Antonio Banderas

Born: August 1960
Where: Malaga, Spain

The one-time wannabe professional footballer is a major Hollywood player after being championed by Pedro Almodovar and filling the multiplexes as Zorro.

He abandoned dreams of becoming a soccer player after breaking his foot at 14 so began work with an independent theatre group in Malaga.

He formed a theatre troupe and travelled around southern Spain in an old truck putting on street productions.

After six years he moved to Madrid, where he worked as a waiter and shop assistant while trying to get acting jobs.

He turned his attention to the stage, completing his studies at Malaga's School of Dramatic Art before embarking on a five-year stint with the National Theatre of Spain, where he quickly caught the eye of acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar.

In 1982 he made his feature debut in Almodovar's Labyrinth Of Passion, playing a dim-witted terrorist with an uncanny sense of smell.

Two years later he appeared in Carlos Saura's The Stilts, before re-teaming with Almodovar for Matador in 1986.

In his third collaboration with Almodovar, Banderas played a heterosexual man discovering homosexual love in Law Of Desire.

His next two pictures introduced Banderas to American audiences.

He took a back seat to star Carmen Maura in Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, but was back in the limelight in Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! as mental patient Ricky.

Despite knowing only a handful of English words, Banderas pulled out of Almodovar's High Heels to make his Hollywood debut in 1992's The Mambo Kings, portraying a soulful 1950s Cuban trumpeter.

(Finding the language barrier a problem, he had to learn his dialogue phonetically.)

But it was in Interview With The Vampire he made women's hearts beat faster, stealing the show from Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt as the sexiest vampire of them all.

He next portrayed Rebecca De Mornay's mystery man in Never Talk To Strangers and starred opposite future wife Melanie Griffith in Two Much.

Banderas's light dimmed as he was portrayed as a home-wrecker, leaving his first wife to be with Melanie, who also abandoned childhood sweetheart Don Johnson.

But in 1996, he got his career back on track as narrator Ché in Alan Parker's film musical Evita, showing off his supple singing voice alongside Madonna as Eva Peron.

His profile was further heightened as young Zorro opposide Anthony Hopkins in the Mask of Zorro and roles in The White River Kid and Play It To The Bone followed.

Banderas showed he wasn't averse to sending himself up in the hugely enjoyable Spy Kids and then changed direction to star in Original Sin.

He had a supporting role in the biopic Frida and also starred in Once Upon A Time in Mexico with Johnny Depp and Salma Hayek.

In 2004, he starred in Christopher Hampton's widely derided Imagining Argentina with Emma Thompson.

Recent work saw him voicing the cat Puss in Boots in Shrek 2 and returning to the saddle as Zorro in The Legend of Zorro.