Al Pacino ‘Didn’t Have a Pulse’ During Near-Death COVID Experience

Al Pacino nearly died of COVID in 2020, the iconic actor says, recalling his harrowing experience in a recent episode of The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast.

At the height of the pandemic, the Oscar, Emmy and Tony award-winning actor contracted a life-threatening COVID infection. Pacino said that he wasn’t feeling well, “unusually not good.” When the 84-year-old actor broke into a fever, a nurse was called in to cure his dehydration. That’s when the situation became dire.

“I was sitting there in my house, and I was gone. Like that. I didn’t have a pulse,” Pacino told the Times.

In “minutes” an ambulance arrived at his house. Pacino said there were about six paramedics and two doctors in his house dressed in outfits that “looked like they were from outer space or something.” When he opened his eyes, Pacino recalled the medical professionals saying, “He’s back. He’s here.” When asked if he experienced any “metaphysical ripples” during his time without a pulse, Pacino confirmed he had.

“I didn’t see the white light or anything. There’s nothing there. 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. You’re gone,” Pacino said.

Though he doesn’t believe there’s anything after death, the actor said he finds consolation that his body of work and his children will outlive him when he’s gone.

Pacino did the interview to promote his upcoming book, “Sonny Boy,” which is described as a memoir about “a man who has nothing left to fear and nothing left to hide.” The book will cover everything from Pacino’s childhood growing up in the South Bronx and his first film role in 1971’s “The Panic in Needle Park” to his time on “The Godfather,” which forever reshaped both his career and American culture. The memoir will publish on Oct. 15.

Most recently, Pacino appeared in “Modì, Three Days on the Wing of Madness,” which stands as Johnny Depp’s directorial debut. The A-lister is also set to star in the horror movie “The Ritual” and “Lear Rex,” a new adaptation of “King Lear” that also stars Jessica Chastain.

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