Al Pacino credits his success to his mother who died from overdose

Los Angeles, August 29

Hollywood superstar Al Pacino has given the credit for his Oscar-winning success to his troubled mother.

His mother died from an overdose when he was 22. He also revealed that his mother didn't want him to act, reports ‘Mirror.co.uk'.

The ‘Godfather' star, 84, was brought up by Rose and his grandparents in The Bronx after his mom and dad divorced when he was two. The actor said that she inadvertently shaped his career by taking him to the movies.

As per ‘Mirror.co.uk', the actor recalled a suicide attempt by Rose when he was six and later her death from an overdose in 1962, in an excerpt from his new book ‘Sonny Boy: A Memoir' published in The New Yorker this week.

The star also says he lost friends to drugs. Rose also saved him from a life of crime growing up in New York. He titled the book after the nickname his mom gave him, which came from the popular song by Al Jolson.

Al Pacino, whose other acclaimed movies include ‘Scarface' and ‘Dog Day Afternoon', wrote, “My mother was a beautiful woman but she was emotionally fragile. She would occasionally visit a psychiatrist when Grandad had the money to pay. I wasn't aware that my mother was having problems until one day when I was six years old and getting ready to go out and play”.

“I was sitting in a chair in the kitchen while my mother laced up my shoes and put a sweater on me, and I noticed that she was crying. I wondered what the matter was but I didn't know how to ask. She was kissing me all over and right before I left she gave me a great big hug”, he added.

He described how, from an early age, she would take him to the cinema and he began to run the characters' lines through his head. However, they eventually clashed over his desire to become an actor and he left home after dropping out of classes in favour of acting. He attended the High School of Performing Arts after getting in via an audition.