'Godfather' star Al Pacino to receive life achievement award from actors' guild

Celebrated actor Al Pacino will receive a lifetime achievement award for his career achievements and humanitarian work next year, the actors' union SAG-AFTRA announced on Thursday.

The American actor, best known for playing Michael Corleone in The Godfather films is the 62nd recipient of the SAG-AFTRA Life Achievement Award.

The union will present the award to him in Los Angeles at the 33rd Actor Awards on February 28, 2027, as part of a ceremony to be live-streamed on Netflix. 

Pacino's recognition follows a career spanning more than six decades across film, television and stage. He is known for numerous memorable characters, including real-life police officer Frank Serpico in 1973's Serpico, Miami mobster Tony Montana in 1983's Scarface, and more recently Hollywood agent Marvin Schwarz in Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.

The award is presented annually to an actor who embodies the "finest ideals of the acting profession," according to the union.

"I wondered and wandered most of my life but have always felt at home with a script and my fellow actors," Pacino said in a statement from the actors' union.

"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," he added.

Pacino won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in the 1992 film Scent of a Woman, and has also won multiple Emmy, Tony and Golden Globe awards.

"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," SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin added in the statement.

Pacino also participated in the America: A Tribute to Heroes telethon following the September 11, 2001 attacks, and in 2009 received the Arthritis Foundation's Jane Wyman Humanitarian Award for his charitable work.

The 86-year-old actor was born Alfredo James Pacino in New York. He struggled throughout the 1960s to find steady work before his eventual film breakthrough in 1972's The Godfather.

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, influencers and other entertainment and media professionals.