MovieChat Forums > Al Pacino Discussion > Why did his voice change so much?

Why did his voice change so much?


Was it because of smoking? Or does that happen as you get older?

He wasn't really "a kid" when he did The Godfather... he was already in his 30s.

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Well he is late 70s now, I think its fairly normal for the voice to change over time and smoking can and other things can effect it too.

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Age... Voices change with it...

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Definitely has to do with smoking. He should give that up!

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both are factors... 78 year olds don't sound like 30 year olds...

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Although age changes you're voice, in Pacino's case it has more to do with his heavy smoking. His voice changed dramatically when he was fairly young, 40, by 1980.

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Oooh ahhh

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Ahhh oooh

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Replaced with a lizard man.

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His voice did change drastically between Dog Day Afternoon and Scent of a Woman; I put it down to chain smoking and heavy boozing, and maybe other factors, but certainly not age alone.
The only people I know of whose voices change that much between the ages of 35 and 50 are heavy smokers, often the types who who eventually can only talk through artificial voice boxes.

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That's true, smoking over a lifetime can alter the voice. But there are exceptions. Both of my parents smoked at least a couple of packs a day since they were teenagers, and the first decade or so they smoked unfiltered cigarettes before switching to filtered. I have a recording of their wedding, when they were both in their twenties. I have recordings of my dad in his twenties and thirties, when he was a radio DJ. I remember their voices first-hand from when they were in their thirties. They both lived to their very late seventies, and their voices changed very little, if at all. Over the phone, you would have guessed they were still in their thirties. That being said, they both got nailed in the end by COPD and lung cancer.

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