Death Scene Kept Pacino In The Godfather

Al Pacino is convinced that were it not for one pivotal scene in The Godfather, he would have been fired.

The movie great admits he was at his most insecure making the 1972 classic because he felt he'd be dismissed by director Francis Ford Coppola every day.

And it took one restaurant scene to help him turn his fortunes around.

Pacino, who beat Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman to the role of MICHAEL CORLEONE, says, "I thought I was going to be fired so it was fine. I thought, `It was not meant to be.'

"I was going to be (fired) until they saw the `SOLLOZZO scene' - the scene where I shot Sollozzo in the restaurant. That was the scene that kept me in the picture."