Pacino recieves lifetime achievement award

US actor Al Pacino made grand speeches on screen as Michael Corleone and Tony Montana, but when the actor was honoured with the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award, he was practically speechless.

“I need a character,” the 67-year-old actor said in Los Angeles, overwhelmed with emotion. “I don’t think of myself as being able to do anything.”

Pacino did not have to say much, though. A host of Hollywood heavyweights - including Oliver Stone, Kirk Douglas, Andy Garcia and Robin Williams – did most of the talking when Pacino was presented his award at the Kodak Theatre.

“The depth of your artistry is only more overwhelmed by the generosity of your spirit and your warmth,” said Garcia, who worked with Pacino on “The Godfather: Part III.” “You’re Van Gogh. You’re Modigliani. That’s who you are.”

The three-hour dinner programme featured clips from Pacino’s most famous films, including The Godfather, Scarface, “Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico and Scent of a Woman.

Pacino plays a cut-throat casino owner in his latest film Ocean’s Thirteen which opened in US cinemas today.

“Seeing my life in the movies, I have one question,” Pacino said. “And that is: Why aren’t I in rehab?”

Growing up in New York, Pacino discovered acting at an early age.

“By age three, I was doing Al Jolson,” he said, referring to the singer-actor who starred in the first feature film with sound. “I found, in the theatre, this place I could go to. I found this peace.”

The two-time Tony Award winner has been nominated for eight Academy Awards. He won for his role as Lt. Col. Frank Slade in the 1992 film Scent of a Woman.

He was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996 by the Independent Feature Project. The Hollywood Foreign Press presented Pacino with its Cecil B. De Mille Award at the Golden Globes ceremony in 2001.

Pacino’s sister, Roberta, said her brother always loved performing. She was present to celebrate his career, which has spanned nearly four decades.

“He’s one of the greatest artists who ever lived, according to me,” she said.

Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx, who worked with Pacino on Any Given Sunday, called him “the greatest actor in the world”.

Stone, who wrote 1983’s Scarface, lauded the actor’s “wicked sense of humour” and “great, if misunderstood, heart”.

“It is with great love and respect that I say goodnight to the bad guy,” he said, recalling one of Pacino’s famous Scarface lines.

Pacino is the 35th recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award. Past honourees include Sean Connery, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Elizabeth Taylor, Alfred Hitchcock, Bette Davis and Jack Nicholson.