STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – A couple of Staten Island Advance staffers helped make the day special when legendary actor Al Pacino celebrated a birthday while filming a movie here in 1996.
The movie was “Donnie Brasco,” starring Pacino and Johnny Depp.
Pacino played Benjamin “Lefty” Ruggiero in the film, with Depp portraying FBI agent Joe Pistone, who infiltrates Lefty’s Bonanno organized crime family under the alias Donnie Brasco.
Pacino celebrated his 56th birthday while shooting here on April 25, 1996.
The early morning scene was being filmed at Staten Island Boat Sales at Great Kills Harbor.
Lefty and Brasco gun for a rival mobster so Brasco can “make his bones” and become a made guy with the Bonannos. But the killing is broken up by the FBI before it can happen.
Advance writer Maureen Seaberg and photographer Michael McWeeney were on site covering the shoot and heard that it was Pacino’s birthday. They thought it would be nice to give the Hollywood icon a cake to celebrate.
Unfortunately, all of Staten Island’s deservedly notable cake and pastry shops were closed at that hour, so the pair had to settle for a Sara Lee cake from the freezer section at Pathmark. The enterprising journos decorated the dessert themselves – “Happy Birthday, Al” – with white frosting on the drive back to the shoot.
Emerging from his trailer in Great Kills, Pacino accepted the cake graciously and shook hands all around. He laughed when told that there was much better cake to be had on the Island.
Al Pacino, playing Benjamin “Left” Ruggiero in film “Donnie Brasco” is photographed while filming a scene in Great Kills on Staten Island in 1996. (Michael McWeeney/Staten Island Advance)
Pacino told the Advance that filming on Staten Island had been “great.” It was the fourth time that Pacino had shot a movie here, according to Seaberg’s story.
“Panic in Needle Park,” Pacino’s second film, featured scenes on the ferry, while parts of “Scent of a Woman,” the film…
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