Benicio del Toro

1 title

Date of Birth: 1967-02-19 (age 59)
Nationality: Puerto Rico·Spain·United States
Place of birth: San Germán, Puerto Rico

Mini Bio

Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (Latin American Spanish: [beˈnisjo ðel ˈtoɾo]; born February 19, 1967) is a Puerto Rican actor. His accolades include an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, a Goya Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, and a Silver Bear. Films in which he has appeared have grossed over $5.9 billion worldwide. Del Toro made his film debut in Big Top Pee-wee (1988) before his breakout role playing an unintelligible crook in the crime thriller The Usual Suspects (1995), followed by roles in Basquiat (1996), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), and Snatch (2000). He received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a morally upright police officer in the Steven Soderbergh crime drama Traffic (2000). He was nominated in the same category for his role as an ex-con in Alejandro González Iñárritu's thriller 21 Grams (2003). He has since acted in Sin City (2005), Che (2008), Savages (2012), Inherent Vice (2014), Sicario (2015), No Sudden Move (2021), and One Battle After Another (2025). He also took on franchise roles such as Lawrence Talbot in The Wolfman (2010), the Collector in three films from 2013 to 2018 in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and DJ, the codebreaker, in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017). He also acted in the Wes Anderson films The French Dispatch (2021) and The Phoenician Scheme (2025). On television, he portrayed Richard Matt in the Showtime miniseries Escape at Dannemora (2018), for which he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.

Backstage

At 21 years old, he is the youngest person ever to portray a villain in a James Bond movie: Dario in Licence to Kill (1989) .
Burned himself with cigarettes repeatedly for the elevator scene in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) because the real Oscar Zeta Acosta did as well. The shots of the burn were deleted.
Benicio and longtime friend Josh Brolin were once told by then Miramax Films executive Meryl Poster , that they were the worst auditioners she had ever witnessed.
Is one of five Oscar winners - for Best Supporting Actor in Traffic (2000) - to play a character that spoke mostly in a foreign language. Most of his dialog was in Spanish. The other are Sophia Loren , Robert De Niro , Roberto Benigni and Marion Cotillard .
Had a cameo as a background character in Madonna 's music video "La Isla Bonita" (1987).
He badly injured his wrist during a stunt fight during the filming of William Friedkin 's The Hunted (2003) . He fell on his wrist as he dove for a knife and actor Tommy Lee Jones fell on top of him. He was injured so badly that he was out of work for months, even though the film was virtually completed. He required three hours of therapy daily and reportedly there is a question whether he will regain full use of the wrist.
His family urged him to become a lawyer because they felt there was no future in acting.
Became a father for the first time at age 44 when Kimberly Stewart gave birth to his daughter Delilah Genoveva Stewart Del Toro on August 21, 2011.
Is the third Puerto Rican actor to receive an Academy Award. The other two were: Rita Moreno ( West Side Story (1961) ) and José Ferrer ( Cyrano de Bergerac (1950) ).
Reportedly turned down the role of Frida Kahlo 's husband Diego Rivera in Frida (2002) because of the weight gain that would be required, despite that earlier, for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) , he had gained 40 pounds for his character.

Awards

His accolades include an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, a Goya Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, and a Silver Bear.He received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a morally upright police officer in the Steven Soderbergh crime drama Traffic (2000).On television, he portrayed Richard Matt in the Showtime miniseries Escape at Dannemora (2018), for which he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.

Marital status / Family

Benicio del Toro has never been married. He has one daughter, Delilah, born in August 2011, with Kimberly Stewart

Movies

(1)