Benicio del Toro

Benicio del Toro Biography

Benicio del Toro, born on February 19, 1967 in San Germán, Puerto Rico, is a renowned actor and producer. He spent his childhood in the barrio of Santurce in San Juan and was raised as a Roman Catholic. He attended the Academia del Perpetuo Socorro, a Catholic school in Miramar, Puerto Rico.

At the young age of nine, del Toro’s life was impacted by the loss of his mother to hepatitis. At 15, he moved to Mercersburg, Pennsylvania with his father and brother to attend Mercersburg Academy, where he finished high school.

He initially pursued a business degree at the University of California, San Diego, but found his calling in acting after taking an elective drama course. Del Toro went on to study with prominent acting coaches Stella Adler and Arthur Mendoza in Los Angeles and Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York City.

In the late 1980s, Benicio del Toro made his television debut with small roles as drug dealers and thugs on shows like Miami Vice and the NBC miniseries Drug Wars: The Camarena Story. He also appeared in Madonna’s 1987 music video La Isla Bonita. He made his film debut in Big Top Pee-wee (1988) and went on to play henchman Dario in the James Bond film Licence to Kill (1989). A few smaller roles followed, including The Indian Runner (1991), Fearless (1993), and Money for Nothing in the same year.

Benicio Del Toro’s big break came in 1995 with his portrayal of Fred Fenster in Box Office smash The Usual Suspects, which won him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. This led to many more roles and his career snowballed with roles in films like The Funeral (1996), Basquiat (1996), and The Fan (1996) alongside Robert De Niro. He gained significant weight to play the role of Dr. Gonzo in the cult classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), which won him many plaudits.

2000 was a significant year for Benicio del Toro. The actor starred in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, for which he won the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He also appeared in Guy Ritchie’s comedy gangster movie Snatch as Franky Four Fingers, and Sena Penn’s The Pledge.

In 2008, del Toro won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival for his portrayal of Che Guevara in the biographical films The Argentine and Guerrilla. He starred in and produced the remake of The Wolf Man (1941) in 2010. Del Toro also appeared as The Collector in the Marvel Studios films Thor: The Dark World (2013), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018). He starred as Alejandro Gillick in the critically acclaimed Sicario (2015) and reprised the role for its sequel Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018), and played the supporting antagonist DJ in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017). In 2021, he starred as Moses Rosenthaler in the Wes Anderson film The French Dispatch.

Benicio del Toro Movies