Al Pacino will receive the SAG-AFTRA Life Achievement Award, presented Feb. 28 at the 33rd annual Actor Awards in Los Angeles.
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Al Pacino has been named the next recipient of the SAG-AFTRA Life Achievement Award, the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists announced Thursday.
The 86-year-old actor is the 62nd recipient of the award, which SAG-AFTRA says is its highest honour.
Pacino is expected to pick up the prize on Feb. 28 at the 33rd annual Actor Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
The show will stream live on Netflix.
In a statement, Pacino said, “I wondered and wandered most of my life but have always felt at home with a script and my fellow actors. It’s the work and the actors along the way that have been among the greatest joys of my life,” adding, “It’s an honor to be recognized by SAG-AFTRA in celebrating the journey.”
The award also honours humanitarian work. SAG-AFTRA cited Pacino’s charitable efforts for disaster relief, fighting hunger and poverty, and his support for local theatre companies, including the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles.
Born in New York, Pacino rose from stage work to screen after Francis Ford Coppola cast him as Michael Corleone in 1972’s The Godfather, a role Pacino took on “against the wishes of a studio that wanted an established star” in the part.
He went on to receive Oscar nominations for the Corleone role and won later for Scent of a Woman, earning best actor in 1993. He has been nominated nine times overall, most recently in 2020 for The Irishman.
SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin said Pacino’s performances show “a student and a master,” adding, “Al Pacino is an artist of extraordinary courage, intensity and heart whose work has always set an exceptional standard of skill and talent. All of that and he’s just plain fun to watch.”
The SAG-AFTRA Life Achievement Award dates to 1962. Previous recipients include Barbara Stanwyck, James Stewart, Pearl Bailey, Frank Sinatra, James Cagney, Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Paul Newman, James Earl Jones, Jane Fonda and Harrison Ford.
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