Antonio Banderas Biography

He received notice in Pedro Almodovar's Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown but was an unknown in America until making his U.S. debut in 1992's Mambo Kings. It was 1994's Philadelphia, in which he played Tom Hanks' gay lover, that audiences began to sit up and recognize the handsome Latin heartthrob, who really broke out with Robert Rodriguez's Desperado. Roles in Evita, The Mask of Zorro, the Spy Kids and Shrek franchises have cemented him as an A-list star.


1. Wanted to be a pro soccer player, but he broke his foot at 14; the same year he decided he wanted to be an actor after seeing the movie Hair
2. Took an 8 hour a day total immersion program giving him a crash course of the language to the point he spoke it fluently to make his American debut
3. Last name means "flags" en espanol
4. His father was part of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco's Secret Police
5. When he took future wife Melanie Griffith home to Spain, they were confronted by his family's anger and tabloid furor over his split with then wife Ana Leza


"I don't feel freaked-out. I don't feel fear. I've been in this profession 20 years, and I believe exactly when they say 'Action' and 'Cut.' That's where I still want to focus my energy, in that moment. That's what I've looked for my whole life. But I'm like any other actor … I just don't want to grow up."
— Cosmopolitan, Nov. 1, 1996


Wife: Melanie Griffith, actress, born Aug. 9, 1957; met on the set of Two Much, married May 14, 1996
Wife: Ana Leza, actress; married July 27,1987, divorced 1996
Daughter: (with Griffith) Stella, born Sept. 24, 1994
Stepdaughter: Dakota Johnson, born Oct. 4, 1989
Stepson: Alexander Bauer


2004: Nominated, Golden Globe, Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television, … And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself

1999: Nominated, Golden Globe, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Comedy/Musical, The Mask of Zorro

1997: Nominated, Golden Globe, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Comedy/Musical, Evita



Shrek the Third - (2007) - Voice
Bordertown - (2007) - Actor
Take the Lead - (2006) - Actor
The Legend of Zorro - (2005) - Actor
Shrek 2 - (2004) - Actor
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