Benicio Del Toro
Born: 19th February 1967
Where: San German, Puerto Rico
The Oscar-winning Hispanic actor has carved out a name in films such as Traffic and 21 Grams...as well as the role of the youngest Bond villain ever.
His mother died when he was just nine and his father moved the family from Puerto Rico to a farm in Pennsylvania.
Although Del Toro expressed an interest in acting his family urged him to become a lawyer and he studied business at the University of California in San Diego.
A drama class renewed the acting bug, and he subsequently dropped out and began studying with legendary acting teacher Stella Adler in Los Angeles and at the Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York.
Pretending to his family that he was taking courses in business, Del Toro kept his new acting studies secret.
His big screen career got off to a slow start and his debut role was in the forgettable Big Top Pee-Wee in 1988.
Things looked better, however, when he landed the role as the baddie Dario in the Bond film Licence to Kill.
Surprising his co-stars, Del Toro was the youngest actor ever to portray a Bond villain, only 21 years old at the time.
1995 proved to be a very successful year, delivering a strong performance in Swimming with Sharks, before taking critics by storm as the mysterious gangster in The Usual Suspects.
An Oscar-winning film, Del Toro won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting actor for the role.
Subsequent movies included The Fan, the attractive role of Dr Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Franky Four Fingers in Snatch.
He also teamed up winningly with Christopher Walken for the adventure comedy Excess Baggage.
In 2000, Del Toro won an Academy Award for best supporting actor in Steven Soderbergh's Traffic with Michael Douglas and Jacob Vargos.
He played a murder suspect in the excellent thriller The Pledge but was on less firm ground with William Friedkin's underwhelming The Hunted.
However, things looked up when he was Oscar-nominated for the disturbing drama 21 Grams with Sean Penn and Naomi Watts.
In 2005, he starred in the Quentin Tarantino-directed segment of Robert Rodriguez's digital film noir Sin City.
