Sonny Boy
Read an extract
  • Published: 15 October 2024
  • ISBN: 9781529912623
  • Imprint: Century
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $60.00

Sonny Boy

A Memoir

Formats & editions
Hardback
15 Oct 2024
EBook
24 Oct 2024
Audiobook
24 Oct 2024
Buy from…
The Nile Mighty Ape BookHub Whitcoulls The Warehouse Paper Plus Fishpond Book Hero Unity Books University Book Shop Find Local Retailers

The long-awaited memoir of the legendary actor, for readers of Keith Richards’ LIFE and Bruce Springsteen’s BORN TO RUN

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 mid thirties 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.

_________________________________________________________________________

Praise for Al Pacino:

‘Al Pacino is magical’ Martin Scorsese

‘A legend’ Francis Ford Coppola

‘So unique and special’ Robert De Niro

‘A singular, special talent, whose work stands the test of time’ Robin Williams

‘A wicked sense of humour’ Oliver Stone

‘Charming, hilarious, a nonstop talker. There is an aspect of him that is like a lost orphan, like this kind of crazy idiot savant’ Diane Keaton

‘As Michael in The Godfather, Pacino was everything I wanted that character to be on screen. I couldn’t believe it. It was, in my eyes, a perfect performance, a work of art’ Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather

‘Comedic, talented, and certifiably insane’ Johnny Depp

‘Al is money, the man in charge, making it happen. I got to act with Al Pacino and it was worth more to me than anything’ Samuel L Jackson

‘A marvellous actor and man’ Sean Connery

‘The depth of Al Pacino's artistry is only more overwhelmed by the generosity of his spirit and his warmth. Al Pacino is Van Gogh. Modigliani' Andy Garcia

‘The greatest actor in the world’ Jamie Foxx
  • Published: 15 October 2024
  • ISBN: 9781529912623
  • Imprint: Century
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $60.00
Categories:
Share…

About the author

Al Pacino

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 School of Performing Art, and studied acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio with Charles 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 the Golden Globe Award nineteen times, and won four, and has been nominated for three Tonys and won two.


Pacino has been awarded the Kennedy Center Honor, the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, the National Merit of Arts from President Obama, and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement in Motion Pictures.

portrait photo of Al Pacino

Praise for Sonny Boy

Praise for Al Pacino

:

‘Al Pacino is magical’

Martin Scorsese

‘A legend’

Francis Ford Coppola

‘So unique and special’

Robert De Niro

‘A singular, special talent, whose work stands the test of time’

Robin Williams

‘A wicked sense of humour’

Oliver Stone

‘Charming, hilarious, a nonstop talker. There is an aspect of him that is like a lost orphan, like this kind of crazy idiot savant’

Diane Keaton

‘As Michael in The Godfather, Pacino was everything I wanted that character to be on screen. I couldn’t believe it. It was, in my eyes, a perfect performance, a work of art’

Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather

‘Comedic, talented, and certifiably insane’

Johnny Depp

‘Al is money, the man in charge, making it happen. I got to act with Al Pacino and it was worth more to me than anything’

Samuel L Jackson

‘A marvellous actor and man’

Sean Connery

‘The depth of Al Pacino's artistry is only more overwhelmed by the generosity of his spirit and his warmth. Al Pacino is Van Gogh. Modigliani'

Andy Garcia

‘The greatest actor in the world’

Jamie Foxx

"Soulful…Pacino explores his life with eccentric charm…Shot through with self-deprecating honesty to with the well-worn Pacino swagger…You can almost hear him saying all of this in recognizably Pacino-like tones…Pacino has done such a high volume of great work that reading ‘Sonny Boy; often feels like hanging out within a history of American movies over the last 50 years.'"

LA Times

'Conversational, breezily readable, reflective…Dives deep into Pacino’s career highlights and low points'

Washington Post

‘The book is a beautiful trip … (from) one of the world’s greatest, most influential actors for more than 50 years. He’s audacious. He’s outrageous. He’s Al Pacino’

The New York Times

‘A 5 ft 7in Hollywood giant … Al Pacino’s readably eccentric memoir really preserves his Bronx-reared turn of phrase… The Godfather star recalls his tough childhood, turbulent romances and how he burnt through a $50 million fortune’

The Times

'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'

Guardian

'Surprising, introspective ... His youth was grim, his money troubles serious, his fame unlikely. Al Pacino's friends all died in poverty. How did he survive?'

Telegraph

‘Godfather fans will love this … Pacino is refreshingly honest'

inews

'Funny and candid'

Evening Standard

'A beautiful…brilliant book'

Dermot O’Leary

'This disarmingly frank memoir by one of our greatest actors has the remarkable effect of making a larger-than-life figure feel more human than ever'

Empire Magazine