'EastEnders' actor Sid Owen says Al Pacino 'considered adopting' him after starring in film together

Former EastEnders actor Sid Owen has claimed that Al Pacino once considered adopting him.

Owen, who played Ricky Butcher in the BBC soap, acted alongside the Hollywood giant in the 1985 film Revolution and the pair forged a bond.

They played father and son at a time when the then-teenager’s real father had left home when he was six and his mother had passed away two years after that.

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In an extract from his upcoming book Rags to Ricky published in The Sun, he shared: “When I started on Revolution, there was a lot for us to work through together to make our father-and-son relationship convincing, so we got into a routine where every day I’d go to his trailer and we’d run lines, whatever we were doing that day.

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“He knew I had no parents and was from a difficult background, though we didn’t really talk about it.

“He didn’t have kids of his own then and I found out later he had considered adopting me. One time he said: ‘Come out to New York when this is finished.’”

Although an adoption never materialised, Owen said they “kept in touch” enough for him and his first serious girlfriend to get invited to New York to stay with the Scarface actor.

He added they still catch up “every now and then”.

Owen made his first appearance in EastEnders three years after starring opposite Pacino.

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He played Ricky for 12 years in his original run, returning for two years in 2002 and again in 2008 for a four-year stint.

Rags to Ricky will be published on Thursday 5 August.

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