‘Paterno,’ ‘The Godfather’ and more Al Pacino movies with LI connections
Al Pacino in HBO's "Paterno." (2018) Credit: HBO / Atsushi Nishijima
Al Pacino plays former Penn State coach Joe Paterno in the HBO movie “Paterno” (premiering Saturday, April 7), whose football scenes in the biopic were filmed at Hofstra University and Mitchel Athletic Complex in Uniondale. Here are five Pacino movies with Long Island connections:
THE GODFATHER (1972) The iconic horse’s head in the bed scene was filmed at Falaise, the Sands Point mansion of Harry Guggenheim, husband of Newsday founder Alicia Patterson.
SERPICO (1973) Pacino met at his rented Montauk home with Frank Serpico to get to better know the NYPD whistleblower he was portraying in Sidney Lumet’s film.
SCENT OF A WOMAN (1992) The shots of the New England prep school attended by Chris O’Donnell were mostly filmed at an upstate school, but the final scene was shot at Hempstead House, the Sands Point mansion.
PHIL SPECTOR (2013) The HBO movie about the disgraced music mogul (played by Pacino) shot a scene at the Nassau County Supreme Court building in Mineola.
THE IRISHMAN (2018) This upcoming Netflix movie, directed by Martin Scorsese and also starring Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, filmed at a variety of L.I. locales in 2017 and 2018, including Huntington Station, Hempstead Harbor and Mineola.
Andy Edelstein, Newsday's entertainment editor, supervises coverage of TV, celebrities, movies and pop music. He has written three books on popular culture, including "The Brady Bunch Book."
