On the set of The Godfather, during the early days of filming, Al Pacino was worried about being fired. Francis Ford Coppola, the relatively inexperienced director under pressure himself from Paramount studio heads, had told Pacino, a then-little-known actor, that he was “not cutting it.” Soon that pressure would become less intense. Pacino’s strong performance during the filming of a scene in a restaurant involving a double killing rescued him from the studio chopping block. And an off-camera lunch with Hollywood legend Marlon Brando gave Pacino a much-needed morale boost. Finally, already in his 30s and with a less-than-stunning résumé, the New ...