Benicio Del Toro Biography

NAME: Benicio Del Toro

OCCUPATION: Film Actor

BIRTH DATE: February 19, 1967 (Age: 44)

EDUCATION: University of California San Diego, Square Professional Theater School

PLACE OF BIRTH: Santurce, Puerto Rico

Actor. Born February 19, 1967, in Santurce, Puerto Rico. Del Toro's mother died when he was nine years old, and his family moved to a farm in Pennsylvania four years later. Del Toro enrolled at the University of California at San Diego after high school with the intention of becoming a lawyer. Instead, his love of acting (developed in freshman drama classes) led him to pursue serious theater training. He moved to New York City, where he attended the Circle in the Square Professional Theater School before winning a scholarship to the renowned Stella Adler Conservatory.

After appearing in guest spots on such television shows as Miami Vice, Del Toro landed his first feature film role, portraying a circus performer called Duke the Dog-Faced Boy in Big Top Pee-wee (1988), a forgettable big screen vehicle for Paul Reubens' manic TV alter ego, Pee-Wee Herman. Del Toro subsequently had small roles in the Timothy Dalton James Bond film License to Kill (1989), as well as The Indian Runner (1991), the acclaimed actor Sean Penn's first directorial effort.

Academy Award-winning actor Benicio Del Toro emerged from the fertile world of 1990s independent film as one of its most acclaimed and compelling performers, known for playing brooding, tortured souls. His memorable characterization in Bryan Singer's enigmatic ensemble crime drama "The Usual Suspects" (1995) first earned the Latino actor critical praise. He continued to impress with the depth and subtle detail he brought to supporting roles in Stephen Soderbergh's celebrated "Traffic" (2000), and "21 Grams" (2003) from director Alejandro González Iñárritu. Del Toro occasionally balanced his emotionally intense roles with lighter fare like Guy Ritchie's "Snatch" (2000) and the Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino collaboration, "Sin City" (2005), but Del Toro's rise to leading man status in the epic biopic "Che" (2008) welcomed him into Hollywood's upper ranks, where he maintained his focus on carefully chosen works that were more substance than style.