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Benicio Del Toro
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Biography
Known for his dark intensity and idiosyncratic performances, Benicio Del Toro became one of Hollywood's more unique actors. His looks suggesting a hidden background as Wednesday Addams' hunky older brother, he first became known to film audiences in 1995 with his breakthrough performance in The Usual Suspects. Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, in 1967, Del Toro was the son of lawyers. His mother died when he was nine, and, four years later, his father moved the family to Mercersberg, PA, where they lived on a farm. While attending the University of California at San Diego, where he was working toward a business degree, Del Toro took an acting class and was soon hooked. He appeared in a number of student productions, one of which led to a stint performing at a drama festival at New York's Lafayette Theatre. Del Toro decided to remain in New York to study acting at the Circle in the Square Acting School and won a scholarship to the Stella Adler Conservatory.A move to Los Angeles, where he studied at the Actors Circle Theatre, led to Del Toro's first television roles, which included a guest spot on Miami Vice and an appearance as a drug dealer on the miniseries Drug Wars: The Camarena Story (1990). The actor also began showing up in feature films, perhaps most notably as Duke the Dog-Faced Boy in Big Top Pee-Wee (1988). Despite fairly steady work, Del Toro was still virtually unknown when he was cast as the eccentric criminal Fenster in Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects. His slurred, otherworldly performance earned widespread praise, an Independent Spirit Award, and, coupled with the film's great success, Del Toro was soon thrust into the limelight that had hitherto eluded him. The actor followed up The Usual Suspects with a supporting role as the titular artist's best friend in Julian Schnabel's Basquiat (1996). Despite intriguing subject matter and a stellar cast, the film was something of a critical and commercial disappointment, although Del Toro's work did earn him a second Independent Spirit Award. Having thus put his trademark on offbeat character acting -- something that was also helped by his role as a gangster in Abel Ferrara's The Funeral (1996) -- Del Toro played a romantic lead opposite Alicia Silverstone in Excess Baggage (1997). A botched caper comedy that cast the actor as a bumbling car thief, the film, unfortunately, turned out to be an indisputable turkey.
Not nearly as disastrous, though courting an intensely mixed critical reception, was Del Toro's next film, Terry Gilliam's much anticipated 1998 adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. A drug-addled, hallucinatory odyssey, it starred Del Toro as Dr. Gonzo, protagonist Raoul Duke's (Johnny Depp basically playing Thompson) partner in crime. Del Toro earned strong notices for his portrayal of the portly, freewheeling, Samoan lawyer (based on real-life Thompson cohort Oscar Acosta), and his performance was widely touted as one of the best aspects of the film. Del Torogained further notice when he won several awards -- including the Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe and Oscar -- for his role as a Mexican cop entangled in the international drug-trade war in Steven Soderbergh's Traffic (2000). The next year, Del Toro played a retarded man wrongly accused of murder in director Sean Penn's sad tale of obsession, The Pledge, and earned his second Academy Award nomination for his performance in21 Grams in 2003. Del Toro made his directorial debut in 2004, reuniting with Depp for an adaptation of another Hunter Thompson book, The Rum Diaries. He was also cast to star in Che, Terrence Malick's biopic about Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, the production of which was postponed in 2004. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
Filmography:
Benicio Del Toro |
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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Buy this Movie |
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Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Benicio del Toro |
This name uses Spanish naming customs; the first or paternal family name is del Toro and the second or maternal family name is Sánchez.
| Benicio del Toro | |
|---|---|
 Benicio del Toro at Cannes 2008 |
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| Born | Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez February 19, 1967 Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico |
| Occupation | Actor, producer |
| Years active | 1987–present |
Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (born February 19, 1967) is a Puerto Rican actor and film producer. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award for his role as Javier Rodríguez in Traffic (2000). He is also known for his roles as Fred Fenster in The Usual Suspects (1995), Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), Franky Four Fingers in Snatch (2000), Jackie Boy in Sin City (2005), and Che Guevara in Che (2008). He is the third Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award.
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Early life
Benicio del Toro was born in San German, on the southwest side of the island of Puerto Rico, and grew up in Santurce, a district of San Juan. He is the son of Gustavo Adolfo del Toro Bermúdez and Fausta Genoveva Sánchez Rivera, who were both lawyers, and deeply respected and beloved in Puerto Rico for their commitment to their community. Gustavo Del Toro was affectionately called the "lawyer of the poor". Many of Del Toro's relatives are involved in the island's legal system. [1] He has an older brother, Gustavo, who was a pediatric oncologist at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.[2][3] He is of Spanish descent through a Catalan paternal great-grandfather and a Basque maternal great-grandmother,[4] he has Italian and Amerindian ancestry as well.[5] The surname del Toro (Touro) is of Sephardic origin.[citation needed] Benicio del Toro is related to Puerto Rican basketball player Carlos Arroyo, his father Gustavo is a cousin of Arroyo's mother, Gloria Bermudez.
Del Toro, whose childhood nicknames were "Skinny Benny" and "Beno", was raised a Roman Catholic[6][7] and he attended Academia del Perpetuo Socorro (The Academy of Our Lady of Perpetual Help), a Roman Catholic school in Miramar, Puerto Rico.[8][9] When del Toro was nine years old, his mother died of hepatitis.[2] At age 12, he moved with his father and brother to Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, where he was enrolled at the Mercersburg Academy. He spent his adolescence and attended high school there.[10] After graduation, del Toro followed the advice of his father and pursued a degree in business at the University of California, San Diego.[10] Success in an elective drama course encouraged him to drop out of college and study with noted acting teachers Stella Adler and Arthur Mendoza, in Los Angeles, as well as at the Circle in the Square Theatre School, in New York City.[10]
Career
Del Toro began to surface in small television parts during the late 1980s, playing mostly thugs and drug dealers on programs such as Miami Vice and the NBC miniseries Drug Wars: The Camarena Story. He had a cameo in Madonna's 1987 music video clip "La Isla Bonita" as a background character (the kid sitting on the car). Work in films followed, beginning with his debut in Big Top Pee-wee and in the 007 film Licence to Kill,[10] in which 21-year-old del Toro held the distinction of being the youngest actor ever to play a Bond henchman. Del Toro continued to appear in movies including The Indian Runner (1991), China Moon (1994), Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992), Money for Nothing (1993), Fearless (1993) and Swimming with Sharks (1994).
His career gained momentum in 1995 with his breakout performance in The Usual Suspects, where he played the mumbling, wisecracking Fred Fenster.[10] The role won him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor and established him as a character actor. This led to more strong roles in independent and major studio films, including playing Gaspare in Abel Ferrara's The Funeral (1996) and winning a second consecutive Best Supporting Actor Independent Spirit Award for his work as Benny Dalmau in Basquiat (1996), directed by his friend, artist Julian Schnabel. Del Toro also shared the screen with Robert De Niro in the big budget thriller The Fan, in which he played Juan Primo, a charismatic Puerto Rican baseball star.
For Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the 1998 film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's famous book, he gained more than 40 lbs. (about 18 kg) to play Dr. Gonzo (a.k.a. Oscar Zeta Acosta), Thompson's lawyer and drug-fiend cohort.[10] The surrealistic film, directed by Terry Gilliam, has earned a cult following over the years. Returning from a two-year hiatus after Fear and Loathing, del Toro would gain a mainstream audience in 2000 with a string of performances in four high-profile films. First up was The Way of the Gun, a crime yarn that reunited him with The Usual Suspects screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, making his directorial debut. A few months later, he stood out among a first-rate ensemble cast in Steven Soderbergh's Traffic, a complex dissection of the North American drug wars. As Javier Rodriguez —a Mexican border cop struggling to remain honest amid the corruption and deception of illegal drug trafficking —del Toro, who spoke most of his lines in Spanish, gave a performance that dominated the film.[10]
His performance swept all of the major critics awards in 2001. Del Toro won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, becoming the fourth living Oscar winner whose winning role was a character who speaks predominantly in a foreign language. Del Toro is also the third Puerto Rican actor to win an Oscar, after Jose Ferrer and Rita Moreno.[10] The night he won his Oscar marked first time that two actors born in Puerto Rico were nominated in the same category (the other actor was Joaquin Phoenix). In his acceptance speech, del Toro thanked the people of both Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora and dedicated his award to them. In addition to the Oscar, he also won the Golden Globe Award and the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Traffic was also a success at the box office, bringing to del Toro real Hollywood clout for the first time in his career. While Traffic was still playing in theaters, two other del Toro films were released in late 2000/early 2001. He had a brief role as the diamond thief Franky Four Fingers in Guy Ritchie's hip caper comedy Snatch, and played a mentally-challenged Native American man in The Pledge, directed by his old friend Sean Penn.[10]
In 2003, del Toro appeared in two films: The Hunted, co-starring Tommy Lee Jones, and the drama 21 Grams, co-starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts. He went on to garner another Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his work in the latter. He then appeared in the film adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel Sin City, directed by Robert Rodriguez, and Things We Lost in the Fire, the English language debut of celebrated Danish director Susanne Bier. Things We Lost in the Fire co-starred Halle Berry, Alison Lohman, and John Carroll Lynch.
In 2008, del Toro was awarded the Prix d'interpretation masculine (or Best Actor Award) at the Cannes Film Festival for his characterization of Che Guevara in the biographical films The Argentine and Guerrilla (together known as Che).[11] During his acceptance speech del Toro dedicated his award "to the man himself, Che Guevara" along with director Steven Soderbergh.[12] Del Toro was also awarded a 2009 Goya Award as the Best Actor for his depiction of Che.[13] Actor Sean Penn, who won an Oscar for his role in Milk, remarked that he was surprised and disappointed that Che and del Toro were not also up for any Academy Award nominations. During his acceptance speech for the Best Actor's trophy at the Screen Actors Guild Awards Penn expressed his dismay stating, "The fact that there aren't crowns on Soderbergh's and Del Toro's heads right now, I don't understand ... that is such a sensational movie, Che."[14] For the final portions of the film (shown here), del Toro shed 35 pounds to show how ill Guevara had become near the end of his life in the jungles of Bolivia.[15]
In 2010, del Toro starred in and produced the remake of Lon Chaney, Jr.'s classic cult film The Wolf Man.[16]
He was chosen to be the face of the 2011 Campari calendar, becoming the first male model to be featured in the Italian liquor company's calendar.[17][18]
Personal life
Benicio is not related to Oscar-nominated director Guillermo del Toro; this is a popular misconception.
While promoting his film The Wolfman in 2010, he described his romantic life as "in limbo." When asked if he had thoughts of settling down, he responded, "Why? Everyone says, 'Why isn’t he married?' But it’s like, Fuck! Why do I have to get married? Just so I can get divorced?" In an interview with The Times he mentioned that he didn't want his West Hollywood apartment, which he described as his "cave," to be "invaded" by a wife and children.[19]
Benicio del Toro has been linked to various women through the years, including actresses Valeria Golino, Claire Forlani, Alicia Silverstone, Chiara Mastroianni, Heather Graham, and Sara Foster.
On April 11, 2011, del Toro's publicist announced that del Toro and Kimberly Stewart (daughter of Rod Stewart) were expecting their first child, although they were not in a relationship.[20] Stewart gave birth to a daughter, Delilah,[21] on August 21, 2011.[20]
In November 2011, he acquired Spanish citizenship. The request was granted by the Spanish government due to his artistic talents and his Spanish roots (he has family in Barcelona).[22]
In March 2012, he was granted a honorific degree by the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico for his impact on the cinema enterprise, during the celebration of the institution centenary.[23]
Filmography
Films
Short films
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Submission | Director, writer and producer | |
| 2005 | Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula | Naevius Sutorius Macro | Five minutes |
| 2005 | That's So New York | Himself | Three minutes |
Television series
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Miami Vice | Pito | Episode: "Everybody's in Showbiz" |
| 1987 | Private Eye | Episode: "Blue Movie" | |
| 1990 | Drug Wars: The Cameraman Story | Rafael Caro Quintero | All episodes |
| 1994 | Tales from the Crypt | Bill | Episode: "The Bribe" |
| 1995 | Fallen Angels | Paco | Episode: "Good Housekeeping" |
| 2008 | Todos Contra Juan | Himself | Episode: "Juan & La Critica" |
Selected awards
See also
References
- ^ Benicio DEL Toro Biography (1967-)
- ^ a b 'Dammit, this guy is cool' - The Guardian - published 2008-11-29, retrieved 2009-06-29.
- ^ Mount Sinai Faculty Practice Associates - Gustavo Del Toro
- ^ Benicio del toro gets Spanish citizenship.
- ^ Benicio del Toro Interview, Only available in Spanish. He says, "Yo tengo Sangre Española, Italiana y Americana", which means, I have Spanish, Italian, and American blood
- ^ Feature - Features - Benicio Del Toro's "Let's Have Some Fun, Okay?" Page - Portland Mercury
- ^ Mike Sager (2005-04-01). "Toro, Benicio Del". Esquire. http://www.esquire.com/ESQ0405BENICIO_102.indd_REV?click=main_sr. Retrieved 2010-10-12.
- ^ 'Traffic Stopper' - People - published 2001-04-16, retrieved 2010-05-14.
- ^ 'Benicio del Toro: Mild at heart' - Irish Independent - published 2010-02-05, retrieved 2010-05-14.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Stated in interview on Inside the Actors Studio
- ^ Associated Press (2008-05-25). "Benicio del Toro gana premio a mejor actor en Cannes" (in Spanish). Primera Hora. http://www.primerahora.com/noticia/cine/espectaculosasi/benicio_del_toro_gana_premio_a_mejor_actor_en_cannes/193848. Retrieved 2008-05-25.[dead link]
- ^ Hernandez, Eugene; Brian Brooks (May 25, 2008). "Laurent Cantent's The Class Wins the Palme d'Or". indieWIRE. Archived from the original on 2008-10-24. http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20081024002551/http://www.indiewire.com/ots/2008/05/cannes_08_dispa_4.html. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ Rolfe, Pamela (February 1, 2009). "Camino Leads Goya Awards with Six Nods". Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 2009-02-05. http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20090205213517/http://hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i0aa29113cef25d42d5a15097e1e8754a. Retrieved 2009-02-01.
- ^ "Penn Surprised over Toro's Absence from Nominations List". The Hindu. February 8, 2009. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/009200902081480.htm. Retrieved 2009-02-14.
- ^ Olsen, Mark (December 11, 2008). "Benicio Del Toro leads the charge for Che". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ "Benicio Del Toro Talks The Wolfman". DreadCentral. http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/35758/benicio-del-toro-talks-the-wolfman.
- ^ Rosario, Mariela (30 September 2010). "Benicio del Toro Named Face of 2011 Campari Calendar". Latina. http://www.latina.com/entertainment/celebrity/benicio-del-toro-named-face-2011-campari-calendar. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
- ^ Badiali, Alessandro (22 October 2010). "Guests in frenzy for the Puerto Rican actor, star of the Campari Calendar 2011". Vogue. http://www.vogue.it/en/people-are-talking-about/parties-events/2010/x/benicio-del-toro-e-campari. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
- ^ Daily Mail Reporter (12 April 2011). "What will Rod Stewart say? Daughter Kimberly is pregnant after secret fling with Benicio del Toro". Daily Mail. London, UK. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1375800/Benicio-Del-Toro-having-baby-Rod-Stewarts-daughter-Kimberly.html?ito=feeds-newsxml. Retrieved 12 April 2011.
- ^ a b "Kimberly Stewart Gives Birth to Baby Girl!". Us Weekly. 21 August 2011. http://www.usmagazine.com/momsbabies/news/kimberly-stewart-gives-birth-to-baby-girl-2011218. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- ^ Finlayson, Ariana (December 4, 2011). "First Pic: Meet Kimberly Stewart's Daughter, Delilah, 3 Months". Us Weekly. http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-moms/news/first-pic-meet-kimberly-stewarts-daughter-delilah-3-months-2011412. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
- ^ Puente, Maria (November 4, 2011). "Oscar winner Benicio del Toro, singer Ricky Martin become Spanish citizens". USA Today. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2011/11/oscar-winner-benicio-del-toro-singer-ricky-martin-become-spanish-citizens/1. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
- ^ [1]
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- Benicio del Toro at the Internet Movie Database
- Benicio Del Toro on 'Che': Man on a Mission
- Benicio Del Toro Gets to the Man Behind the T-Shirt Myth in "Che"
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Mentioned in
- Silence (2010 Drama Film)
- The Way of the Gun (2000 Album by Original Soundtrack)
- Che, Part 1 (2008 Drama Film)
- The Camarena Story: Drug Wars (TV Episode) (1990 Crime TV Episode)
- Omar Benson Miller (Actor, Director, Drama/Comedy)
- Breakfast With Hunter (2003 Language & Literature Film)
- Things We Lost in the Fire (2007 Album by Gustavo Santaolalla & Johan Soderqvist)
- The Hunted (2003 Thriller Film)
- 21 Grams (2003 Drama Film)
- Things We Lost in the Fire (2007 Drama Film)
- Melissa Leo (Actor, Drama)
- Fearless (1993 Drama Film)
- The Funeral (1996 Crime Film)
- Excess Baggage (1997 Comedy Film)
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