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Javier Bardem Profile |
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Birth Date: March 1, 1969
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Birth Place: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Gran Canaria,
Canary Islands, Spain
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Birth Name: Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem
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Height: 6'1"
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Biography |
Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem (born March 1, 1969) is a
Spanish actor. Born in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary
Islands, he is the latest in a long line of a family which
has been making movies since the earliest days of Spanish
movie making: son of Pilar Bardem, nephew of screen writer
and director Juan Antonio Bardem. His film debut was at the
age of 6, and he appeared in several television series
before turning to painting and, eventually, athletics. He
was a member of the Spanish national rugby team.
In 1992 appeared in Jamón, Jamón, an international hit
movie. But his role in that film as a sexy stud made him
afraid that he would be typecast, and he deliberately
decided to avoid such roles later. Eventually he would land
his breakthrough performance role in Julian Schnabel's
Before Night Falls in 2000, as Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas.
He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for
the role, the first Spaniard to be so honored.
Bardem also made a brief appearance as a vicious crime lord
who summons Tom Cruise's hitman to do the dirty work of
dispatching witnesses, in Michael Mann's crime drama
Collateral, which also starred Jamie Foxx.
In 2004, he won the Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival
for his role in The Sea Inside, a film about the true-life
suicide of Ramón Sampedro. Future roles include an
appearance in Steven Soderbergh's upcoming biopic Che
(2006), as well as a starring role as Colombian druglord
Pablo Escobar in Joe Carnahan's Killing Pablo. He is also
slated to appear in the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old
Men.
Internet rumors say that Bardem may be cast in a new biopic
of international terrorist Carlos the Jackal, which is to be
supposedly helmed by maverick Brazilian filmmaker Fernando
Meirelles. |
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Other Information |
Brother of Carlos Bardem and Mónica Bardem.
Son of Pilar Bardem
Nephew of director Juan Antonio Bardem
Grandson of Rafael Bardem
Is the first Spanish actor ever to be nominated for an
Academy Award.
Says in interviews that he doesn't know how to drive.
Played rugby as a teen and was on the Spanish National team.
Ten years ago a stranger in a disco asked him his name. When
Javier replied, the man punched him in the face for no
apparent reason, breaking his nose.
Javier's original interest was in painting, and he studied
at Madrid's Escuela de Artes y Officios. Eventually deciding
he'd never be a talented painter, he drifted into a number
of odd jobs, working as a bouncer, a writer, a construction
worker and even a stripper.
To portray Reinaldo Arenas, Javier not only learned
Cuban-Spanish,but Cuban- accented English, and lost 30
pounds to better resemble the smaller-framed Arenas.
Javier, his mother, Pilar Bardem and his siblings, Mónica
Bardem and Carlos Bardem often appear in each other's films.
Lives in Madrid with his long-time girlfriend, Cristina.
[2003]
Has four Goya Awards (the Spanish equivalent of the Oscar).
To become Ramón Sampedro, a 55-year-old Spanish man who made
headlines with a crusade to end his own life, Javier, aged
35, was on the set of "The Sea Inside" at the crack of dawn
for a five-hour makeup session that produced the necessary
aging.
Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005
Spanish citizen.
Shares birthday with Frédéric Chopin and David Niven.
Actors Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna list him as their
favorite actor. |
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