Al Pacino Opens Up On Facing Death During His COVID-19 Fight

Al Pacino opened up about his harrowing near-death experience during his battle with COVID-19, shedding light on the profound impact the virus had on his life.

The legendary "Godfather" actor recounted the fear and uncertainty he faced as he navigated the severe symptoms, revealing how the ordeal changed his perspective on health and mortality.

In his upcoming memoir "Sonny Boy," set to be released on October 15, Al Pacino takes readers inside the challenges he faced in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When promoting his new memoir, the Oscar-winning actor recounted his harrowing experience of contracting the virus, during which he briefly lost his pulse.

“I was sitting there in my house, and I was gone," he told The New York Times. "I didn’t have a pulse. Everybody thought I was dead.”

Within minutes, an ambulance arrived at Pacino's home, and he regained consciousness to find himself surrounded by six paramedics and two doctors in his living room, he recalled. “I fainted, and when I opened my eyes, there were six paramedics in my living room,” he told the outlet.

“They had these outfits on that looked like they were from outer space or something,” he continued. “It was kind of shocking to open your eyes and see that. Everybody was around me, and they said: ‘He’s back. He’s here.’”

In an interview with People Magazine, Pacino recounted coming back to consciousness with a sense of confusion.

“I looked around and I thought, ‘What happened to me?’” he told the outlet. “I thought I experienced death. I might not have. I don’t think I have, really. I know I made it."

The "Godfather" actor then credited his “great assistant” for immediately contacting the paramedics when his nurse confirmed that he no longer had a pulse. “He got the people coming because the nurse that was taking care of me said, ‘I don’t feel a pulse on this guy,’” Pacino, who is currently preparing for a movie adaptation of Shakespeare’s "King Lear," recalled.

When asked if the health scare changed the way he lives his life, Pacino told People, “Not at all.” However, that isn’t to say the experience left the actor unaffected.

Pacino confirmed to The New York Times that the ordeal had a "metaphysical" effect on him.

“I didn’t see the white light or anything. There’s nothing there,” he explained. “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,” the "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" actor added. “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?”

In his new memoir "Sonny Boy", Pacino writes about many of his relationships and candidly discusses his aversion to marriage, which he describes as “an entrance to the pain train.”

“Everything's a ticket to the pain train," he said, per People. "A ticket or nothing. Are you going to go or not? No, I'll stay here. I'll stay here at the station, I'm not getting on.”

He added that marriage “can suit you, by all means. I just didn't feel it ever suited me for some reason.”

Pacino, who is the father of daughter Julie, 34, with acting coach Jan Tarrant, and 23-year-old twins Anton and Olivia with Beverly D'Angelo, was first linked to Noor Alfallah in 2022. The couple welcomed their son, Roman, the following year--but are they still together? According to his rep... No.

"Al and Noor are very good friends, have been for years, and are co-parents to their son Roman," Pacino's rep said.

Though Pacino and Alfallah are no longer a couple, they maintain a friendship. At Alfallah’s birthday party in September, Pacino was seen helping her blow out the candles on her cake, according to the New York Post.

"Sonny Boy" is set to be released on October 15 and is available for preorder at various retailers.