Every movie Al Pacino has received an Oscar nomination for
When it comes to naming the greatest actor in Hollywood history, a litany of names is bandied about, from Humphrey Bogart to Marlon Brando, Katharine Hepburn to Meryl Streep, with Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson thrown in for good measure. But more than a few shrewd judges of the acting business plump for one Alfredo Pacino.
Pacino might have had his ups and downs, with more than a few wrong turns along the way. The less said about Cruising, Carlito’s Way and Righteous Kill, the better. But at his very best, particularly in the mid-1970s at the height of his powers, he was beyond compare. And yet, as is so often the case with legends of the silver screen, he didn’t get his dues at the industry’s biggest awards ceremony until he was long past his prime.
As good a performance as Pacino’s Oscar-winning depiction of blind retiree Frank Slade is in the 1992 film Scent of a Woman, it had absolutely nothing on his portrayals of Michael Corleone in the first two Godfather films or of Sonny Wortzik in the non-fiction crime drama Dog Day Afternoon. The sheer intensity of Pacino’s acting while playing these two vastly different characters resounds in the hearts of anyone watching him. Most notably during Corleone’s showdown with Solazzo at a Bronx restaurant in the first Godfather and in Dog Day Afternoon’s “Attica!” scene.
The Godfather was only Pacino’s third film, and it was the first to garner him an Oscar nomination, although there were complaints at the time that he should have been nominated in the lead category alongside Brando instead of as a supporting actor. Three more nominations quickly followed for the true-crime detective thriller Serpico, The Godfather Part II, and his performance as Wortzik. All four nominations came via work with just two directors, Francis Ford Coppola and Sidney Lumet.
After Dog Day Afternoon, though, Pacino had to wait four years for his next nomination and then another 11 years for the next one after that. Incredibly, his portrayal of Tony Montana in Brian De Palma’s Scarface was overlooked altogether by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
So, what else has he been nominated for?
All in all, Pacino has received nine Academy Award nominations – five for ‘Best Actor’ and four for ‘Best Supporting Actor’. Following his string of success in the mid-70s, he was next nominated for playing defence attorney Arthur Kirkland in …And Justice for All. He then had three nominations at the start of the 1990s, for Dick Tracy in 1991, and then two in a single year when he was nominated for playing Richard Roma in Glengarry Glen Ross alongside his win for Scent of a Woman in 1993.
He had to wait almost three decades for a further nomination, which came when he portrayed corrupt union boss Jimmy Hoffa in The Irishman, his first and almost certainly only film with Martin Scorsese. That was probably the last time we’d see Pacino in the running for a competitive Oscar category, and he can feel hard done by not to have collected more than the solitary statuette he has.
But actors like Pacino don’t make films for the awards. When you place Michael Corleone in the Godfather Part II alongside Art Carney’s performance in Harry and Tonto, which beat him to the Oscar, there’s only one winner.
Every Oscar nomination Al Pacino has received:
- 1973 – Michael Corleone in The Godfather – Supporting Actor
- 1974 – Frank Serpico in Serpico – Lead Actor
- 1975 – Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II – Lead Actor
- 1976 – Sonny Wortzik in Dog Day Afternoon – Lead Actor
- 1980 – Arthur Kirkland in …And Justice For All – Lead Actor
- 1991 – Alphonse ‘Big Boy’ Caprice in Dick Tracy – Supporting Actor
- 1993 – Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman – Lead Actor – WON
- 1993 – Richard Roma in Glengary Glen Ross – Supporting Actor
- 2020 – Jimmy Hoffa in The Irishman – Supporting Actor
