Biography

Benicio Del Toro

Posted on Feb 4, 2021, Modified : Feb 8, 2021 manish

Table of Contents

Quick Facts About Benicio Del Toro

Benicio Del Toro is a Puerto-Rican born American actor as well as a film producer who kept his place in the hearts of his fans with his performance as the Mexican cop Javier Rodriguez in ‘Traffic’. This performance even won him an Academy Award for the Best Supporting Actor. Before he was in the main-stream cinema world, he used to be a TV actor playing villains in different T.V. serials. He became the youngest ever actor to be chosen to work as a Bond henchman.

Quick Infos
Full Name	Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez
Date of birth	February 19, 1967
Birth Place	San Germán, Puerto Rico
Parent(s)	Gustavo Adolfo Del Toro Fausta Genoveva
Occupation	Actor, Producer
Relationship Status	Unmarried
Age	53 years
Height	1.88 m
Children	1
Nationality	Spanish, Puerto Rican
Net worth	US $45 million

Bio, Young, and Family

Benicio Del Toro was born on the 19th of February, 1967 in Puerto Rico, to father Gustavo Adolfo Del Toro and mother Fausta Genoveva. Both of his parents were lawyers. He was raised as a Roman Catholic while being of mixed ancestry. His mother passed away when he was just nine years old and then they relocated to Pennsylvania, U.S, from where Benicio completed his high school.

Since his father was a lawyer, he wanted his son to enroll for a degree in business at the University of California. But, when Benicio took an acting class, he then and there decided to pursue drama as his full-time career. He dropped his business course without even letting his father know and started taking classes in the Circle in the Square Professional Theatre. He went on to study at the renowned Stella Adler Conservatory on a scholarship.

Career: Movies and TV Shows

Benicio Del Toro made his acting debut by playing a minor role in the famous T.V show, ‘Miami Vice’, in 1987. He mostly played different small-time thugs or villains. He made his official movie debut as Duke the Dog-Faced Boy in the movie ‘Big Top Pee-wee’, but the movie couldn’t garner success as expected. But, he got the chance to make his name known to the world in the 16th edition of the James Bond movie, titled ‘Licence to Kill’ in 1989, where he portrayed Dario, a henchman.

Over the next few years, he did some acting in ‘The Indian Runner’, ‘Fearless’, ‘Money for Nothing’ and ‘Swimming with Sharks’. His big breakthrough came when he played the character of Fred Fenster in ‘The Usual Suspects’, in the year 1995. The critics and audience were so happy with his performance and he even got his first Academy Award nomination. After the success of ‘The Usual Suspects’, he got various offers. In total, he performed four films in 1996, namely ‘The Funeral’, ‘The Fan’, ‘Basquiat’ and ‘Joy Ride’.

In 2000, he got the opportunity to play Javier Rodriguez, in a crime drama ‘Traffic’, which focused on exploring the illegal drug trade from various angles. The movie was a success both critically as well as commercially. Benicio Del Toro took part in two other films in 2000, namely ‘The Way of the Gun’ and ‘Snatch’. He did a brief cameo as himself in ‘Bread and Roses’. He took a break from acting till 2003.

He returned with a bang in 2003. His movie ‘21 Grams’ was released. He portrayed an ex-convict who unknowingly kills a family excluding the mother in an automobile accident. The movie received numerous positive reviews. From the following year, he played parts in numerous movies like ‘Sin City’ in 2005, ‘Che’ in 2008,t and ‘Somewhere’ in 2010.

He was a part of the Marvel series of the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ in 2014 as well as in 2017. Not just this, he played Alejandro Gillick, who was a Mexican attorney but then turned to become an assassin, in both iterations of the movie ‘Sicario’ alongside Jake Picking and Emily Blunt. It looks like Mr. Del Toro is attracted to legendary movies. He was cast to play the role of DJ in the movie, ‘Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi’.

His latest movies include the likes of: “Avengers: Infinity Wars”, “Avengers: End Game”, which were released in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Benicio Del Toro did the role of Swiper, the Fox, in the movie ‘Dora and the Lost City of Gold’ in 2019. Three of his movies, “The French Dispatch”, “No Sudden Move”, and “All-Star Weekend”, are set to be released in the year 2021.

What Awards and Oscars has Benicio Del Toro Received?

He won his first-ever award, the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor because of his awesome portrayal of Javier Rodriguez in the crime drama movie ‘Traffic’. He even won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for the same movie. He was given the title of Best Supporting Actor by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association in 2003 for his role as Jack Jordan in ‘21 Grams’.

He even acquired the Best Actor Award at The Cannes International Film Festival in 2008 for his role as Che Guevara, in the 2008 biopic titled, ‘Che”.

Personal Life, Wife Facts, And Relationships

The first official relationship of Benicio is believed to be Valeria Golino. They were engaged from 1988 till 1992. After breaking up with Valeria, it was rumored that Mr. Del Toro and Claire Forlani were an item in 1995. But there has been little to no truth about this. He dated Alicia Silverstone from 1996 till 1997. It looked like Benicio Del Toro couldn’t hold down his relationship for more than a year. He broke up with Alicia and started dating Chiara Mastroianni from 1998 till 2001.

Despite being in love, the couple had some misunderstanding and due to the lack of time they were able to give each other, they decided to separate and go their own paths. He had a brief stint with Heather Graham in 2001. He remained single till 2004 when he found his love with Sara Foster. The couple dated for two years before deciding to take a break from each other. He was with Catherine Keener for a year, from 2008 till 2009.

Is Benicio Del Toro married?

It is now known that Benicio Del Toro is currently single and happy. Even though he is single, he does have a daughter named Delilah with Kimberly Stewart.