Antonio Banderas

Antonio Banderas, born José Antonio Domínguez Bandera on August 10, 1960, in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, is a Spanish actor whose career spans stage, film, and television across multiple decades. The son of Civil Guard officer José Domínguez Prieto and schoolteacher Ana Bandera Gallego, Banderas grew up in Málaga with a younger brother named Francisco. As a child he aspired to become a professional football player, but a broken foot at age 15 ended that pursuit. He subsequently turned his attention to the performing arts, training at the ARA Theatre School run by Ángeles Rubio-Argüelles y Alessandri and at the College of Dramatic Art, both in Málaga. His early theater work and street performances eventually earned him a place with the Spanish National Theatre.

Banderas launched his professional acting career at a small theater in Málaga, where Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar took notice of him and cast him in the screwball comedy Labyrinth of Passion in 1982. The two went on to collaborate extensively throughout the decade, with Banderas appearing in Matador (1986), Law of Desire (1987), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989). In Law of Desire, his portrayal of a gay man required the first male-to-male onscreen kiss of his career. The international visibility he gained through these films, particularly the breakthrough role in Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, helped propel him toward Hollywood. Banderas and Almodóvar continued their collaboration in later years with The Skin I Live In (2011) and Pain and Glory (2019).

Banderas made his American film debut in the musical drama The Mambo Kings in 1992, delivering his dialogue phonetically while still learning English. He followed that with a role in Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia (1993), playing the life partner of Tom Hanks's character. Further Hollywood work came in The House of the Spirits (1993), alongside Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, and Winona Ryder, and in Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire (1994), which starred Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, and Kirsten Dunst. In 1995 he appeared in Robert Rodriguez's Desperado alongside Salma Hayek, and in Richard Donner's Assassins opposite Sylvester Stallone and Julianne Moore. His 1996 role as Che, the narrator in the film adaptation of Evita alongside Madonna, earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. He received a second Golden Globe nomination for his performance as the masked swordsman Zorro in The Mask of Zorro (1998), starring opposite Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

In the early 2000s, Banderas expanded his work into franchise films and stage. He appeared in all three films of Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids series (2001–2003), playing retired OSS agent Gregorio Cortez alongside Carla Gugino. He reprised his role as El Mariachi in Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) and returned as Zorro in The Legend of Zorro (2005). Beginning with the second Shrek film in 2004, he provided the voice of Puss in Boots, a role he has continued in subsequent installments of the franchise. He also made his directorial debut with the comedy film Crazy in Alabama (1999), followed by Summer Rain (2006).

It was during this period that Banderas made his Broadway debut, appearing in the 2003 revival of the musical Nine, in which he played an Italian film director. The performance earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical, a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical, and a Theatre World Award, all in 2003. His television work has also drawn recognition: he received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for portraying Pancho Villa in the HBO film And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2004) and Pablo Picasso in the anthology series Genius (2018).

Among the most significant honors of his career, Banderas won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and the Goya Award for Best Actor for his performance in Almodóvar's Pain and Glory (2019), which also brought him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Over the course of his career, films in which he has appeared have grossed more than $7.7 billion worldwide.