Benicio del Toro

Benicio del Toro
Benicio del Toro in Luis Munoz Marin Aiport in Carolina, Puerto Rico
Born	Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez
Awards	Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor 1997Basquiat 1996The Usual Suspects

Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (born February 19 1967) is an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award and British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award winning Puerto Rican actor and film producer. He is best known for his roles as Fred Fenster in The Usual Suspects, Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez in Traffic, Jack 'Jackie Boy' Rafferty in Sin City, and Frankie Four Fingers in Snatch.

Biography

Early life

Del Toro was born in Miramar, Santurce, Puerto Rico; his parents, Gustavo Adolfo del Toro Bermúdez and Fausta Sánchez Rivera, were both lawyers. He has an older brother, Gustavo, who is a pediatric oncologist. Del Toro's childhood nicknames were "Skinny Benny" and "Beno". He was raised Catholic and attended Academia del Perpetuo Socorro (The Academy of Our Lady of Perpetual Help), a Roman Catholic school in Miramar, Puerto Rico. When he was nine years old, his mother died of hepatitis. At the age of thirteen, del Toro's father moved his two sons to Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, where del Toro was enrolled at the Mercersburg Academy. He spent his adolescence and high school there.

After graduation, del Toro followed the advice of his father and pursued a degree in business at the University of California, San Diego. 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.

Career

Del Toro began to surface in small television parts during the late 1980s, playing mostly thugs and drug dealers on programs like Miami Vice and the NBC miniseries, Drug Wars: The Camarena Story. He had a cameo in Madonna's 1987 music video clip "La Isla Bonita" as a background character. Work in films followed, beginning with his debut in Big Top Pee-wee and in the 007 film Licence to Kill, in which 21-year-old del Toro held the distinction of being the youngest actor ever to play a Bond villain. Although both films were considered box office disappointments, del Toro continued to appear in movies like The Indian Runner (1991), China Moon (1991), 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. The role won him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor and established him as a character actor. This led to more strong roles in independent and major studio films, including playing Gaspare in Abel Ferrara's The Funeral (1996) and winning a second consecutive Best Supporting Actor Independent Spirit Award for his work as Benny Dalmau in Basquiat (1996), directed by his friend, artist Julian Schnabel. Del Toro also shared the screen with Robert De Niro in the big budget thriller The Fan, in which he played Juan Primo, a charismatic Mexican baseball star.

For Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the 1998 film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's famous book, he packed on more than 40 lbs. (about 18 kg) to play Dr. Gonzo (a.k.a. Oscar Zeta Acosta), Thompson's lawyer and drug-fiend cohort. The surrealistic film, directed by Terry Gilliam, has earned a cult following over the years. Returning from a two-year hiatus after Fear and Loathing, del Toro would gain a mainstream audience in 2000 with a string of performances in four high-profile films. First up was The Way of the Gun, a crime yarn that reunited him with The Usual Suspects screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, making his directorial debut. 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 cop 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 and earned him his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

His praised work swept all of the major critics awards in 2001, as well as the Golden Globe, and the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. In addition to the critical accolades, Traffic was also a success at the box office, bringing to del Toro real Hollywood clout for the first time in his career. While Traffic was still playing in theaters, two other del Toro films were released in late 2000/early 2001. He had a brief role as the diamond thief Franky Four Fingers in Guy Ritchie's hip caper comedy Snatch, and played a mentally-challenged Native American man in The Pledge, directed by his old friend Sean Penn.

All of this attention helped to cement Benicio's status as a sex symbol. He was placed on People magazine's annual "50 Most Beautiful People" list. While his looks have led to comparisons with Marlon Brando and James Dean, he has been jokingly referred as the "Spanish Brad Pitt". In 2003, del Toro appeared in two films: The Hunted, co-starring Tommy Lee Jones, and the drama 21 Grams, an acting tour-de-force, co-starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts. He went on to garner another Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his work in the latter.

His most recent roles were 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. Things We Lost in the Fire co-starred Halle Berry, Alison Lohman, and John Carroll Lynch.

Academy Award

In 2001, del Toro became the fourth Oscar winner whose winning role was a character who speaks predominantly in a foreign language (most of del Toro's dialogue is in Spanish). Sophia Loren, Robert De Niro, and Roberto Benigni are the other three. Del Toro is also the third Puerto Rican actor to win an Oscar. The other two were actors Jose Ferrer and Rita Moreno. The night he won his Oscar, it was the first time that two actors born in Puerto Rico were nominated in the same category (The other actor was Joaquin Phoenix for his role in Gladiator).

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1988	Big Top Pee-wee	Duke, the Dog-Faced Boy
1989	Licence to Kill	Dario
1991	The Indian Runner	Miguel
1992	Christopher Columbus: The Discovery	Alvaro Harana	with Marlon Brando
1993	Fearless	Manny Rodrigo
	Huevos de oro	Bob, the friend from Miami
	Money for Nothing	Dino Palladino
1994	Swimming with Sharks	Rex
	China Moon	Lamar Dickey
1995	The Usual Suspects	Fred Fenster
1996	The Funeral	Gaspare Spoglia
	The Fan	Juan Primo
	Cannes Man	Himself
	Basquiat	Benny Dalmau
	Joyride	Detective Lopez
1997	Excess Baggage	Vincent Roche
1998	Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas	Dr. Gonzo aka Oscar Zeta Acosta
2000	Traffic	Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
	The Way of the Gun	Harry Longbaugh
	Snatch	Franky 'Four Fingers'
	Bread and Roses	Himself	Cameo
2001	The Pledge	Toby Jay Wadenah
2003	21 Grams	Jack Jordan	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination
	The Hunted	Aaron Hallam
2005	Sin City	Jack 'Jackie Boy' Rafferty
2007	Things We Lost in the Fire	Jerry Sunborne
2008	Guerrilla	Ernesto 'Che' Guevara de la Serna	post-production
	The Argentine	Ernesto 'Che' Guevara de la Serna	post-production
2009	The Wolf Man	Lawrence Talbot / The Wolf Man	Filming

Awards

Year	Award	Nomination	Film
1995	Independent Spirit Award	Best Supporting Actor win	The Usual Suspects
1996	Independent Spirit Award	Best Supporting Actor win	Basquiat
2000	Academy Award	Best Supporting Actor win	Traffic
	Berlin International Film Festival	Silver Bear for Best Actor win	Traffic
	British Academy Awards (BAFTA)	Best Supporting Actor win	Traffic
	Chicago Film Critics Association	Best Supporting Actor win	Traffic
	Golden Globe	Best Supporting Actor win	Traffic
	National Society of Film Critics	Best Supporting Actor win	Traffic
	New York Film Critics Circle	Best Supporting Actor win	Traffic
	Screen Actors Guild	Best Actor win	Traffic
	Toronto Film Critics Association	Best Actor win	Traffic
2003	Academy Award	Best Supporting Actor nomination	21 Grams
	Chicago Film Critics Association	Best Supporting Actor nomination	21 Grams
	L.A. Film Critics Association	Best Supporting Actor win	21 Grams
	Screen Actors Guild	Best Supporting Actor nomination	21 Grams

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See also

• List of male movie actors (A-K)
• List of Best Supporting Actor nominees
• List of famous Puerto Ricans
• List of James Bond villains
• List of Navy-Vieques protesters and supporters
• List of Puerto Ricans in the Academy Awards

External links

• Benicio Del Toro at IMDb

• This Is My Life: Benicio Del Toro - Miami Herald (October 10, 1997)
• All About Benicio - Biography
• Benicio del Toro Heaven: THE Place for Benoholics© - Message Board
• The World of Benicio del Toro - Fan site