He is 6 foot 2 inches tall, has blonde hair and a fabulous face. Often dubbed the “Spanish Brad Pitt”, Benicio Del Toro was born on 19 February, 1967, in Puerto Rico. Both his parents were lawyers and his elder brother is a paediatric oncologist.
Del Toro has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. His most famous movies include The Usual Suspects (1995), Traffic (2000, and Sin City (2005).
After the death of his mother, the family moved to Pennsylvania when Del Toro was 13. Following his father’s advice, he enrolled in the University of California in San Diego to pursue a degree in business. But when he met with some success in a drama course, he decided to quit college and pursue acting. Initially, he hid the fact that he wanted to be an actor from his family. He trained with the celebrated teachers Stella Adler and Arthur Mendoza in LA, and then moved to New York.
Del Toro’s film career began in the 1980s with small roles on TV, notably in Miami Vice and Drug Wars: The Camarena Story. His film debut was in Big Top Pee-wee (1988). His next film, though disappointing critically, shot him into the limelight. At 21, Del Toro starred in Licence to Kill (1989) and was the youngest ever villain in a James Bond movie. Some more average films followed, like China Moon (1991), The Indian Runner (1991), Money for Nothing (1993), Fearless (1993) and Swimming with Sharks (1994). It was The Usual Suspects that propelled his career further, winning him the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Del Toro has shared the big screen with some of the best actors in Hollywood including Robert De Niro in The Fan (1996), Kevin Spacey and Stephen Baldwin in The Usual Suspects, Brad Pitt in Guy Ritchie’s comedy Snatch (2000), Jack Nicholson in The Pledge (2000), Tommy Lee Jones in The Hunted (2003), and his friend Sean Penn in the award-winning drama 21 Grams (2003).
His dedication to his craft saw him put on over 40lbs weight to play the role of Dr Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), co-starring friend Johnny Depp. Box-office success and awards all poured in for Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic. His role as Mexican cop Javier Rodriguez won him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Del Toro is today a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood.
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