Everything We Know About Al Pacino's Major Money Problems

There's no question that Al Pacino has had an incredible film career, acting in dozens of movies over several decades. However, if you assume that his on-screen success has translated into consistent financial success, you'd be wrong; what you don't know about Pacino is that he has faced numerous major money problems over the years, and those problems have even influenced some of his career decisions. 

For example, of all the roles Pacino has played, "The Godfather" character Michael Corleone is among his most memorable. Although the star famously turned down a role in Star Wars, he jumped at the chance to reprise Corleone's character for a third time in 1990. Sadly, this decision wasn't based on a desire to see Corleone back on the big screen; Pacino sorely needed income. As the actor explained in his memoir, "Sonny Boy" (via People), he and director Francis Ford Coppola were in the same unfortunate boat: "The choice [to make "The Godfather: Part III"] could not have been easier. I was broke. Francis was broke. We both needed the bread." But how could such a well-known actor end up virtually penniless? Here, we'll break down what we know about Pacino's unfortunate financial history. 

Understanding your personal finances can be a difficult process, and financial literacy doesn't come naturally to most people. While this can lead to money troubles for anyone, these problems are extremely magnified for those with a net worth like Al Pacino. Lavish spending can easily burn through hundreds of thousands of dollars, and poor record-keeping makes tracking those purchases an uphill battle for many celebrities. As Pacino explained to The New York Times, his lack of financial literacy led him to neglect managing his money: "I'm the kind of person that if I don't understand something very well, I just avoid it."

Even with a nudge from someone close to him, Pacino's attitude toward money didn't change for the better. In his memoir, Pacino credits ex-girlfriend Diane Keaton for trying to help him improve his money management. For example, although Pacino explains in his memoir (via Newsweek) that Keaton insulted his intelligence in the process, he says the actress was ultimately standing up for his best interests when telling his entertainment lawyer: "When it comes to [finances], you've got to take care of him." Her intervention kept him from losing his fortune at the time, but his lack of follow-through with building his financial literacy eventually led to bigger problems. 

Unfortunately, Al Pacino's habit of being in the dark about his finances made it easy for people to profit off of his hard-earned money. In describing how people took advantage of his generosity in "Sonny Boy" (via Business Insider), Pacino wrote: "The door was wide open, and people who I didn't know were living off me. It was 'Come one, come all! Al's got it and he doesn't care!'" He then goes on to describe a jaw-dropping list of expenses he was incurring for other people's benefit, including nearly two dozen cell phone bills and  payments for sixteen car loans. According to Pacino, even some of his hired help were taking advantage: "The landscaper was getting $400,000 a year and, mind you, that was for landscaping at a house I didn't even live in."

These outlandish expenses alone would be enough to burn through anyone's fortune, but Pacino's problems didn't end with people helping themselves to a piece of the pie. Even the actor's trusted accountant was on the take, swindling clients through a Ponzi scheme that eventually earned him a 7.5-year prison stint. The accountant's shady business practices caused Pacino's savings to run dry back in 2011, reducing it from a high of approximately $50 million down to essentially nothing. As Pacino wrote in his memoir, the position he found himself in was unbearable for someone in his industry: "There's almost nothing worse for a famous person – there's being dead, and then there's being broke." Hopefully, his long history of money troubles has taught Pacino some valuable lessons about the importance of managing his wealth.