Antonio Banderas
Antonio Banderas at the Shrek the Third London premiere, June 2007
Born	José Antonio Domínguez Banderas August 10, 1960 (1960-08-10) (age 49) Benalmádena, Málaga, Andalusia, Spain
Occupation	Actor, director, singer
Years active	1979–present
Spouse(s)	Ana Leza (1987–1995) Melanie Griffith (1996–present)

José Antonio Domínguez-Banderas (born August 10, 1960), better known as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish film actor, film director, film producer and singer. He began his acting career at age 19 with a series of films by director Pedro Almodóvar and then appeared in high-profile Hollywood films including Assassins, Evita, Interview with the Vampire, Philadelphia, Desperado, The Mask of Zorro, Spy Kids and the Shrek sequels.

Early life

Banderas was born in Benalmádena, Málaga, a town in Andalusia, Spain, in 1960. The son of doña Ana Banderas, a school teacher, and José Domínguez, a police officer in the Guardia Civil.¹² He also has one younger brother, Francisco. Banderas was raised as a Roman Catholic, and has gone with his family to the Holy Week in Málaga.^{citation needed} He has on occasion prayed to the Virgin of Guadalupe.³ He took his mother's surname as his stage name.⁴ He initially wanted to play football 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.

Career in Spain

Banderas' acting career began at the age of 19, when he worked in small theatres during the Movida period. He first gained wide attention of the Spanish audience through starring on a set of films by director Pedro Almodóvar between 1982 and 1990. These films included Labyrinth of Passion ("Laberinto de pasiones", 1982), Matador (1986), Law of Desire ("La Ley del Deseo", 1987), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown ("Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios", 1988), and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! ("¡Átame!", 1989), in which he performed his breakthrough role as "Ricky".

Career in Hollywood

He 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 made success with his role as the legendary 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.

Alongside of the movie Desperado, he has more recently collaborated with Robert Rodriguez who cast him in the Spy Kids film trilogy and the last installment of the "Mexico" trilogy Once Upon A Time In Mexico (in which he appeared with Johnny Depp and Salma Hayek). Banderas' debut 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 Raúl Juliá. Banderas won both the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards, and was nominated for the Tony Award for best actor in a musical.⁵ His performance is preserved on the Broadway cast recording released by PS Classics.

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 successful as The Mask of Zorro. 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 directed his second film El camino de los ingleses (Summer Rain), and also received the L.A. Latino International Film Festival's "Gabi" Lifetime Achievement Award on 14 October.⁶ 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,⁷ an allergy medication, and was seen in the 2007 Christmas advertising campaign for Marks & Spencer, a British retailer.⁸ He is being considered for the part of Hadrian in the in-production (as of February 2008) film Memoirs of Hadrian.⁹ He is also planning to produce a film based on Muhammad XII, the last Moorish ruler of Granada.¹⁰

He also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 6801 Hollywood Blvd in 2005.

Personal life

Banderas divorced his first wife, Ana G. Leza, and in May 1996 married Melanie Griffith.¹¹ whom he met a year earlier when they shot Two Much.¹² They have a daughter, Stella Banderas, born in 1998, who appeared in the film Crazy in Alabama (1999), in which Griffith starred and which Banderas directed.¹³

He has invested his movie earnings in Andalusian products, which he promotes in Spain and the USA.¹³ He owns 50% of a winery in Northern Spain called Anta Banderas which makes red and rose wines.¹⁴

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 roles.^{citation needed}

He is a long time supporter of the Málaga CF¹⁵ and Real Madrid Football Club.

Filmography

As an actor

• You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (2010)
• Shrek Forever After (2010) as Puss In Boots (voice)
• The Big Bang (2010) as Ned Cruz
• Un-broke: What You Need To Know About Money (2009): television special on economics
• Thick as Thieves (2009) as Gabriel
• The Other Man (2008) as rafe
• My Mom's New Boyfriend (2008) as Tommy
• Shrek the Third (2007) as Puss In Boots (voice)
• Bordertown (2007) as Díaz
• Take the Lead (2006) as Pierre Dulaine
• The Legend of Zorro (2005) as Don Alejandro de la Vega/Zorro
• Shrek 2 (2004) as Puss In Boots (voice) (this is one of the few movies in which Banderas himself sings)
  • Far Far Away Idol (2004) as Puss In Boots (voice)
• Imagining Argentina (2003) as Carlos Rueda
• And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2003) (TV) as Pancho Villa
• Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) as El Mariachi
• Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003) as Gregorio Cortez
• Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002) as Agent Jeremiah Ecks
• Frida (2002) as David Alfaro Siqueiros
• Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (2002) as Gregorio Cortez
• Femme Fatale (2002) as Nicolas Bardo
• Original Sin (2001) as Luís Vargast
• Spy Kids (2001) as Gregorio Cortez
• The Body (2001) as Father Matt Gutiérrez
• Play It to the Bone (1999) as César Domínguez
• The White River Kid (1999) as Morales Pittman
• The 13th Warrior (1999) as Ahmad ibn Fadlan ibn al-Abbas ibn Rashid ibn Hamad
• Andrew Lloyd Webber's Royal Albert Hall Celebration (1998) reprising his role as Che
• The Mask of Zorro (1998) as Alejandro Murrieta/Zorro
• Evita (1996) as Che
• Two Much (1995) as Art Dodge
• Never Talk to Strangers (1995) as Tony Ramirez
• Assassins (1995) as Miguel Bain
• Four Rooms (1995) as Man (segment "The Misbehavers")
• Desperado (1995) as El Mariachi
• Miami Rhapsody (1995) as Antonio
• Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) as Armand
• Of Love and Shadows (1994) as Francisco
• Philadelphia (1993) as Miguel Álvarez
• The House of the Spirits (1993) as Pedro Tercero García
• ¡Dispara! (Outrage!) (1993) as Marcos
• Il Giovane Mussolini (Benito) (1993) (TV) as Benito Mussolini
• The Mambo Kings (1992) as Néstor Castillo
• Una Mujer bajo la lluvia (1992) as Miguel
• Terra Nova (1991) as Antonio
• Contra el viento (1990) as Juan
• ¡Átame! (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!) (1990) as Ricky
• La otra historia de Rosendo Juárez (1990) (TV) as Rosendo Juárez
• El Acto (1989) as Carlos
• Huesta Luego Tenis (1989) as Jake Spicer
• La Blanca Paloma (1989) as Mario
• Si te dicen que caí (If They Tell You I Fell) (1989) as Marcos
• Bajarse al moro (1989) as Alberto
• Bâton Rouge (1988) as Antonio
• El placer de matar (The Pleasure of Killing) (1988) as Luis
• Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) (1988) as Carlos
• La Mujer de tu vida: La mujer feliz (1988) (TV) as Antonio
• Así como habían sido (1987) as Damián
• La ley del deseo (Law of Desire) (1987) as Antonio Benítez
• Delirios de amor (1986)
• 27 horas (1986) as Rafa
• Puzzle (1986)
• Matador (1986) as Ángel
• Caso cerrado (1985) as Preso
• La corte de Faraón (1985) as Fray José
• Réquiem por un campesino español (1985) as Paco
• Los zancos (1984) as Alberto
• Fragmentos de interior (1984) TV Series as Joaquín
• El señor Galíndez (1984) as Eduardo
• El caso Almería (1984)
• Y del seguro... líbranos Señor! (1983)
• Laberinto de pasiones (Labyrinth of Passion) (1982) as Sadec
• Pestañas postizas (1982) as Antonio Juan

See also

• List of celebrities who own wineries and vineyards

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Antonio Banderas

• Antonio Banderas appointed Goodwill Ambassador at Bay Ledger
• Antonio Banderas at the Internet Movie Database
• Antonio Banderas at the TCM Movie Database
• Antonio Banderas at the Internet Broadway Database