Antonio Banderas, Actor

Born on August 10, 1960 in Malaga, Spain, Antonio is the son of teacher, Ana and police officer, José and has a younger brother, Francisco. As a boy, he was a big fan of the Real Madrid football club, and wanted to be a professional football player until injury forced a change of plans.
He began acting at 19 and was arrested on several occasions for appearing in plays banned by the Franco Regime. He appeared in several films by the celebrated director, Pedro Almodovar, in his early career in Spain, including ‘Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown’ in 1988. He moved to Hollywood in the early 1990’s but had to learn his lines phonetically for his first film ‘The Mambo Kings’ in 1992 as he could not speak the English language. He has appeared in several critically acclaimed Hollywood movies including ‘Philadelphia’ in 1993 and ‘Evita’ in 1996. In 2003, he returned to working in the theatre, landing a role in the Broadway musical ‘Nine’ for which he was nominated for a Tony award.
Antonio is the part owner of a winery in Northern Spain and promotes Andalusian products in Spain and the USA. In 2008, he launched his own cologne for men. He married his first wife, Ana Leza in 1987, but the couple divorced in 1995. In 1996, he married actress, Melanie Griffith, the same year she gave birth to the couple’s daughter, Stella. The couple divide their time between their homes in the USA and Spain.