Awards and won two. He has won one prestigious Obie Award.

Pacino is a Kennedy Center Honoree and has been awarded the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, the National Medal of Arts from President Obama, and the Golden Globe's Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement.