Antonio Banderas

=Antonio Banderas=

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This name uses Spanish naming customs. The first or paternal family name is "Domínguez" and the second or maternal family name is "Bandera".

José Antonio Domínguez Bandera (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.

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Contents
[hide]*1 Early life


 * 2 Career


 * 2.1 Early work
 * 2.2 Breakthrough
 * 3 Business activities
 * 4 Personal life
 * 5 Filmography


 * 5.1 Movies & TV
 * 5.2 Musicals on Broadway
 * 6 See also
 * 7 References
 * 8 External links
 * }

[edit] Early life
Banderas was born in Málaga, Andalucía, Spain in 1960 to Ana Bandera, a school teacher, and José Domínguez Prieto, a police officer in the Guardia Civil . [1]  [2]  He has a younger brother, Francisco. Although the family name is Domínguez, he took his mother's surname as his stage name. [3] He initially wanted to be a soccer player in his youth, but his dream ended when he broke his foot at the age of 14.

[ edit ] Early work
His 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.  Labyrinth of Passion  (Laberinto de Pasiones, 1982 ), in which he played a gay man;  Matador  ( 1986 ), in which he played a troubled young man who is confused about ;  Law of Desire  (La Ley del Deseo, 1987 ), in which he played a psychotic gay stalker;  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 played "Ricky", which was his breakthrough role, garnering him attention.

[ edit ] Breakthrough
Banderas was first introduced to American audiences in the documentary, " Madonna: Truth or Dare ". He began acting in U.S. films in the early nineties; 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  and the antagonist on the action film  Assassins  co starred with Sylvester Stallone.

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 played by David Essex in the original 1978 West End production. 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.[ citation needed ]

In 2001, he collaborated with Robert Rodriguez who cast him in the  Spy Kids  film trilogy. He also starred in Michael Cristofer 's  Original Sin  alongside Angelina Jolie the same year. In 2002, he starred in Brian De Palma 's  Femme Fatale  opposite Rebecca Romijn-Stamos and in Julie Taymor 's  Frida  with Salma Hayek. In 2003 he starred in 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 . [4]

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. The following year (2004), he received the Rita Moreno HOLA Award for Excellence from the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA). Banderas in June 2007His voice role as Puss in Boots in  Shrek 2  and  Shrek the Third  and the last film in the Shrek franchise,  Shrek Forever After  which 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-set movie in which he played a ballroom dancing teacher. That year, he directed his second film  El camino de los ingleses  (English title: Summer Rain), and also received the L.A. Latino International Film Festival's "Gabi" Lifetime Achievement Award on 14 October. [6] He hosted the 600th episode of  Saturday Night Live  (during season 31). 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 received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 6801 Hollywood Blvd in 2005.

Banderas stars as a revenge-seeking surgeon following the rape of his daughter in Pedro Almodovar 's latest flick  The Skin I Live In . Banderas once again lends his voice for Puss in Boots this time as the protagonist of the Shrek spin-off family film,  Puss in Boots: The Story of an Ogre Killer . This film has Banderas reunite with Salma Hayek for the sixth time. [9]

[edit] Business activities
He has invested some of his film earnings in Andalusian products, which he promotes in Spain and the US. [10] He owns 50% of a winery in Villalba de Duero, Burgos, Spain, called Anta Banderas, which produces red and rosé wines. [11]

He has been a veteran of the perfume industry. The actor has been working with fragrance and beauty multinational company Puig for over ten years becoming one of the brand's most successful representatives. Banderas and Puig have successfully promoted a number of fragrances so far – Diavolo, Diavolo for Women, Mediterraneo, Spirit, Spirit for Women, and following the success of Antonio and Blue Seduction for men in 2007 launched his latest Blue Seduction for Women the following year. [12]

[edit] Personal life
Banderas divorced his first wife, Ana Leza, and in May 1996 married American actress Melanie Griffith , [13] whom he had met a year earlier while shooting  Two Much . [14]  They have a daughter, Stella del Carmen (b. 1996), who appeared with her parents in the film  Crazy in Alabama  (1999), in which Griffith starred and which Banderas directed. [10]

In 1996, Banderas appeared among other figures of Spanish culture in a video supporting the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party lists in the general election .<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-El_Pa.C3.ADs_14-0"> [15]

He is a long time supporter of the Málaga CF .<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-15"> [16]

He is an officer (mayordomo de trono) of a Roman Catholic religious brotherhood in Málaga and travels, with his wife and daughter, during Holy Week to take part in the processions ,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ABC_16-0"> [17] although in an interview with People magazine Banderas had once described himself as an agnostic&nbsp