Antonio Banderas | Biography, Movies, & Facts

Antonio Banderas, in full José Antonio Domínguez Banderas, (born August 10, 1960, Málaga, Spain), Spanish-born film actor and director whose good looks, sensuality, and emotional range made him a leading international star.

Banderas, the son of a police officer and a teacher, was a soccer protégé as a youth, but a serious foot injury at age 14 dashed his hopes of making the sport his profession. The following year he developed an interest in acting after seeing a stage performance of the rock musical Hair. In 1981 he embarked on a five-year acting stint with the Spanish National Theatre in Madrid. There he was discovered by movie director Pedro Almodóvar, who began offering him roles. In his first movie with Almodóvar, Laberinto de pasiones (1982; Labyrinth of Passion), Banderas received good notices for his role as a gay Islamic terrorist. Under Almodóvar’s direction, the young actor was able to express his talent fully through such unconventional roles as rapist, mental patient, and kidnapper.

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Banderas moved to Hollywood in 1989 and three years later appeared in the cult favourite The Mambo Kings, playing a young Cuban musician living in New York City. Although he spoke almost no English, Banderas was able to learn his lines phonetically and later took intensive English courses, which helped him land the role of Tom Hanks’s lover in the box-office hit Philadelphia (1993). Banderas subsequently appeared in a series of English-language films, including The House of the Spirits (1993); Interview with the Vampire (1994), an adaptation of Anne Rice’s novel that also featured Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt; Miami Rhapsody (1995); Robert Rodriguez’s Desperado (1995), in which Banderas played El Mariachi, a gun-toting musician; and Assassins (1995). In 1996 he starred with Madonna in the musical Evita (1996), playing the role of Ché, the film’s narrator. Accused by some critics of overexposure, Banderas conceded that he was ambitious but said that in Spain actors prove their success in this manner.

Banderas’s unique screen persona, equal parts machismo and sensitivity, was further showcased in the successful The Mask of Zorro (1998), which costarred Catherine Zeta-Jones, The 13th Warrior (1999), and Play It to the Bone (1999). He made his directorial debut with the comedy Crazy in Alabama (1999), which starred his second wife, actress Melanie Griffith (the two divorced in 2015). In 2001 Banderas reteamed with Rodriguez on Spy Kids, playing a family man who is forced to return to his former career as a secret agent. The movie was a hit and led to several sequels. Banderas later reprised the role of El Mariachi in Rodriguez’s Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003). In addition, he provided the voice of Puss in Boots in the popular Shrek sequels (2004, 2007, and 2010) and in a spin-off film, Puss in Boots (2011).

In 2005 Banderas starred in The Legend of Zorro, a sequel to The Mask of Zorro. The following year he directed his second film, El camino de los ingleses (Summer Rain), an adaptation of an Antonio Soler novel about a group of teenage boys who have a memorable summer vacation. In 2010 he portrayed a dissatisfied art-gallery owner in Woody Allen’s light relationship drama You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. Banderas worked again with Almodóvar on the psychological thriller La piel que habito (2011; The Skin I Live In), in which he starred as an obsessive plastic surgeon who experiments on a woman he holds captive.

Banderas then appeared in supporting roles in Haywire (2011), a spy film directed by Steven Soderbergh; the romantic comedy Ruby Sparks (2012); and Machete Kills (2013), an over-the-top action thriller. In The 33 (2015), which was based on a true event, Banderas played a worker who becomes trapped after a mine collapses in Chile. He joined the ensemble of Terrence Malick’s Knight of Cups (2015), portraying a lothario encountered by the film’s protagonist (Christian Bale). After appearing in a string of thrillers in 2017, Banderas played Pablo Picasso in the second season (2018) of the TV series Genius. He then appeared in the multigenerational drama Life Itself (2018) and in The Laundromat (2019), Soderbergh’s farce about the Panama Papers scandal.

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Banderas reteamed with Almodóvar in Dolor y gloria (2019; Pain and Glory), starring as a director contemplating his life. For his performance, Banderas received his first Academy Award nomination. His later films included the family comedy Dolittle (2020) and The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (2021), in which he was cast as a shipping tycoon. In addition, he starred with Penélope Cruz in Competencia oficial (2021; Official Competition), a satire about the making of a movie.