Actors - Benicio del Toro

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	Actors - Benicio del Toro

Benicio Monserrat Rafael Del Toro Sanchez (born February 19, 1967) is an Academy Award winning actor. He was born in San German, Puerto Rico and grew up in Santurce, but spent his teens and attended high school in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh.

His parents, Gustavo Adolfo Del Toro Bermudez and Fausta Sanchez Rivera, were both lawyers. He has an older brother, also named Gustavo, who is a pediatric oncologist working in Manhattan.

Biography

Benicio attended Academia del Perpetuo Socorro (The Academy of Our Lady of Perpetual Help), a Roman Catholic school in Miramar, Puerto Rico. When he was nine years old, his mother died of hepatitis. At age 13, his father moved his family to Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, near Chambersburg, where Benicio was enrolled in Mercersburg Academy, a boarding school.

After graduation, Del Toro followed the advice of his father and pursued a practical degree in business at the University of California, San Diego. Success in an elective drama course encouraged him to drop out of college and study with legendary acting teacher Stella Adler in Los Angeles, as well as at the Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York. Benicio hid his new career goals from his family until roles began to come his way.

He began to surface in small television parts during the late 1980s, playing mostly thugs and drug dealers on programs like "Miami Vice" and the NBC miniseries, "Drug Wars: The Kiki Camarena Story." Work in films followed, beginning with his debut in Big Top Pee-wee
and in the 007 film Licence to Kill
, in which 21-year-old Benicio held the distinction of being the youngest actor ever to play a Bond villain.

Although both films were considered box office disappointments, Del Toro continued to give worthy performances in movies like The Indian Runner (1991), China Moon (1991), Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992), Money for Nothing
(1993), Fearless
(1993), and Swimming with Sharks
(1994).

His career gained real momentum in 1995 with his breakout performance in The Usual Suspects
, where he stole scenes from his more seasoned costars as the mumbling, wisecracking Fred Fenster. The role won him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor, and firmly established him as "the guy to watch."

The heat from Suspects led to more strong roles in independent and major studio films. He played the charming, ruthless mobster Gaspare in Abel Ferrara's The Funeral (1996) and won a second consecutive Best Supporting Actor Independent Spirit Award for his work as Benny Dalmau in Basquiat
(1996), directed by his friend, artist Julian Schnabel. Benicio also shared the screen with Robert De Niro in the big budget thriller The Fan
, in which he played Juan Primo, a charismatic Mexican baseball star.

In 1997, Alicia Silverstone personally chose Benicio to costar with her in the quirky romantic comedy Excess Baggage, which she also produced. The film was generally panned, but critics singled out Benicio's distinctive screen presence and creative 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 highly immersive, uncanny performance divided critics and audiences. The negative reviews upset him, as he had fully invested himself in the role both emotionally and physically, even burning himself with cigarettes for one particular scene (later cut from the film). Even though del Toro has told interviewers this was a low point in his career, Terry Gilliam's surrealistic film has earned a cult following over the years.

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