Biography
Benicio attended Academia del Perpetuo Socorro (The Academy of My Lady of Perpetual Aid), the Catholic school inside Miramar, Puerto Rico. While he was nine years old, his mother died of hepatitis. At age Xiii, his father moved his personal to Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, where Benicio was enrolled within Mercersburg Academy, the boarding school.

When graduation, del Toro followed a advice of his father & pursued a practical degree inside business at the University of California, San Diego. Profits inside an elected drama course encouraged him to drop away from college & learn by using legendary acting teacher Stella Adler inside Los Angeles, when well as at a Circle in the Square Theatre School in Up to date York. Benicio hid his freshly career goals from either his personal until roles began to came his way.

He began to surface within microscopic television area in a period of the late 1980s, playing mostly tough & peddler in computer software such as "Miami Vice" and the NBC miniseries, "Drug Wars: The Kiki Camarena Story." Function inside films followed, beginning by owning his debut within Heavy Top Pee-Wee & in the 007 film Licence to Kill, in which 21-season-old Benicio held the distinction of existence a immature actor ever to play a Bond villain. Although each films were considered box office disappointments, del Toro continued to give worthy performances in picture rather A Indian Runner (1991), China Moon (1991), Christopher Columbus: A Discovery (1992), Money for Nothing (1993), Fearless (1993), and Swimming with Sharks (1994). His career gained really macd within 1995 by having his prison-breaking performance in The Usual Suspects, where he stole scenes from either his further veteran costars when a mumbling, wisecracking Fred Fenster. A role won him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor & firmly established him when "the guy to watch."

A heat from either Suspects led to further hard roles inside independent & major studio films. He played a charming, unpitying gangster Gaspare within Abel Ferrara's A Funeral (1996) & won another sequentially Better Supporting Actor Independent Spirit Award for his function when Benny Dalmau inside Basquiat (1996), directed by his friend, artist Julian Schnabel. Benicio likewise shared a screen using Robert De Niro in the big budget thriller The Fan, in which he played Juan Primo, the magnetic Mexican baseball star. Within 1997, Alicia Silverstone personally chose Benicio to costar with her in the way-out romanticistic comedy Excess Baggage, which she besides produced. A film was usually panned, however critics singled out Benicio's distinctive screen presence & originative performance.

For Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the 1998 film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's legendary book, he packed on 40+ pounds to play Dr. Gonzo (aka Oscar Zeta Acosta), Thompson's lawyer and drug-fiend cohort. del Toro's extremely immersive, uncanny performance divided critics & audiences. A blackball reviews upset him, when he experienced fully invested himself in a role two emotionally & physically, potentially burning himself by having coffin nail for of these particular scene (late cut from either the film). Possibly though del Toro has told interviewers this was the moo point around his career, Terry Gilliam's surrealistic film has earned a cult following over the years.

Giving from either the self-genus euthynnus both-biennial hiatus when Fear & Odium, Benicio would benefit the mainstream audience withwithin 2000 by owning an telling string of performances in tetrad high-profile films. 1st higher was The Way of the Gun, a sardonic crime yarn that reunited him with The Usual Suspects screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, making his directorial debut. Two or three months late, he stood out among the foremost-super ensemble cast inside Steven Soderbergh's Traffic, a complex dissection of the North American drug wars. When Javier Rodriguez -- the Mexican border cop struggling to remawithin honorable amid a corruption & deception of illegal drug traffic -- Benicio, world health organization spoke virtually all of his lines in Spanish, gave a devout, multifarious performance that dominated the film & earned him his foremost Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. His always praised function swept everthing of a major critics awards inside 2000, also when the Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Additionally to the critical award, Traffic was besides a surprise profits at the pack professional, bringing Benicio really Hollywood clout first around his career.

When Traffic was however swimming witharound theaters, deuce more del Toro films were freed in late 2000/early 2001. He experienced a brief, memorable role when the diamond stealer Franky 4 Fingers around Guy Ritchie's hip caper comedy Snatch, and was right as a mentally-challenged Native American man in The Pledge, directed by his old friend Sean Penn. Everthing of this attention helped to cement Benicio's status as a sex symbol. His smouldering looks use at times led to comparisons sustaining James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Brad Pitt, and placement in People Magazine's annual "50 Most Beautiful People" list. Although he stayed away from a limelight around 2002, Benicio got a second banner season around 2003 by using a release of The Hunted, an action thriller costarring Tommy Lee Jones, and a drama 21 Grams, an acting tour-de-force, costarring Sean Penn & Naomi Watts. He went in to garner an additional Best Supporting Actor nomination for his work in the latter.

His virtually all recent operate may be seen in the film adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel Sin City, directed by Robert Rodriguez. He is presently working in producing a film all about the life of Che Guevara, in which he may play a lead.

Trivia

Around 2001, Del Toro became a 4th Oscar winner whose winning role was the character world health organization speaks preponderantly around a foreign language.

Selected Filmography
Sin City (2005) 21 Grams (2003) The Hunted (2003) The Pledge (2001) Traffic (2000) The Way of the Gun (2000) Snatch (2000) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) The Fan (1996) Basquiat (1996) The Usual Suspects (1995) Swimming with Sharks (1994) Fearless (1993) Licence to Kill (1989) Big Top Pee-wee (1988)

Awards
Academy Award, (2003), Best Supporting Actor nomination: 21 Grams Academy Award, (2000), Best Supporting Actor win: Traffic Berlin International Film Festival, (2000), Silver Bear for Best Actor win: Traffic British Academy Awards (BAFTA), (2000), Best Supporting Actor win: Traffic Chicago Film Critics Association, (2003), Best Supporting Actor nomination: 21 Grams Chicago Film Critics Association, (2000), Best Supporting Actor win: Traffic Golden Globe, (2000), Best Supporting Actor win: Traffic Independent Spirit Award, (1996), Best Supporting Actor win: Basquiat Independent Spirit Award, (1995), Best Supporting Actor win: The Usual Suspects L.A. Film Critics Association, (2003), Best Supporting Actor win: 21 Grams National Society of Film Critics, (2000), Best Supporting Actor win: Traffic New York Film Critics Circle, (2000), Best Supporting Actor win: Traffic Screen Actors Guild, (2003), Best Supporting Actor nomination: 21 Grams Screen Actors Guild, (2000), Best Actor win: Traffic Toronto Film Critics Association, (2000), Best Actor win: Traffic