At 84 years old, Al Pacino is a living legend at this point — and as he revealed in a recent interview, we came pretty close to losing him for good a few years ago.
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In conversation with the New York Times around his upcoming memoir Sonny Boy, Al revealed that he came very close to dying from a bad case of COVID-19 back in 2020.
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He explained that, at the time, he had to fetch a nurse after coming down with a fever and becoming dehydrated. "I was sitting there in my house, and I was gone," Al recalled. "Like that. I didn’t have a pulse.”
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“In a matter of minutes they were there — the ambulance in front of my house. I had about six paramedics in that living room, and there were two doctors, and they had these outfits on that looked like they were from outer space or something.”
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When he came to, Al told the paper of record that he found it "shocking" to see medical professionals surrounding him. “Everybody was around me, and they said: ‘He’s back. He’s here,'" he recalled.
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He also explained what the experience of literally almost dying felt like — or, didn't feel like: “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.'”
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“It was no more," Al continued. "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?”
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Wow. Heavy stuff! You can read the rest of the interview here. Sonny Boy hits bookshelves on Oct. 15.