Antonio Banderas

Internationally known for his charisma and smoldering good looks Antonio Banderas is the ultimate manifestation of the Latin heartthrob. Born in Málaga, Spain on August 10, 1960, Banderas wanted to become a professional soccer player until a broken foot sidelined his dreams at the age of fourteen. He went on to enroll in some drama classes, eventually joining a theatre troupe that toured all over Spain. His work in the theatre, and his performances on the streets, eventually landed him a spot with the National Theatre of Spain.
While performing with the theatre, Banderas caught the attention of director Pedro Almodóvar, who cast the young actor in his film debut, Laberinto de Pasione (Labyrinth of Passion) (1982). He went on to appear in the director's La Ley del Deseo (Law of Desire) (1984), making headlines with his performance as a gay man, which required him to engage in his first male-to-male onscreen kiss. After Banderas appeared in Almodóvar's Matador (1986), the director cast him in his internationally acclaimed Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) (1988). The recognition Banderas gained for his role increased two years later when he starred in Almodóvar's controversial Atame! (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!) as a mental patient who kidnaps a porn star (Victoria Abril) and keeps her tied up until she returns his love.
Banderas made his first stateside appearance as an unwitting object of Madonna's affections in Truth or Dare (1991). The following year, still speaking next to no English, he starred in his first American film, The Mambo Kings. It was a testament to his acting abilities that, despite having to learn all of his lines phonetically, Banderas still managed to turn in a critically praised performance as a struggling musician. He broke through to mainstream American audiences as the gay lover of AIDS-afflicted lawyer Andrew Beckett(Tom Hanks in Philadelphia (1993). The film's success earned Banderas wide recognition, and the following year he was given a substantial role in Neil Jordan's high-profile adaptation of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, which allowed him to share the screen with the likes of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt
Banderas subsequently appeared in a number of films of widely varying quality, doing particularly strong work in Desperado (1995), Evita (1998), and The Mask of Zorro (1998). In 1999, he made his first foray into directing with Crazy in Alabama, a black comedy starring Melanie Griffith, to whom he had been married since 1996. The following year he starred as an aspiring boxer opposite Woody Harrelson in Play It to the Bone, portrayed a Cuban tycoon with a bad seed bride(Angelina Jolie in Original Sin, and starred alongside Bob Hoskins and Wes Bentley in The White River Kid. Well established as a hearthrob and a talented dramatic actor by the end of the 1990s, the fact that Desperato director Robert Rodriguez was the only director to have expolored Banderas' comic potential (Banderas provided one of the few memorable performances in Rodriguez's segment of the otherwise abysmal Four Rooms (1995)) hinted at a heretofore unexplored but potentially lucrative territory for the actor. Later approached by Rodriguez to portray the super-spy patriarch in the family oriented adventure comedy Spy Kids (2001), Banderas charmed children and adults alike with his role as a kidnapped agent whose children must discover their inner stregnth in order to rescue their mother and father. After reprising his role in the following year's Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams, Banderas would next return to more adult oriented roles in both Brian DePalma's Femme Fatale and the ill-fated Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (both 2002). After essaying a more historic role in the dramatic biopic Frida (also 2002), the remarkably diverse actor would one again team with Rodriguez for the sprawling Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003).

Filmography

2007 Homeland Security
2007 Shrek the Third
2007 Shrek the Halls
2006 Take the Lead
2006 Bordertown
2005 The Legend of Zorro
2004 Shrek 2
2003 Once Upon a Time in Mexico
2003 And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself
2003 Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
2003 Imagining Argentina
2002 Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
2002 Femme Fatale
2002 Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams
2002 The I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary Special
2002 Frida
2001 Original Sin
2001 The Body
2001 Spy Kids
2000 Play It to the Bone
2000 The Many Faces of Zorro
1999 White River
1999 The 13th Warrior
1998 The Mask of Zorro
1996 Evita
1995 Assassins
1995 Never Talk to Strangers
1995 Miami Rhapsody
1995 Desperado
1995 The Celluloid Closet
1995 Four Rooms
1995 Two Much
1994 Of Love and Shadows
1994 Interview With the Vampire
1993 Philadelphia
1993 Il Giovane Mussolini
1993 Outrage
1993 Benito
1993 The House of the Spirits
1992 The Mambo Kings
1991 Terra Nova
1991 The White Dove
1991 Truth or Dare
1991 Una Mujer Bajo la Lluvia
1991 Cuentos De Borges I
1990 Against the Wind
1990 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
1989 If They Tell You I Fell
1988 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
1988 Bajarse Al Moro
1988 Baton Rouge
1987 Placer De Matar
1987 Asi Como Habian Sido
1987 Eulalia
1986 Delirios de Amor
1986 27 Horas
1986 Matador
1986 Puzzle
1986 The Law of Desire
1985 Caso Cerrado
1985 La Corte de Faraon
1984 Los Zancos
1984 El Caso Almeria
1984 El Senor Galindez
1983 Y Del Seguro Libranos Senor!1982 Labyrinth of Passion
1982 Pestanas Postizas