Legendary actor Al Pacino is known for roles where was unmistakably resilient and tough.
From Michael Corleone in “The Godfather” to Tony Montana in “Scarface”, Pacino played a tough guy throughout his acting career.
But in an exclusive sit down, Pacino revealed the details of a shocking health scare that he says nearly killed him.
During a recent interview with People magazing to promote his upcoming memoir, “Sonny Boy”, Pacino said he had a near-death experience after a bout of COVID in 2020.
“I thought I experienced death. I might not have. I don’t think I have, really. I know I made it,” Pacino told the outlet.
He continued. “I don’t think I died. Everybody thought I was dead. How could I be dead? If I was dead, I fainted,” he continued. “And when I opened my eyes, there were six paramedics in my living room. There was an ambulance outside the door, and two of my doctors in those space suits [like] on Mars. I looked around and I thought, ‘What happened to me?’”
“So I couldn’t have died, because how did all those people gather together, the ambulance in front of my house?” Pacino said.
Pacino detailed how his assistant, Michael Quinn, realized what a serious situation Pacino was in and called the ambulance.
“[Quinn] got the people coming, because the nurse that was taking care of me said, ‘I don’t feel a pulse on this guy,’” Pacino said. When asked if a brush with death changed his outlook on life, the actor replied, “No, not at all.”
Pacino said of his near-death experience, “I didn’t see the white light or anything. There’s nothing there. As Hamlet says, ‘To be or not to be’; ‘The undiscovered country from whose bourn, no traveler returns.’ And he says two words: ‘No more.’ It was no more.”
“You’re gone. I’d never thought about it in my life. But you know actors: It sounds good to say I died once. What is it when there’s no more?”