Biography of Benicio Del Toro

Intense expression

February 19, 1967
Many connoisseurs of cinema in the early years after 2000 have had the distinct feeling that if there is an actor who during that time was widely underestimated these is Benicio Del Toro. Not that it hasn't done some big productions, but there is no doubt that the dark one Puerto Rican has not entered immediately in the hearts of viewers as happened to so many other stars. Benicio Del Toro, born on February 19, 1967 in Santurce, Puerto Rico, has a unique face, an expression so intense that it utterly charismatic. The recognized ability to look to the bottom of his characters, maybe he comes from his troubled childhood, marked by the untimely death of his mother and the continuous movement of a father now left alone. The son of two lawyers, at the age of thirteen in 1980 (his mother's disappearance that he had only nine), he moved with his father and younger brother in a farm at Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. Completed high school he enrolled at the University of California, San Diego, to study economics.
An acting class attended during his first year at University convinces him to change direction and soon begins to appear in several student productions. Then has the opportunity to participate in the festival Lafayette Theatre in New York, with one of the shows produced at the University. He moved to the Big Apple to study acting at the Circle in the Square Acting School. He won a scholarship which attends the courses of the Stella Adler Conservatory. To further his preparation follows the Actors Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. In 1987 she starred in several television series, including "Miami vice", and the following year he debuted on the big screen in the movie "my life Rani" from Randal Kleiser with Pee-wee Herman. The environment of cinema begins to notice him.
It is not difficult, because all its leaves an indelible screen presence. In 1996 he won the Independent Spirit Award for best supporting actor for his role as Fred Fenster in the film "the usual suspects" by Brian Singer and in the same year we find him alongside Christopher Walken and Chris Penn in Abel Ferrara's masterpiece, "Brothers". With the character of Benny Dalmau wins again the Independent Spirit Award for the film "Basquiat" by Julian Schnabel. It is launched. In 1998 the Puerto Rican actor is starring alongside Johnny Depp in "fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", hallucinatory and unconventional film directed by Terry Gilliam, the former Monty Python (so much for liking). In 2000 opens the film by complaint and participates in "Bread and roses". The great Ken Loach on this occasion sa dose it and use it properly, taking out all the best that the actor is able to offer. Even the 2001 opens rather great.
Finally receives the long-awaited Oscar: the film "Traffic" directed by Steven Soderbergh, the category is ' supporting actor '. We appreciate the work of Alejandro González Iñárritu, the brilliant author of "Amores Perros", which in 2003 has given us another tough film and surprising as "21 grams". Benicio Del Toro has also written, produced and directed the film "Submission," starring Matthew McConaughey and Valeria Golino, presented at the Venice Film Festival in 1995. After "Sin City" (2005) and "strangers when we meet" (2007) two films both in production in 2008, are "Guerrilla" and "The Argentine", who see the actor playing a myth of the twentieth century, the historical figure Che Guevara, which won him the best actor award at the Cannes film festival 2008. In 2010 a fantastic character wears unusual and scary, the Wolf Man, in the film "Wolfman" (remake of "the Wolf Man", 1941).
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.