Antonio Banderas

Antonio Banderas, born José Antonio Domínguez Bandera on 10 August 1960 in Málaga, Spain, is a Spanish actor whose career spans multiple film genres. He has won a Cannes Film Festival Award and a Goya Award, and has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award.

His acting career began on a small stage in Málaga, where director Pedro Almodóvar noticed him and cast him in the 1982 screwball comedy *Labyrinth of Passion*. The two have worked together on eight films, including *Matador* (1986), *Law of Desire* (1987), *Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown* (1988), *Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!* (1989), *The Skin I Live In* (2011), and *Pain and Glory* (2019). The last film earned Banderas the Cannes Best Actor award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

Banderas made his American film debut in the 1992 musical drama *The Mambo Kings*. He went on to appear in *Philadelphia* (1993), *Interview with the Vampire* (1994), *Assassins* (1995), *Evita* (1996), *Official Competition* (2021), *Babygirl* (2024), and *Tony* (2026). He played El Mariachi in *Desperado* (1995) and *Once Upon a Time in Mexico* (2003), Zorro in *The Mask of Zorro* (1998) and *The Legend of Zorro* (2005), the patriarch in the *Spy Kids* series (2001–2003), and voiced Puss in Boots in the *Shrek* films (2004–present). His adventure film credits include *The Expendables 3* (2014), *Uncharted* (2022), *Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny* (2023), and *Paddington in Peru* (2024).

On Broadway, he debuted in the 2003 musical revival *Nine*, playing an Italian film director, which earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. On television, he received Primetime Emmy nominations for portraying Pancho Villa in the HBO film *And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself* (2004) and Pablo Picasso in the National Geographic series *Genius* (2018). He made his directorial debut with the comedy *Crazy in Alabama* (1999), followed by *Summer Rain* (2006).

Banderas was born in Málaga, Andalusia, to a Civil Guard officer father, José Domínguez Prieto (1920–2008), and a schoolteacher mother, Ana Bandera Gallego (1933–2017). He has a younger brother, Francisco. As a boy, he dreamed of becoming a professional footballer until a broken foot at age 15 ended that ambition. He then turned to performing arts, training at the ARA Theatre School run by Ángeles Rubio-Argüelles y Alessandri and the College of Dramatic Art in Málaga. His theater work and street performances led to a spot with the Spanish National Theatre.

His early acting studies were at the School of Dramatic Art in Málaga, and he began performing at a small theater there during Spain's post-dictatorial La Movida Madrileña cultural movement. Almodóvar gave him his film debut in *Labyrinth of Passion* (1982). Five years later, Banderas appeared in Almodóvar's comedic thriller *Law of Desire* (1987), gaining attention for playing a gay man and his first onscreen male-to-male kiss. He also starred in Almodóvar's *Matador*, with *The New York Times* praising the cast. Almodóvar cast him in the internationally acclaimed *Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown* (1988), with *The Washington Post* calling his performance "warm." The following year, he played a mental patient who kidnaps a porn star in Almodóvar's controversial *Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!* (1989), a breakthrough role that propelled him toward Hollywood.

In 1991, Madonna introduced Banderas to Hollywood. The next year, speaking minimal English, he began acting in American films, learning lines phonetically. His performance in *The Mambo Kings* (1992) was praised by critics from *The Los Angeles Times*, *Newsweek*, and *Entertainment Weekly*. He broke through to mainstream American audiences in 1993's *Philadelphia*, playing Tom Hanks's life partner. That same year, he acted in *The House of the Spirits*, an adaptation of Isabel Allende's novel, alongside Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons.