In October, Al Pacino will issue a „revealing” book
The actor’s debut autobiography, Sonny Boy, will discuss his New York origins, Hollywood career, and ideas about „love and purpose.”
According to a press release from the publisher, the book is the „memoir of a man who has nothing left to fear and nothing left to hide.” Penguin Random House published it. „The complex union of creative and commerce at the highest levels is given its due, as are all the great positions, the crucial collaborations, and the significant relationships.”
“The book’s golden thread, however, is the spirit of love and purpose,” the statement continued. “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.”
The 83-year-old actor’s biography will discuss his early years in New York, his time at New York’s famed High School of Performing Arts, his upbringing with his „fiercely loving but mentally unwell mother and her parents,” and his group of youthful pals in the South Bronx. After that, it will discuss his involvement with New York’s avant-garde theater movement in the 1960s and 1970s, leading up to his big screen debut in the early 1970s with Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, The Godfather, and The Godfather Part II.
“I wrote Sonny Boy to express what I’ve seen and been through in my life,” Pacino said in a statement. “It has been an incredibly personal and revealing experience to reflect on this journey and what acting has allowed me to do and the worlds it has opened up. My whole life has been a moonshot, and I’ve been a pretty lucky guy so far.”
Years have passed while writing the memoir. The full book proposal made its debut at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2022. In a rumored $5 million agreement, Penguin Random House purchased the rights from CAA, a prominent Hollywood talent agency. At the time, reports compared the book to Bruce Springsteen’s much awaited and well-received 2016 memoir, Born to Run, and stated that it would tackle important concepts of life, art, and mortality.
The crew behind Will Smith’s best-selling 2021 memoir Will, which he co-wrote with Mark Manson, the author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, handled Pacino’s memoir, according to Page Six.
In recent interviews, Pacino has also talked about the memoir writing process. „When you reach that age, you begin to act in that way. I avoided it, but I feel like I need to sort of talk about some things,” he stated in April 2023 at a public discussion held at the 92nd Street Y in New York. He said, „It’s okay, I have kids and everything, it would be a good idea, and I’m working on it,” pointing out that his co-author was present. The actor is the father of three grown children: Julie, a daughter of his former partner Jan Tarrant, and Antonand Olivia, twins of his former partner Beverly D’Angelo. He also has a newborn son named Roman, who wasborn in June 2023 to his current partner, 29-year-old Noor Alfallah.
Although this is Pacino’s first autobiography, this is not his first book as the Scarface actor. Al Pacino: In Conversation with Lawrence Grobel, which was published in 2006, included the actor in a book that described 25 years of interviews between Pacino and the journalist Grobel. Grobel also wrote books with Ava Gardner and producer Robert Evans.
Photo source: Penguin Random House
