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Here is the press release:
Legendary actor Al Pacino has been named the 62nd recipient of SAG-AFTRA’s highest honor: the SAG-AFTRA Life Achievement Award for his career and humanitarian accomplishments. Pacino will be presented with the union’s top tribute at The 33rd Annual Actor Awards Presented by SAG-AFTRA®, which will stream live on Netflix Sunday, February 28, 2027, at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT from the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall.
Given annually to an actor who fosters the “finest ideals of the acting profession,” the SAG-AFTRA Life Achievement Award will be the latest recognition in Pacino’s extraordinary career spanning more than six decades. Across film, television and the stage, Pacino has captivated audiences with transformative performances, creating some of the most memorable characters in entertainment history and has profoundly influenced generations of actors and culture itself.
Defined by iconic roles and an unwavering commitment to acting, Pacino’s legacy places him squarely among the most celebrated performers of all time. His work has been recognized with an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Actor Awards. He has also received the AFI Life Achievement Award, the Golden Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille Award, a Kennedy Center Honor, a Venice Career Golden Lion and numerous other accolades.
SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin said, “Like so many actors, I have spent my life in awe and appreciation of the force of nature that is Al Pacino. When you watch him perform, you are witnessing a student and a master. 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. SAG-AFTRA is proud to celebrate Al Pacino with our union’s highest honor.”
Al 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. It’s an honor to be recognized by SAG-AFTRA in celebrating the journey”
Film
Pacino’s film career began with a brief appearance in Me, Natalie (1969), followed by his first major film role in The Panic in Needle Park (1971). His breakthrough came the following year when Francis Ford Coppola cast him as Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972). The performance earned Pacino his first Academy Award nomination and established him as one of the defining actors of his generation. He reprised the role in The Godfather Part II (1974) and The Godfather Part III (1990).
Throughout the 1970s, Pacino delivered a succession of acclaimed performances, starring opposite Gene Hackman in the Palme d’Or-winning Scarecrow (1973) and earning Best Actor Academy Award nominations for Serpico (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and …And Justice for All (1979). His portrayal of Tony Montana in Brian De Palma’s Scarface (1983) became another career-defining role, with the film and character achieving enduring cultural significance.
Following a four-year hiatus from film starting in 1985, Pacino returned in Sea of Love (1989). He received an Academy Award nomination for his performance as Big Boy Caprice in Dick Tracy (1990). He made history in 1993 as the first male actor to receive two acting nominations for two different films in the same year, receiving a nomination for his performance in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) and winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman (1992).
Pacino’s extensive filmography also includes Frankie and Johnny (1991), Carlito’s Way (1993), Heat (1995), Looking for Richard (1996), The Devil’s Advocate (1997), Donnie Brasco (1997), The Insider (1999), Any Given Sunday (1999), Insomnia (2002), The Merchant of Venice (2004), Ocean’s Thirteen (2007), Danny Collins (2015), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), House of Gucci (2021) and Knox Goes Away (2023).
In 2019, Pacino portrayed Jimmy Hoffa in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, marking his first collaboration with the director and earning him his ninth Academy Award nomination.
His recent work includes Modì, Three Days on the Wing of Madness (2024), which he also co-produced, The Ritual (2025), Billy Knight (2025), Dead Man’s Wire (2025), In the Hand of Dante (2025), Easy’s Waltz (2025) and Killing Castro (2026).
Television
Pacino made his television debut in a 1968 episode of the ABC series N.Y.P.D. Decades later, he delivered one of his most acclaimed television performances as attorney Roy Cohn in HBO’s Angels in America (2003), adapted from Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play. The role earned Pacino a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and his first Actor Award.
In 2010, Pacino portrayed physician-assisted-suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian in the HBO biographical film You Don’t Know Jack. His performance earned him a second Primetime Emmy Award, another Golden Globe and his second Actor Award. He returned to HBO in Phil Spector (2013), portraying the record producer during his murder trial, and in Paterno (2018), in which he played former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno.
In 2020, Pacino made his episodic-series debut as Nazi hunter Meyer Offerman in the Amazon Prime Video drama Hunters. He starred in both seasons of the series, continuing a television career defined by complex portrayals of consequential and often controversial real-life and fictional figures.
Theater
Pacino began establishing himself on the stage in the 1960s. In 1967, he spent a season at Boston’s Charles Playhouse, appearing in Clifford Odets’ Awake and Sing! and Jean-Claude van Itallie’s America Hurrah. The following year, he starred as Murph in Israel Horovitz’s The Indian Wants the Bronx at the Astor Place Theatre. His performance earned him an Obie Award for Best Actor.
Pacino made his Broadway debut in 1969 in Don Petersen’s Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, earning critical acclaim and his first Tony Award. He received a second Tony Award for The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel and further distinguished himself onstage in the title role of Richard III and in David Mamet’s American Buffalo.
His subsequent stage work has included productions and revivals of Julius Caesar, Hughie, Salome, Orphans, and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. In 2010, Pacino starred as Shylock in Shakespeare in the Park’s acclaimed production of The Merchant of Venice, which transferred to Broadway and earned him another Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Play. He later returned to Broadway in the 30th-anniversary revival of Glengarry Glen Ross and in David Mamet’s China Doll, a play written for him. This year, Shakespeare’s Globe honored Pacino with the Sam Wanamaker Award in recognition of his contributions to theater and film, particularly his acclaimed interpretations of Shakespeare.
Activism & Philanthropy
Pacino’s humanitarian efforts have extended to disaster relief and global advocacy. Pacino participated in the 2001 America: A Tribute to Heroes telethon supporting victims and families affected by the September 11 attacks, the ONE Campaign’s 2005 Make Poverty History initiative addressing extreme poverty, hunger and AIDS, and a 2012 public service campaign supporting Hurricane Sandy relief. In 2023, he revisited his celebrated “inch by inch” speech from Any Given Sunday for the Halftime campaign, calling attention to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
He has lent his talents to numerous benefit productions. His continued support of the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles has included benefit presentations in which he reprised his roles as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and the title role in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, as well as Al Pacino Live on Stage, a career retrospective and audience conversation. The 2012 premiere of his documentary-drama Wilde Salomé also benefited the GLBT Historical Society.
In recognition of his history of charitable giving and support for those affected by arthritis, Pacino received the Southern California Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation’s Jane Wyman Humanitarian Award in 2009. His decades of support have reflected an enduring commitment to the arts, education, humanitarian relief and social causes.
About SAG-AFTRA
SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists and other entertainment and media professionals. SAG-AFTRA members are the faces and voices that entertain and inform America and the world. A proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO, SAG-AFTRA has national offices in Los Angeles and New York and local offices nationwide representing members working together to secure the strongest protections for entertainment and media artists into the 21st century and beyond. Visit SAG-AFTRA online at SAGAFTRA.org.
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