Andy Garcia

Born: 12th April 1956
Where: Havana, Cuba

The Cuban immigrant landed his big break when he Brian De Palma cast him as Agent George Stone in the Oscar-winning The Untouchables.

Other notable appearance include Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather series, Internal Affairs, Ocean's Eleven and the offbeat Jennifer 8.

After migrating to the USA following the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, Garcia's Cuban family set up a multi-million dollar perfume import company in Miami.

After graduating from Miami's Florida International University, he headed to LA and passed time waiting tables and trying his hand as a stand-up comic.

In 1981, Garcia landed a role as a gang member in the premiere of TV's Hill Street Blues and he began to land other guest roles on series.

His film debut was in the baseball drama Blue Skies Again and he first began to garner notice as a homicide detective in The Mean Season.

With his galvanizing turn as a drug dealer in Hal Ashby's 8 Million Ways to Die, Garcia began to be offered better roles.

To avoid being stuck in parts as a heavy, he convinced director Brian De Palma to cast him as the earnest FBI sharpshooter in The Untouchables.

Stand and Deliver, Black Rain and the gritty Internal Affairs followed and in 1991 he received an Oscar nomination for best actor in a supporting role for Godfather III.

He then confounded critics by accepting the role of a hack newspaperman in the stylish thriller Dead Again.

The intriguing cult hit Jennifer 8 and Hero were critical and commercial failures but he responded as the patient and loving spouse of an alcoholic (Meg Ryan) in When a Man Loves a Woman.

He continued to essay a variety of roles, ranging from Mexican twins in Steal Big, Steal Little to a half-Irish district attorney in Sidney Lumet's Night Falls on Manhattan.

With Just the Ticket, he moved to feature producing (as well as starring) and also garnered an Emmy nomination for the biopic For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story.

In 2002, Garcia produced and starred in the independent feature The Man From Elysian Fields.

Recent work includes the role of a Las Vegas casino mobster in Ocean's Eleven opposite George Clooney and Jame's Foley's scam caper Confidence.