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ANTONIO BANDERAS BIOGRAPHY |
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Jose Antonio Dominguez Banderas was born on
August 10, 1960 in Malaga, Spain, during the height of the
oppressive regime of tyrannical leader Francisco Franco. He was
named after his father, Jose, and his mother’s beloved brother,
Antonio. His mother, Ana, was a school teacher. The birth of his
brother, Francisco Javier, better known as Chico, came just
eighteen months later.
Antonio knew fairly early in life that he wanted to be an
actorAntonio enrolled in drama classes - against his parents’
wishes - and put together a group of other young thespians to
form his own troupe. The crew traveled to little towns all over
Spain performing on the streets. In 1981 he moved to Madrid and
won a place as an ensemble member of the esteemed National
Theater of Spain. Being a struggling young actor he also worked
as a waiter and took small modeling jobs to provide for
himself.After a performance at the theater, Antonio was
introduced to Pedro Almod-var, a radical young film director.
Pedro was one of the most outrageous and talented of an emerging
breed of cinematic pioneers and wanted Antonio to help him forge
a new film industry. They joined forces and made several
respectable and controversial movies. It was the 1988 hit “Women
on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” that brought Banderas
international attention
American director, Arne Glimcher, cast Antonio in “The Mambo
Kings” even though Banderas couldn’t speak English. Antonio was
determined to conquer the language barrier and learned all his
lines phonetically. He also took intensive English lessons at a
Berlitz school. Motivated by a frantic desire to learn and to
succeed, he delivered a stunningly deep rendering of his lines
that won him high praise for his performance. His next flick was
“Philadelphia” and offered up a remarkably creditable
performance as Tom Hanks understanding lover. He went on to play
in a string of movies that brought out even more of his
incredible talent such as “The House of the Spirits” (1993),
“Interview With the Vampire” (1994), “Desperado” (1995), and
“Assassins” (1995). He also showed his incredible talent for
dance and singing in the musical “Evita” with Madonna.In 1995
Antonio and Melanie Griffith stared in the flick “Two Much” and
became romantically linked. After a whirl wind romance, and to
the surprise of many, were married in May of 1996. The couple
welcomed the birth of their first child, Stella del Carmen, the
following September. The family has two home bases and as he
stated in one article “Melanie and I have two lives, a
professional one that we developed in Los Angeles—apart from
which it’s the city where Melanie was raised, and the other,
more familial, in our house in Spain where we live when we don’t
work.” His wish is to impart the best of both worlds into his
daughter. “I wanted that she have a marked Spanish character and
that she speak the two languages very well. And clearly that she
will respect her Anglo-Saxon side” he has stated. |
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