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José Antonio Domínguez Banderas (born August 19, 1960), better known as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish film actor and singer who has starred in high-profile Hollywood films including Assassins, Evita, Interview with the Vampire, Philadelphia, The Mask of Zorro, the Mariachi sequels, and the Shrek sequels. A gifted actor with old-fashioned matinee-idol looks, Antonio Banderas smoldered his way to an international following with his sly send-ups of Latin machismo in the films of fellow Spaniard Pedro Almodovar. Born on August 10, 1960 in Malaga, Spain, Banderas actor set out to be a professional soccer player. But when a foot injury sidetracked his plans, Banderas turned his attention to the stage, completing his studies at Malaga's School of Dramatic Art before embarking upon a five-year stint with the prestigious National Theater of Spain, where he quickly caught the eye of Almodovar. Banderas was born in Málaga, Andalucia, southern Spain, the son of doña Ana Bandera, a school teacher, and José Domínguez, a policeman in the Guardia Civil. He also has a brother, Francisco. Banderas was raised as a Roman Catholic, but no longer follows the religion. He took his mother's surname as his stage name. He initially wanted to play football (soccer) professionally, but his dream ended when he broke his foot at age 14. As a young man, he traveled to Madrid, in order to make a career in the Spanish film industry. He made a fine feature debut as a dim-witted terrorist with an uncanny sense of smell in the director's "Labyrinth of Passion" (1982), a sometimes crude and always outlandish sex farce peopled with transvestites, punk rockers and nymphomaniacs. Even more effective was their second collaboration, "Matador" (1986), which saw Banderas play an emotionally-repressed student of the bullfight who confesses to the police not only his attempted rape of his teacher's girlfriend, but also to a series of murders he did not commit. Banderas' fortunes rose with Almodovar's, and the self-deprecating actor showed little concern for his image when he courageously portrayed his first gay character in the director's "Law of Desire" (1987), accepting the passionate kiss of another man as just another day at the office. As a heterosexual who discovers homosexual love for the first time, he was a madman whose maniacal possessiveness leads first to murder, then suicide. Almodovar's next two pictures introduced the charming, heartthrob to American audiences. His Clark Kentish nerd took a back seat to star Carmen Maura in the director's breakthrough "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" (1988), but Banderas was front and center in "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" (1990) as Ricky, the charismatic mental patient who kidnaps, binds and woos a drug-addicted porn star. Though it still possessed Almodovar's unpredictable black humor, this change-of-pace film replaced the director's campy, boisterous hilarity with an anguished—albeit offbeat—romantic heterosexual yearning and provided a stunning showcase for the actors' vulnerable masculinity. His acting career began at the age of 19, when he worked in small theaters during the Movida period. He first gained wide attention through a series of films by director Pedro Almodóvar, between 1982 and 1990. These included Laberinto de pasiones (1982), Matador (1986), La ley del deseo (1987), Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (1988), and ¡Átame! (1989). His breakthrough role was as the character "Ricky" in ¡Átame! (English-language title: Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!), which was a minor success in the United States. He subsequently moved to the U.S. and began appearing in American films; some of his earlier roles there included the 1992 film, The Mambo Kings, as well as a supporting role in the Oscar-winning 1993 film, Philadelphia. He appeared in several major Hollywood releases in 1995, including a starring role in the Robert Rodriguez-directed film, Desperado. In 1996, he starred alongside Madonna in Evita, an adaptation of the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice in which he played the narrator, Che, a role originally played on Broadway by Mandy Patinkin. He also received critical praise for his role as the fictional Mexican masked swordsman, Zorro in the 1998 film The Mask of Zorro, for which he was the first Spanish actor to portray the character after over 80 years since Zorro's creation. Despite knowing only a handful of English words, Banderas pulled out of Almodovar's "High Heels" (1991) to make his Hollywood debut in "The Mambo Kings" (1992), portraying a soulful Cuban trumpeter who comes to America in the 1950s. When an intensive, crash Berlitz course proved insufficient, the actor had to learn his dialogue phonetically, and audiences came away sensing he had no idea what he was saying. Still, his screen presence was undeniable, and the commercial failure served as a springboard to supporting roles in major productions. In "Philadelphia" (1993), he was cast him Tom Hanks' understanding boyfriend, but in obvious contrast to the highly-charged gay love scenes he'd shot with Almodovar, scenes of non-sexual intimacy did not make the final cut, prompting Hanks to explain weakly: "These guys have been together nine years. They're probably just once-a-weekers." (Neon, January 1999) That year's "The House of the Spirits,” directed by Billie August, featured him as a revolutionary romancing both Glenn Close and Winona Ryder, but "Interview with the Vampire" (1994) gave him better scene-stealing opportunities opposite Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt as Old World vampire Armand, a former flame of Cruise and the sexiest vampire of the highly publicized production. Banderas compromised his rising star by making six movies in 1995, including his first starring turn in an American feature, Robert Rodriguez's "Desperado.” Though he came off well as the shimmering gunslinger in the director's reworking of the low budget success, "El Mariachi" (1992), the physical attraction between the actor and femme lead Selma Hayek could not provide enough juice to make up for the lack of story. He also appeared Rodriguez's segment of the embarrassing "Four Rooms,” played Mia Farrow's lover in "Miami Rhapsody,” busied himself alongside Sylvester Stallone as one of the titular "Assassins,” portrayed the mysterious stranger who sweeps into Rebecca De Mornay's life in "Never Talk to Strangers" and starred opposite future wife Melanie Griffith in "Two Much.” Ridiculously overexposed, Banderas realized he could ill afford to take every role offered, and his relationship with Griffith gave him his first experience of the paparazzi, while the media painted him as a home wrecker (who had left his first wife broken-hearted) and his new amour as a bubblehead. Banderas got his career back on track as the ubiquitous narrator Che in Alan Parker's long-awaited film version of the stage musical "Evita" (1996). Teamed with Madonna (as Eva Peron), whose public panting after him in "Truth or Dare" (1991) had proved a boon to the then-unknown Spanish actor's career, he displayed an easy charm and a surprisingly supple singing voice, catapulting to the front of the ranks considered for "The Phantom of the Opera" (still in development at Warner Bros.). Opting for quality over quantity, he returned to the multiplexes after a two-year absence as a thief hand-picked to succeed Anthony Hopkins as the masked avenger in "The Mask of Zorro" (1998), joining the august likes of Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Tyrone Power as the first Latino to ever play the 19th-century Mexican swashbuckler. He has also frequently collaborated with his Once upon a time in Mexico director, Rodriguez, who cast him in the Spy Kids film trilogy and the final installment in the "Mariachi" trilogy (which he appeared in with Johnny Depp), Once Upon A Time In Mexico. Banderas' sole credit as a director was the poorly-received Crazy in Alabama (1999), starring his wife Melanie Griffith. In 2003, he returned to the musical genre, appearing to great acclaim in the Broadway revival of Maury Yeston's musical Nine, based on the film 8½, playing the prime role originated by the late Raul Julia. Banderas won both the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards, and was nominated for the Tony Award for best actor in a musical His performance is preserved on the Broadway cast recording released by PS Classics. Banderas acquitted himself admirably in his producing and directorial debut, "Crazy in Alabama" (starring Griffith), though its darkly comedic subject matter appealed more to art-house tastes and he cut a fine figure as the Arab lead amidst Vikings in John McTiernan's "The Thirteenth Warrior" (both 1999), which, though appropriately gory, fell short of true epic stature. He then starred with Woody Harrelson as rival boxers in Ron Shelton's "Play It to the Bone" (2000). He was on surer ground as a retired secret agent who must rely on his children to rescue him when he is caught by villains in the appealing "Spy Kids" (2001), directed by old pal Robert Rodriguez. On the other hand, his prodigious talent was virtually wasted in "Original Sin" (also 2001), a would-be steamy adaptation of the novel "Waltz into Darkness" about a man who orders a mail-order bride and then becomes erotically obsessed with her. In 2002, Banderas reunited with the cast and crew of "Spy Kids" to film "Spy Kids 2: The Island Of Lost Dreams". In "Spy Kids 2,” the Cortez children (Vega and Sabara) set out to save the world from a genetic scientist and rival spy kid, and as expected it was a strong performer at the box office. He was then seen in director Brian de Palma visually arresting noir thriller "Femme Fatale" (2002), which also co-starred Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, a film that drew more than its fair share of negative reviews but was also touted as brilliant cinema in some circles. After a well-received stint on Broadway in "Nine," a musical inspired by Fellini's film "8 1/2" Banderas as a film director in the Fellini mold, the actor next returned to familiar territory for "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over" (2003) and reprised his role as El Maiachi for Rodriguez's successful threequel "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" (2003). Tweaking his image as a sexy, macho swashbuckler, Banderas next provided the pitch-perfect voice of the rapier-wielding Puss-in-Boots for the CGI sequel "Shrek 2" (2004). More serious was his turn in "Imagining Argentina" (2004), as an Argentine playwright in Peron-era Buenos Aires who has a preternatural ability to see what will happen to people's loved ones—many of whom are missing, or soon will be—when he looks into their faces and must turn this power inward when his activist journalist wife (Emma Thompson) disappears. Banderas reprised his role as the titular masked avenger in "The Legend of Zorro" (2005), who becomes pressed to give up his swashbuckling ways and lead a responsible life or lose his wife and child. The long-delayed sequel—released seven years after the original—was a mere shadow of its predecessor, both in terms of thrills and box office dollars. In “Take the Lead” (2006), Banderas tackled the true-life story of ballroom dancer Pierre Dulaine, who volunteered his time to teach a group of inner-city hard cases how to dance. Ridiculed at first, Dulaine eventually wins them over with unwavering commitment and dedication, inspiring the class to fuse classic ballroom dancing with hip-hop and participate in a prestigious city dance competition. Meanwhile, Banderas revived Puss-in-Boots for the continuing adventures of the massive green ogre (Mike Myers) and his motley band of friends in “Shrek the Third” (2007). His voice role as Puss in Boots in Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third made the character popular on the family film circuit. In 2005, he reprised his role as Zorro in The Legend of Zorro, though this was not as critically successful as the original. In 2006, he starred in Take the Lead, a high school-set movie in which he played a real-life ballroom dancing teacher. That year, he also received the L.A. Latino International Film Festival's "Gabi" Lifetime Achievement Award, on October 14. He hosted Saturday Night Live's 600th episode (in season 31). The musical guest was Mary J. Blige. He performed a voice-over for a computer-animated bee which can be seen in the United States in television commercials for Nasonex, an allergy medication, and was seen in the 2007 Christmas advertising campaign for Marks & Spencer, a British retailer. He is being considered for the part of Hadrian in the in-production (as of February 2008) film Memoirs of Hadrian. Banderas divorced his first wife, Ana Leza, and married actress Melanie Griffith, whom he met a year earlier when they shot Two Much. They have a daughter, Stella del Carmen Banderas Griffith, born in 1996, who appeared in the film Crazy in Alabama (1999), in which Griffith starred and which Banderas directed. He has invested his movie earnings in business marketing Andalusian products, which he promotes in Spain and the USA. He is a long time supporter of the Málaga CF and Real Madrid Football Club. While he speaks in his native Andalusian Spanish with his family and Spanish press, he switches to the Castilian pronunciation when playing non-Andalusian roles or when dubbing his Hollywood performances. |
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