Puerto Rican actor (born 1967)
Benicio del Toro
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Del Toro in 2014
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Born
| Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sanchez
(
1967-02-19
)
February 19, 1967
(age 57)
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Nationality
| Spain
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Citizenship
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Education
| University of California, San Diego
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Occupations
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Years active
| 1987?present
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Children
| 1
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Awards
| Full list
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Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sanchez
(born February 19, 1967)
[1]
is a Puerto Rican
[2]
actor. He has garnered critical acclaim and
numerous accolades
, including an
Academy Award
, a
BAFTA Award
, a
Golden Globe
, and a
Silver Bear
for his portrayal of the jaded but morally upright police officer Javier Rodriguez in the film
Traffic
(2000). Del Toro's performance as despairing ex-con turned zealot Jack Jordan, in
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
's
21 Grams
(2003), earned him a second nomination for the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
.
He is also known for his breakout role as the eccentric, unintelligible crook Fred Fenster in
The Usual Suspects
(1995); Benny Dalmau in
Basquiat
(1996), winning two consecutive
Independent Spirit Awards
for both films;
Dr. Gonzo
in
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
(1998); gambling addict Franky Four Fingers in
Snatch
(2000); the predatory, unhinged antagonist
Jackie Boy
in
Sin City
(2005); revolutionary
Che Guevara
in
Che
(2008), a performance that earned him the Best Actor award both at the
Cannes Film Festival
and at the
Goya Awards
; and as Alejandro, a mysterious, ruthless agent out to bring down a drug cartel in
Sicario
(2015), for which del Toro was nominated for several awards, including the
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
.
His other roles include portrayals of the
Collector
in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe
; drug lord
Pablo Escobar
in
Escobar: Paradise Lost
(2014);
Lawrence Talbot
in the 2010 remake of
The Wolfman
; and the codebreaker in
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
(2017). In 2018, he starred as
Richard Matt
in the
Showtime
miniseries
Escape at Dannemora
, for which he received a nomination for the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie
.
Early life
[
edit
]
Del Toro was born on February 19, 1967, in
San German, Puerto Rico
, to Gustavo Adolfo del Toro Bermudez and Fausta Genoveva Sanchez Rivera (daughter of Benicio Sanchez Castano and Lirio Belen Rivera),
[3]
who were both lawyers. He has an older brother, Gustavo, who is the
Executive Vice President
and
Chief Medical Officer
at the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in the
Bushwick
section of
Brooklyn, New York
.
[4]
[5]
He had a
Catalan
paternal great-grandfather and a
Basque
maternal great-grandmother.
[6]
[7]
Del Toro's great-grandfather was
Rafael Rivera Esbri
, one of the
heroes of the El Polvorin fire
in
Ponce
, and who would also later become mayor of that city (1915?1917).
[8]
He spent most of his infancy in
Santurce
, a barrio within
San Juan
. Del Toro, whose childhood nicknames were "Skinny Benny" and "Beno", was raised a
Roman Catholic
[9]
[10]
and attended
Academia del Perpetuo Socorro
(The Academy of Our Lady of Perpetual Help), a Roman Catholic school in
Miramar, Puerto Rico
.
[11]
[12]
When del Toro was nine years old, his mother died of
hepatitis
.
[4]
At age 15, 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.
[13]
After graduation, del Toro followed the advice of his father and pursued a business degree at the
University of California, San Diego
.
[13]
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
.
[13]
Career
[
edit
]
Del Toro surfaced in small television roles 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 appeared in the 1987 music video for
Madonna
's song "
La Isla Bonita
" as a background character sitting on a car hood. Film roles followed, beginning with his debut in
Big Top Pee-wee
(1988) and as Dario in the
James Bond
film
Licence to Kill
(1989).
[13]
Del Toro continued to appear in film 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.
[13]
The role won him an
Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
and established him as a character actor. This led to stronger roles in independent and major studio films, including playing Gaspare in
Abel Ferrara
's
The Funeral
(1996) and winning a second consecutive Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his work as Benny Dalmau in
Basquiat
(1996), directed by his friend, film-maker and painter
Julian Schnabel
. Del Toro also shared the screen with
Robert De Niro
in the big-budget thriller
The Fan
(1996), in which he played Juan Primo, a charismatic Puerto Rican baseball star. He subsequently starred opposite
Alicia Silverstone
in
Excess Baggage
(1997), which Silverstone produced.
For
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
, the 1998 film adaptation of
Hunter S. Thompson
's a 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.
[13]
The surrealistic film, directed by
Terry Gilliam
, has earned a
cult following
over the years.
Del Toro's performances in four films in 2000 gained him a mainstream audience. First, the crime yarn
The Way of the Gun
reunited him with
The Usual Suspects
screenwriter
Christopher McQuarrie
. 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 policeman 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.
[13]
His performance swept all of the major critics' awards in 2001. Del Toro won the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
, becoming the fourth living Oscar winner whose winning role was a character who speaks predominantly in a non-English language. Del Toro is also the third Puerto Rican actor to win an Oscar, after
Jose Ferrer
and
Rita Moreno
.
[13]
The year he won his Oscar marked the 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. This was soon followed by a small role as the
diamond
thief Franky Four Fingers in
Guy Ritchie
's hip caper comedy
Snatch
and a role as a
mentally challenged
Native American
man in
The Pledge
, directed by his old friend
Sean Penn
.
[13]
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 earn another
Best Supporting Actor
Oscar nomination for his performance 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
.
In 2008, del Toro was awarded the
Prix d'interpretation masculine
(or Best Actor Award) at the
Cannes Film Festival
for his portrayal of
Che Guevara
in the biographical films
The Argentine
and
Guerrilla
(together known as
Che
).
[14]
During his acceptance speech, del Toro dedicated his award "to the man himself, Che Guevara" along with director
Steven Soderbergh
.
[15]
Del Toro was also awarded the 2009
Goya Award
as the
Best Actor
for his portrayal of Guevara.
[16]
Sean Penn
, who won the 2009
Best Actor Oscar
for his performance 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
award 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
."
[17]
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
.
[18]
In 2010, del Toro starred in and produced the remake of
Lon Chaney Jr.
's classic cult film
The Wolf Man
(1941).
[19]
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.
[20]
[21]
Del Toro played
The Collector
in a mid-credits scene of
Marvel Studios
' superhero film
Thor: The Dark World
(2013) and later reprised his role in
Guardians of the Galaxy
(2014)
[22]
and
Avengers: Infinity War
(2018).
In September 2015, del Toro played Alejandro Gillick in the critically acclaimed
Sicario
, about a Mexican ex-prosecutor seeking revenge for the slaying of his wife and daughter working with a CIA special ops team to bring down the leader of a powerful and brutal Mexican drug cartel. Film critics widely praised his performance.
[23]
[24]
Del Toro reprised his role in the sequel
Sicario: Day of the Soldado
(2018). In 2016, del Toro appeared in a
Heineken
television
advertisement
in its
More Behind the Star
series. The gag in the spot is that fans frequently mistake him for fellow actor
Antonio Banderas
, much to del Toro's chagrin.
[25]
In 2017, he played DJ (an abbreviation for "Don't Join", as DJ viewed the Resistance and the First Order as equally corrupt), a supporting antagonist in
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
,
[26]
who betrayed Rose and Finn to save himself when they were apprehended on the First Order's flagship.
[27]
In 2021, del Toro starred in the
Wes Anderson
film
The French Dispatch
as Moses Rosenthaler, a mentally disturbed artist.
[28]
Personal life
[
edit
]
On April 11, 2011, del Toro's publicist announced that del Toro and
Kimberly Stewart
, daughter of British singer
Rod Stewart
were expecting a child, although they were not in a relationship.
[29]
Stewart gave birth to a daughter on August 21, 2011.
[30]
[29]
They had their daughter baptized in Puerto Rico.
[31]
On November 4, 2011, he acquired
Spanish citizenship
, along with fellow Puerto Rican
Ricky Martin
.
[32]
The request was granted by the Spanish government in recognition of his artistic talents
[32]
and for his Spanish ancestry (he has family in
Barcelona
).
[33]
In March 2012, he was granted an honorary degree by the
Interamerican University of Puerto Rico
for his influence on the cinema enterprise, during the celebration of the institution's centenary.
[34]
In 2003, Benicio del Toro became the spokesman of the educational campaign "Yo Limpio a Puerto Rico", an environmental organization founded in 1997 by Ignacio Barsottelli, whose mission is to educate and mobilize Puerto Ricans in favor of recycling and the protection of the environment.
[35]
Del Toro narrated the public service announcement entitled "Coral Reef", joining the "Artists to the rescue of the environment" campaign.
[35]
Filmography
[
edit
]
Film
[
edit
]
Television
[
edit
]
Theme park attractions
[
edit
]
Awards and nominations
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
This Is My Life: Benicio Del Toro - Memories of a bittersweet childhood.
Archived
September 28, 2007, at the
Wayback Machine
Gabriel de Lerma. The Miami Herald - El Nuevo Herald. 10 October 1997. Accessed 27 November 2020.
- ^
Mendez-Mendez, S.; Mendez, S.M.; Cueto, G.; Deynes, N.R.; Rodriguez-Deynes, N. (2003).
Notable Caribbeans and Caribbean Americans: A Biographical Dictionary
. Greenwood Press. p. 139.
ISBN
978-0-313-31443-8
. Retrieved
August 10,
2019
.
- ^
"Fausta Genoveva Sanchez Rivera] - United States Census, 1940"
.
FamilySearch
.
- ^
a
b
'Dammit, this guy is cool'
-
The Guardian
- published 2008-11-29, retrieved June 29, 2009.
- ^
"Gustavo Del Toro - Mount Sinai Doctors Faculty Practice"
. Mount Sinai Faculty Practice Associates. Archived from
the original
on March 22, 2016
. Retrieved
July 29,
2010
.
- ^
BARCELONA, CARMEN MUNOZ (November 5, 2011).
"Ricky Martin y Del Toro se hacen espanoles"
.
El Periodico
. Retrieved
July 9,
2019
.
- ^
"Benicio del Toro: "Soy como un enterrador"
"
.
El Mundo
. Retrieved
July 9,
2019
.
- ^
Historic Buildings and Structures in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Jorge L. Perez (
El Nuevo Dia
) and Jorge Figueroa (Ponce Municipal Historian). Text accompanying Drawing #20, titled "Tumba de los Bomberos". Puerto Rico Historic Buildings Drawings Society. 2019. Accessed 4 February 2019.
- ^
"Benicio Del Toro's "Let's Have Some Fun, Okay?" Page"
.
Portland Mercury
.
- ^
Mike Sager (April 1, 2005).
"Toro, Benicio Del"
.
Esquire
. Archived from
the original
on July 29, 2012
. Retrieved
October 12,
2010
.
- ^
'Traffic Stopper'
-
People
- published 2001-04-16, retrieved May 14, 2010.
- ^
'Benicio del Toro: Mild at heart'
-
Irish Independent
- published 2010-02-05, retrieved May 14, 2010.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
Stated in interview on
Inside the Actors Studio
- ^
"Benicio Del Toro gana premio a mejor actor en Cannes"
.
Primera Hora
(in Spanish). Associated Press. May 25, 2008. Archived from
the original
on December 8, 2008
. Retrieved
May 25,
2008
.
- ^
Hernandez, Eugene; Brooks, Brian (May 25, 2008).
"Laurent Cantent's
The Class
Wins the Palme d'Or"
.
indieWIRE
. Archived from
the original
on October 24, 2008
. Retrieved
May 25,
2008
.
- ^
Rolfe, Pamela (February 1, 2009).
"Camino Leads Goya Awards with Six Nods"
.
The Hollywood Reporter
. Archived from
the original
on February 5, 2009
. Retrieved
February 1,
2009
.
- ^
"Penn Surprised over Toro's Absence from Nominations List"
.
The Hindu
. February 8, 2009. Archived from
the original
on July 4, 2009
. Retrieved
February 14,
2009
.
- ^
Olsen, Mark (December 11, 2008). "Benicio Del Toro leads the charge for
Che
".
Los Angeles Times
.
- ^
"Benicio Del Toro Talks The Wolfman"
. DreadCentral. July 25, 2012.
- ^
Rosario, Mariela (September 30, 2010).
"Benicio Del Toro Named Face of 2011 Campari Calendar"
.
Latina
. Retrieved
April 13,
2011
.
- ^
Badiali, Alessandro (October 22, 2010).
"Guests in frenzy for the Puerto Rican actor, star of the Campari Calendar 2011"
.
Vogue
. Archived from
the original
on October 1, 2011
. Retrieved
April 13,
2011
.
- ^
Fleming, Mike Jr. (June 3, 2013).
"Benicio Del Toro Takes Lead Role In Marvel's 'Guardians Of The Galaxy'
"
.
Deadline Hollywood
.
Archived
from the original on June 7, 2013
. Retrieved
June 3,
2013
.
- ^
Galloway, Stephen; Belloni, Matthew (January 18, 2016).
"Watch THR's Full, Uncensored Actor Roundtable With Will Smith, Mark Ruffalo and More ? Actor Oscar Roundtable"
.
The Hollywood Reporter
. Retrieved
January 25,
2016
.
- ^
Galloway, Stephen; Belloni, Matthew.
"Will Smith, Mark Ruffalo and Four More A-List Actors on Hollywood Racism, Aging and … Peeing in Sinks?"
.
The Hollywood Reporter
. Retrieved
January 25,
2016
.
- ^
[1]
, reviewed Aug. 16, 2016.
Archived
July 7, 2016, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
"Star Wars Episode 8's Villain to Be Played by Benicio Del Toro"
.
GameSpot
.
- ^
"DJ"
.
StarWars.com
. Retrieved
October 7,
2022
.
- ^
Raup, Jordan (December 2, 2018).
"Timothee Chalamet, Benicio del Toro & More Join Wes Anderson's 'The French Dispatch'
"
. Retrieved
December 2,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
"Kimberly Stewart Gives Birth to Baby Girl!"
.
Us Weekly
. August 21, 2011
. Retrieved
August 21,
2011
.
- ^
Finlayson, Ariana (December 4, 2011).
"First Pic: Meet Kimberly Stewart's Daughter, Delilah, 3 Months"
.
Us Weekly
. Retrieved
December 21,
2011
.
- ^
"Benicio Del Toro Baptises Daughter in Puerto Rico - Latin Gossip"
.
www.latingossip.com
.
[
permanent dead link
]
- ^
a
b
"Spanish citizenship for Ricky Martin, Benicio del Toro | CTV News"
.
www.ctvnews.ca
. November 4, 2011
. Retrieved
October 8,
2019
.
- ^
Puente, Maria (November 4, 2011).
"Oscar winner Benicio del Toro, singer Ricky Martin become Spanish citizens"
.
USA Today
. Retrieved
November 8,
2011
.
- ^
"Benicio del Toro recibe homenaje en la Interamericana de San German"
. March 4, 2012. Archived from
the original
on March 7, 2012
. Retrieved
January 12,
2015
.
- ^
a
b
Vargas, Patricia (June 10, 2003).
"Protege Benicio la vida marina"
(in Spanish). Adendi.com
. Retrieved
October 2,
2015
.
External links
[
edit
]
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