Al Pacino names the most overlooked actor in history: “He didn’t get credit for any of it”
Having already established himself as one of the all-time greats by the end of the 1970s, nobody was ever going to call Al Pacino overlooked, unsung, or underrated for the rest of his career.
What made it even more remarkable was that he only made his feature debut in 1969, and yet, within ten years, he was an icon. Stars come and go, but Pacino repeatedly proved he was no flash in the pan by consistently delivering performances right out of the top drawer and reaping the rewards and adulation that come with it.
In that period alone, he dominated the screen in Scarecrow, the first two entries in The Godfather trilogy, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Bobby Deerfield, and …And Justice for All. He only made eight movies in the 1970s, but he was incredible in all of them, even when the film itself couldn’t quite match up to what he was bringing to the table.
For those pictures, Pacino notched five Academy Award nominations, won a Bafta from three nods, and claimed a Golden Globe from five nominations. Three of them made the shortlist for ‘Best Picture’, and Francis Ford Coppola’s pair of seminal crime stories won the biggest prize in the industry, placing Pacino right on top of the world.
He became a friend and peer of Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Paul Newman, and countless more icons of the silver screen, and they were all major stars. That’s not a position that every actor is fortunate enough to attain, and Pacino knew exactly which name deserved to be placed on the same pedestal as those legends.
“John Cazale, in general, was one of the great actors of our time. That time, any time,” he told the New York Times. “I learned so much from him. I had done a lot of theatre and three films with him. He was inspiring. He just was. And he didn’t get credit for any of it. He was in five films, all Oscar-nominated films, and he was great in all of them. He was particularly great in Godfather II, and I don’t think he got that kind of recognition.”
As far as filmography goes, Cazale’s is undoubtedly one of the greatest ever in terms of quality. If he hadn’t passed away from cancer in March 1978 at the age of only 42, then there’s a very high chance he’d be remembered as the single finest character actor in history. As it stands, though, he’s still right up there despite his sparse filmography.
The Godfather, The Conversation, Dog Day Afternoon, The Godfather Part II, and The Deer Hunter were the only movies Cazale starred in. Three ‘Best Picture’ winners, another two nominees, and he was reliably excellent in all of them. Pacino remains adamant that he was among the best of the best without ever getting the acknowledgement he deserved, and it’s a difficult point to argue against.
