Pacino became globally recognised after his portrayal of quiet soldier-turned bloodthirsty mafia don Michael Corleone in 85-year-old director Francis Ford Coppola’s operatic 1972 “Cosa Nostra” masterpiece “The Godfather”.

He talked about it during an appearance on BBC Radio 2 show: “Jack Kerouac, the great writer – best generation writer who lived in the city – couldn’t cope with it and somebody said of him that he was embarrassed by success. Fame embarrassed him. So, I think I might have had a little of that in me, or something.”

Pacino said about his mental torment leading to him skipping Academy Award ceremonies: “So I didn’t show up to a couple of the Oscars and I get a reputation – because they thought, somebody said, and my representation said, ‘Oh Pacino’s not going because he’s not the leading actor, he's a supporting actor for the Oscar.’.

“Can you imagine me saying, ‘I don't want to go because I should be up there with Brando?’ It’s just not in my nature – it’s nowhere near it. And I knew that I didn’t want to go because it scared me, frankly… because feeling out of place is a strange feeling.

“I mean not being able to function because you don’t know the language, in a way, it’s a precarious place to be in. And I experienced it a few times because I was very famous and didn’t even know it.

He then recalled a moment, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

“And then I started experiencing it before I was even nominated for an Oscar. And I remember, I actually won the award, some great award, and I was in Boston doing a play, and I was staying over the director’s house, he gave me a room at his house, and I remember waking up and he said, ‘You won the National Board of Review Award for acting in ‘The Godfather’, and I remember saying to him at the time, ‘Wow sure that’s cool’.

“I said, ‘Do you know a psychiatrist I can see?’ Right out of my mouth, because that’s the state I was in!”