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Actos like Pacino a dying breed

Like Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman, Pacino is as enigmatic in real life as he is riveting on the screen. Interviewers have called him the male Greta Garbo -- a man whose elusive nature defies his celebrity status. He practically bares his soul on film, though, a talent that more than makes up for his public mystique.

With three new movies in the past year, Pacino continues to cement his position as a mega-star. In "Two Bits," which was screened at a Chicago festival in October, he plays an elderly man who imparts the lessons of life to his young grandson. The highly-praised "Heat" showcased the one-two punch of De Niro as criminal and Pacino as cop. "City Hall," Pacino's latest film, features him as a Greek-American mayor, wrestling with New York politics.

Among the wide range of roles Pacino has taken, his best have undoubtedly been as a Mafioso/criminal. His performances as Michael Corleone in the timeless "Godfather" trilogy blazed with an intensity that sparked his career. Pacino elevated the portrayal of paranoia to an art form that could rival De Niro's work in "Taxi Driver." In classics like 1975's "Dog Day Afternoon," he played a loony bank robber whose plans to finance his lover's sex change go awry.

As a student of the Method school of acting, Pacino took these characters to such an extreme that he literally became them. During the filming of 1983's "Scarface," Pacino actually spoke with a thick Cuban accent and remained volatile even after the day's shoot. Such psychologically exhausting efforts have definitely paid off. If there is any Pacino persona that has etched itself into memory, it is that of Tony Montana, the drug lord in "Scarface."

Even now, it seems that no one could take on that persona -- pull off the accent, make snorting a mountain of coke believable, lash out at Michelle Pfeiffer -- better than Pacino. The line "Say hallo to mah lil' friend" has become so familiar that Jim Carrey even uses it in "Ace Ventura 2," when he threatens the bad guys with a skunk instead of a machine gun.

During Pacino's 30-year career, some runts have balanced out his impressive litter of work, including the 1985 period epic "Revolution" and the embarrassing "Frankie and Johnny." He got back into the swing with a surprising romantic lead alongside Ellen Barkin in 1989's "Sea of Love," and 1990's semi-entertaining "Dick Tracy."

By the time 1993 rolled around, Pacino had a long-overdue Oscar on the shelf for his passionate performance as Frank Slade in "Scent of a Woman." When "Carlito's Way" followed that same year, it was clear that Pacino was in his element playing a deeply conflicted gangster.

So what's next for the tireless actor? Twentieth Century Fox will release "Looking for Richard," an exploration of Shakespeare and his play "Richard III," in the spring. Pacino has poured tons of money into the film, which has been his pet project for the past four years. Apparently, when Pacino gets involved in something, he means business.