Antonio Banderas

Antonio Banderas as a baby.

Antonio Banderas was born August 10, 1960 in Malaga Spain. He studied drama he began acting in small roles during his early teens. He eventually moved to Madrid where he preformed in small plays including Historia de los Tarontos and La hijia del Aire. In Madrid he then met Pedro Almovar who gave him a small part in the film Laberinto de Pasiohes (1982). From then on he worked exclusively with Almodovar in such film as Matador (1985) and La ley del deseo (1986).His first bona fide American movie role was in The Mabo Kings (1992), and still not knowing a lot of English he was forced to learn his lines phonetically. From his credit, his performance as a struggling musician was critically praised. Early in the 1990’slargley due to the international popularity of Almodovar films, he began a film career in Hollywood.His real breakthough to the mainstream American audience came with staring in the movie Philadelphia with Tom Hanks(1993). Antonio played the role of a gay lover of a lawyer with AIDS (Tom Hanks) with a sensitivity that earned him much fame. This star was now working with the likes of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. Antonio had really made the grade in Hollywood. When Antonio then made his next big movie Evita(1996)opposite Madonna, in a sinning dancing role. The following year, Antonio made the mask of Zorro(1998),with Catherin Zeta-Jones and Anthony Hopkins. It seemed that he could do no wrong personally