We would be hard pressed to name our favorite scene from a movie in which this actor appeared, so scroll down to a few of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It might be this one:

 

But this one was pretty fun, too:

And despite the goriness of the movie, The 13th Warrior, this was a pretty good scene, as well:

A younger generation knew him through his voice:

By now you’ve figured out that what all these clips have in common is the Spanish actor, Antonio Banderas. Though he wanted to be a professional football player as a kid, a broken foot at the age of 15 put that dream aside. He chose, instead, to pursue the performing arts, and the rest of history.

Not many people know that it was Madonna who introduced Banderas to Hollywood in 1991 through a pseudo-documentary film of her Madonna: Truth or Dare concert tour. The next year, he appeared in the film, The Mambo Kings, on which he learned his English lines phonetically. His breakthrough came in the Tom Hank’s movie, Philadelphia, and from there, his roles were varied, entertaining, and well received! He received an Academy Award nomination for Pain and Glory, five Golden Globe Awards nominations, two Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.

In 2003, he was nominated for a Tony Award nomination, earned the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical, and in 2019, he won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, the European Film Award for Best Actor, the Goya Award for Best Actor, and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor.  He also voiced the bee in the U.S. Nasonex commercials. We’ve read that Banderas will be joining Harrison Ford on the fifth installment in the Indiana Jones film series due to be released in 2023.

His marriage to Melanie Griffith (and subsequent divorce) was well known, and prior to their split, they owned three dogs together (one terrier mix named, “Elliot” and two shepherd/Labrador mixes called “Arlo” and “Mickey Finn”) over which she fought to get custody. We thought it worth mentioning that in the mid 90s, however, Banderas owned a Samoyed. We’ve not been able to find information about the dog, but there are several photos of the pair including the one seen here which we found on Pinterest and will happily credit upon receipt of information.

*In 2002,  Gotham Magazine named Banderas its Sexiest Man Alive in October, 2002, and four years later, People Magazine anointed him one of its Sexiest Man of 2006.