April 25
Alfredo James Pacino's Birthday
 

It’s only the highest echelon of Hollywood actors that become household names. And it’s only the very uppermost of those who are known on simply a last-name basis - the true royalty of film. Pacino is one of those elite. 

To invoke the name of Al Pacino, born on April 25, 1940, is to summon images of both brutish cops and elegant criminals, both the high and the low, and some of cinema’s biggest, most enduring characters. No one plays a villain quite like Pacino; no one makes them as seductive or terrifying. 

After a tough early life involving casual drug use and deaths in the family, Pacino started on the stage in New York, earning a couple of Tony Awards and critical acclaim. From there, Pacino made the transition to theatre, where his 1971 performance in The Panic in Needle Park caught the eye of Francis Ford Coppola, the director of the soon-to-be-classic The Godfather. 

The Godfather Part II, Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon continued a string of accolades and Oscar nominations. It was 1983’s Scarface, however, that would come to define his career. Pacino’s searing performance as the violent, profane gangster Tony Montana shocked and enthralled viewers and firmly secured Pacino’s place in the pantheon of Silver Screen deities. 

For all his roles – cops, coke fiends, and even Satan Himself – many will always remember Pacino for his breakout role – Michael Corleone, the tragic antihero of The Godfather. Pacino shows the transformation of Michael as he is at first reluctant to enter the family’s (mob) business, but gradually becomes ensnared until he is running the entire operation. Of his performance in Part II, Newsweek said that it is “arguably cinema’s greatest portrayal of the hardening of a heart.” In honor of his tour-de-force, make a meal that would give any Sicilian agita – the good kind, of course – with The Godfather’s spaghetti sauce.

in 1973, Glamour Magazine feature this recipe based on a scene in the film  "Heh, come over here, kid, learn something. You never know, you might have to cook for 20 guys someday. You see, you start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste, you fry it; ya make sure it doesn't stick. You get it to a boil; you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs; heh? And a little bit o' wine. An' a little bit o' sugar, and that's my trick." --- Clemenza in The Godfather.
 

 The Godfather’s Spaghetti Sauce.