The armed robbery that never was: How acting almost cost Al Pacino his freedom
There are few actors linked closer to a single genre than Al Pacino and the crime movie, with the legendary star lending his talents to a huge number of features that flirt with either side of the law.
As well as classics like The Godfather trilogy, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Scarface, Heat, and Insomnia, there’s been some real stinkers along the way, including Hangman, Misconduct, Son of No One, and Gigli. Nobody boasts a perfect success rate, then, but the hits and the misses have nonetheless combined to forever associate the Academy Award-winner cinematic cops and criminals.
Marlon Brando once famously offered the young Pacino two key pieces of advice when they worked together on Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 masterpiece, one of which was never to move to Los Angeles. He didn’t manage to do that, but he did at least adhere to the second nugget of wisdom handed down by one of the all-time greats. In a roundabout way.
Brando told Pacino never to end up in court for any misdeeds, which he’s managed to do, but he still managed to get arrested long before he was a household name. He made his stage, television, and feature debuts in three consecutive years between 1967 and 1969, but before that, he’d found himself arrested and placed behind bars for what ultimately amounted to a misunderstanding.
On January 7th,1961, Pacino and his friends Vincent J. Calcagni and Bruce Cohen were pulled over by the Rhode Island police after suspicions had been raised over their vehicle repeatedly circling the same block. When the authorities closed in, they discovered the trio wearing black masks and black gloves, with a loaded pistol stashed in the boot. Immediately handcuffed for carrying a concealed weapon – with their accoutrements giving off the impression some sort of armed robbery was about to take place – Pacino spent three days in jail because he didn’t have the money to pay the $2,000 bail fee.
During questioning, it transpired that the trio were on their way to an audition, and the weapon was a prop gun, although that doesn’t really explain why they were wearing masks and gloves in the car. That was clearly beside the point, though, with the 20-year-old Pacino being released and never formally charged with committing any crimes.
Almost a decade before he gained attention for being one of the most naturally gifted performers of his generation, Pacino evidently favoured the method technique after deciding that there was absolutely no reason why he and his buddies shouldn’t drive around looking very much like criminals in order to get into character ahead of their audition. In the end, it proved to be for nothing when they missed the chance to state their case after being arrested on the way there.
