Al Pacino, the legendary actor whose screen career spans more than six decades, has been named the 62nd recipient of the SAG-AFTRA Life Achievement Award, the highest honor of the largest actors union. The 86-year-old will be celebrated during the 33rd Actor Awards on Sunday, Feb. 28, 2027, at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall.
Pacino is famous for his performances in films such as The Godfather (1972), Serpico (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), …And Justice for All (1979), Scarface (1983), Scent of a Woman (1992), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), The Insider (1999), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) and The Irishman (2019), and on TV in Angels in America (2003), You Don’t Know Jack (2010) and Phil Spector (2013). He has been awarded an Oscar, two Emmys, two Tonys, the Golden Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille Award, the AFI Life Achievement Award, a Kennedy Center Honor and the National Medal of the Arts.
The SAG-AFTRA Life Achievement Award is given annually to an actor who fosters the “finest ideals of the acting profession.” Past recipients include Eddie Cantor, Stan Laurel, Bob Hope, Barbara Stanwyck, William Gargan, James Stewart, Edward G. Robinson, Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, Frank Sinatra, Martha Raye, Walter Pidgeon, Rosalind Russell, Pearl Bailey, James Cagney, Edgar Bergen, Katharine Hepburn, Leon Ames, Danny Kaye, Ralph Bellamy, Iggie Wolfington, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Nanette Fabray, Red Skelton, Gene Kelly, Jack Lemmon, Brock Peters, Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Ricardo Montalbán, George Burns, Robert Redford, Angela Lansbury, Elizabeth Taylor, Kirk Douglas, Sidney Poitier, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Ed Asner, Clint Eastwood, Karl Malden, James Garner, Shirley Temple, Julie Andrews, Charles Durning, James Earl Jones, Betty White, Ernest Borgnine, Mary Tyler Moore, Dick Van Dyke, Rita Moreno, Debbie Reynolds, Carol Burnett, Lily Tomlin, Morgan Freeman, Alan Alda, Robert De Niro, Helen Mirren, Sally Field, Barbra Streisand, Jane Fonda and Harrison Ford.
SAG-AFTRA president Sean Astin said in a statement, “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.”
Pacino added, “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.”