When one thinks of iconic American actors, Al Pacino is one of the first names that comes to mind. The actor has won accolades and nominations nearly too numerous to count and young actors recount almost as a religious experience the honor of gracing the screen with him. Pacino was born in 1940 in the Bronx, and struggled early on in his career, dropping out of school and working hack jobs to support his acting studies. In 1966, after numerous try-outs, Pacino was accepted into The Actor’s Studio and studied under Lee Strasberg, creator of the Method Approach.

Pacino worked steadily in theater (and barely scraped by) before he began to score starring roles and awards (an Obie and a Tony) and eventually moved into film. His best-known role is that of Michael Corleone in “The Godfather” trilogy, a part that he won over the likes of Robert Redford and Robert De Niro even though he was a relatively unknown film actor at the time. Pacino has created other iconic characters in films such as “Scarface,” “Scent of a Woman,” and “Heat,” roles that surely cement him as a standout in the history of American cinema.