Benicio Del Toro Biography

Benicio Del Toro is a Puerto Rican born American actor and film producer who rode into the hearts of his fans with his portrayal of the Mexican cop Javier Rodríguez in ‘Traffic’ that won him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Before entering mainstream cinema, he was a television actor playing the roles of small-time villains in T.V serials. As a teenager, he was influenced by his lawyer father to study business at the University of California. He, once, took a class in acting by chance and got hooked to it. He dropped out of his business course without telling his father and began studying acting at the Circle in the Square Professional Theatre School, New York. He began working as a T.V actor gradually moving in to films. As a 21 year old, he played one of the henchmen in the James Bond movie ‘Licence to Kill’, becoming the youngest ever actor to be cast as a Bond henchman. He got a big breakthrough in ‘The Usual Suspects’ and his portrayal of the wisecracking Fred Fenster cemented his reputation as a character actor. His role as the former convict, Jack Jordon, in the drama film ‘21 Grams’ was much appreciated by fans and critics alike and earned him many awards and nominations.