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of which was attended by Godfather II costar Robert De Niro. During his teenage years 'Sonny', as he was known to his friends, aimed to become a baseball player, though he was also nicknamed 'The Actor' by his friends due to his obvious talents. Pacino flunked nearly all of his classes except English and dropped out of school at the age of 17. His mother disagreed with his decision; they had an argument and he left home. He worked at a string of low-paying jobs, including messenger boy, busboy, janitor, and postal clerk, in order to finance his acting studies. He started smoking at age nine and drinking at age thirteen, but never took hard drugs. His two closest friends died young of drug abuse, at the ages of nineteen and thirty (his friend who died at age 30 had not seen Pacino for some years before he died). Growing up in a deprived area he got into occasional fights, and was something of a minor troublemaker at school. He acted in basement plays in New York's theatrical underground, and then joined the Herbert Berghof Studio (HB Studio), where he met acting teacher Charlie Laughton, who became his mentor and best friend. During this period, he was frequently unemployed and homeless, and sometimes had to sleep on the street, in theaters or at friends' houses. In 1962, his mother died at age 43. The following year, his grandfather, James Gerardi, one of the most influential people in his life, also died.
On the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains, he is one of only two actors to appear on both lists: on the "heroes list" as Frank Serpico and on the "villains list" as Michael Corleone (the other being Arnold Schwarzenegger, for his roles as the Terminator). In 1966, after many previous unsuccessful attempts, he auditioned at The Actors Studio and got accepted. He studied under acting coach Lee Strasberg (who later co-starred with Pacino in the 1974 film The Godfather Part II). During later interviews he spoke about Strasberg and the Studio's effect on his career:
Career
1960s