Benicio Del Toro during 2001 Vanity Fair Oscar Party - Arrivals at Morton's Restaurant in Beverly Hills, California, United States. (Photo by J. Vespa)
Gallery of Benicio del Toro
2008
955 Bay St, Toronto, ON M5S 2A2, Canada
Benicio Del Toro from the film "Che", poses for a portrait during the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival at The Sutton Place Hotel on September 10, 2008, in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Matt Carr)
Gallery of Benicio del Toro
2013
Paris, France
Benicio del Toro is photographed for Paris Match on July 7, 2013, in Paris, France. (Photo by Patrick Fouque)
Gallery of Benicio del Toro
2014
Zurich, Switzerland
Benicio del Toro and Josh Hutcherson attend the 'Escobar: Paradise Lost' Press Conference during Day 4 of Zurich Film Festival 2014 on September 28, 2014, in Zurich, Switzerland. (Photo by Andreas Rentz)
Gallery of Benicio del Toro
2014
Paris, France
Benicio Del Toro is photographed for Paris Match on October 22, 2014, in Paris, France. (Photo by Alvaro Canovas/Paris Match)
Gallery of Benicio del Toro
2015
New York City, NY, USA
Benicio del Toro is seen on June 25, 2015, in New York City. (Photo by Ignat)
Gallery of Benicio del Toro
2015
Bishop's Building, 192 Adelaide St W, Toronto, ON M5H 0A4, Canada
(L-R) Writer Taylor Sheridan, actors Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, Emily Blunt, director Denis Villeneuve, and cinematographer Roger Deakins attend the Sicario TIFF party hosted by GREY GOOSE Vodka and Soho Toronto at Soho House Toronto on September 11, 2015, in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Stefanie Keenan)
Gallery of Benicio del Toro
2016
Kensington Gardens, Kensington, London W8 4PX, UK
Benicio del Toro attends the Lancome BAFTA nominees party at Kensington Palace on February 13, 2016, in London, England. (Photo by John Phillips)
Gallery of Benicio del Toro
2016
Bow St, Covent Garden, London WC2E 9DD, UK
Benicio del Toro attends the EE British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Opera House on February 14, 2016, in London, England. (Photo by Ian Gavan)
Gallery of Benicio del Toro
2016
Bow St, Covent Garden, London WC2E 9DD, UK
Benicio del Toro attends the EE British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Opera House on February 14, 2016, in London, England. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole)
Gallery of Benicio del Toro
2016
9390 N Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, USA
Benicio del Toro attends the 2016 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted By Graydon Carter at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 28, 2016, in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Jon Kopaloff)
Gallery of Benicio del Toro
2017
1 Boulevard de la Croisette, 06400 Cannes, France
Benicio del Toro attends the 70th Anniversary of the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 23, 2017, in Cannes, France. (Photo by Chris Jackson)
Gallery of Benicio del Toro
2017
7800 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036, USA
Benecio Del Toro performs in a sketch with James Corden during "The Late Late Show with James Corden," Monday, February 27, 2017. (Photo by Terence Patrick
Gallery of Benicio del Toro
2017
1313 Disneyland Dr, Anaheim, CA 92802, USA
Benicio del Toro poses with the statue of his Guardians character, 'The Collector' on May 25, 2017, at Disney California Adventure Park, in Anaheim, California.
Gallery of Benicio del Toro
2018
3570 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109, USA
Benicio del Toro attends the CinemaCon 2018 Gala Opening Night Event: Sony Pictures Highlights its 2018 Summer and Beyond Films at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace during CinemaCon, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners, on April 23, 2018, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Gabe Ginsberg)
Gallery of Benicio del Toro
2018
1 Boulevard de la Croisette, 06400 Cannes, France
Benicio del Toro attends the screening of 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' during the 71st annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 15, 2018, in Cannes, France. (Photo by Antony Jones)
Gallery of Benicio del Toro
2018
167-165 Boulevard J. F. Kennedy, 06160 Antibes, France
Heidi Klum (L) and Benicio Del Toro attend the amfAR Gala Cannes 2018 at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on May 17, 2018, in Cap d'Antibes, France. (Photo by Dave Benett)
Gallery of Benicio del Toro
2018
71 Boulevard du Général de Gaulle, 06230 Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France
Benicio Del Toro at the "Escape at Dannemora" Press Conference at the Four Seasons Hotel on August 7, 2018, in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Vera Anderson)
Gallery of Benicio del Toro
2018
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023, USA
Benicio Del Toro attends the "Escape At Dannemora" New York Series Premiere at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center on November 14, 2018, in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy)
Achievements
Membership
Awards
Academy Award
2001
665 W Jefferson Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA
Benicio Del Toro kisses his Oscar statuette after winning for Best Supporting Actor during the 73rd Annual Academy Awards March 25, 2001, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (Photo by David McNew)
Golden Globe Award
2001
9876 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, USA
Benicio Del Toro attends the 58th Annual Golden Globe Awards on January 21, 2001, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Ron Galella)
Screen Actors Guild Award
2001
665 W Jefferson Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA
Benicio Del Toro during The 7th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, United States. (Photo by J. Vespa)
Cannes Film Festival Award
2008
1 Boulevard de la Croisette, 06400 Cannes, France
Benicio Del Toro with his award for Best Actor for "Che" during the Palme d'Or Closing Ceremony Photocall at the Palais des Festivals during the 61st International Cannes Film Festival on May 25, 2008, in Cannes, France. (Photo by Francois Durand)
Goya Award
2009
Av. Capital de España, 7, 28042 Madrid, Spain
Benicio del Toro poses after receiving the best actor award during the Goya Cinema Awards 2009 ceremony on February 01, 2009 at the Palacio de Congresos in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Carlos Alvarez)
Hollywood Film Award
2015
9876 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, USA
Benicio Del Toro, winner of the Hollywood Supporting Actor Award for "Sicario," poses in the press room during the 19th Annual Hollywood Film Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on November 1, 2015, in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Steve Granitz)
Benicio Del Toro kisses his Oscar statuette after winning for Best Supporting Actor during the 73rd Annual Academy Awards March 25, 2001, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (Photo by David McNew)
Benicio Del Toro attends the 58th Annual Golden Globe Awards on January 21, 2001, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Ron Galella)
Benicio Del Toro during 2001 Vanity Fair Oscar Party - Arrivals at Morton's Restaurant in Beverly Hills, California, United States. (Photo by J. Vespa)
Benicio Del Toro with his award for Best Actor for "Che" during the Palme d'Or Closing Ceremony Photocall at the Palais des Festivals during the 61st International Cannes Film Festival on May 25, 2008, in Cannes, France. (Photo by Francois Durand)
Benicio Del Toro from the film "Che", poses for a portrait during the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival at The Sutton Place Hotel on September 10, 2008, in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Matt Carr)
Benicio del Toro poses after receiving the best actor award during the Goya Cinema Awards 2009 ceremony on February 01, 2009 at the Palacio de Congresos in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Carlos Alvarez)
Benicio del Toro and Josh Hutcherson attend the 'Escobar: Paradise Lost' Press Conference during Day 4 of Zurich Film Festival 2014 on September 28, 2014, in Zurich, Switzerland. (Photo by Andreas Rentz)
Benicio Del Toro, winner of the Hollywood Supporting Actor Award for "Sicario," poses in the press room during the 19th Annual Hollywood Film Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on November 1, 2015, in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Steve Granitz)
Bishop's Building, 192 Adelaide St W, Toronto, ON M5H 0A4, Canada
(L-R) Writer Taylor Sheridan, actors Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, Emily Blunt, director Denis Villeneuve, and cinematographer Roger Deakins attend the Sicario TIFF party hosted by GREY GOOSE Vodka and Soho Toronto at Soho House Toronto on September 11, 2015, in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Stefanie Keenan)
Benicio del Toro attends the EE British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Opera House on February 14, 2016, in London, England. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole)
9390 N Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, USA
Benicio del Toro attends the 2016 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted By Graydon Carter at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 28, 2016, in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Jon Kopaloff)
Benicio del Toro attends the 70th Anniversary of the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 23, 2017, in Cannes, France. (Photo by Chris Jackson)
Benecio Del Toro performs in a sketch with James Corden during "The Late Late Show with James Corden," Monday, February 27, 2017. (Photo by Terence Patrick
Benicio del Toro poses with the statue of his Guardians character, 'The Collector' on May 25, 2017, at Disney California Adventure Park, in Anaheim, California.
Benicio del Toro attends the CinemaCon 2018 Gala Opening Night Event: Sony Pictures Highlights its 2018 Summer and Beyond Films at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace during CinemaCon, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners, on April 23, 2018, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Gabe Ginsberg)
Benicio del Toro attends the screening of 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' during the 71st annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 15, 2018, in Cannes, France. (Photo by Antony Jones)
167-165 Boulevard J. F. Kennedy, 06160 Antibes, France
Heidi Klum (L) and Benicio Del Toro attend the amfAR Gala Cannes 2018 at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on May 17, 2018, in Cap d'Antibes, France. (Photo by Dave Benett)
71 Boulevard du Général de Gaulle, 06230 Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France
Benicio Del Toro at the "Escape at Dannemora" Press Conference at the Four Seasons Hotel on August 7, 2018, in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Vera Anderson)
Benicio Del Toro attends the "Escape At Dannemora" New York Series Premiere at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center on November 14, 2018, in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy)
Actor Bradley Cooper arrives at Cosmopolitan's 2009 Fun Fearless Awards at the SLS Hotel on March 2, 2009, in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Kristian Dowling)
(In the sequel to "Pee Wee's Big Adventure", Pee-Wee Herma...)
In the sequel to "Pee Wee's Big Adventure", Pee-Wee Herman is a simple farmer in a small town. But soon a big storm blows their way. A circus ends up at Pee Wee's farm. So he lets the circus stay at his farm for a while. The circus decides to put on a show with one lovable star, Pee-Wee!
(Genoan navigator Christopher Columbus has a dream to find...)
Genoan navigator Christopher Columbus has a dream to find an alternative route to sail to the Indies, by traveling west instead of east, across the unchartered Ocean sea. After failing to find backing from the Portuguese, he goes to the Spanish court to ask Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand for help. After surviving a grilling from the Head of the Spanish Inquisition Tomas de Torquemada, he eventually gets the blessing from Queen Isabella and sets sail in three ships to travel into the unknown. Along the way, he must deal with sabotage from Portuguese spies and mutiny from a rebellious crew.
(As survivors of a plane crash, Max and Carla help each ot...)
As survivors of a plane crash, Max and Carla help each other search for meaning in their own existences. Max's wife Laura is marred when he seems unable to reconnect with his family.
(Benito González is a flamboyant engineer in Melilla, with...)
Benito González is a flamboyant engineer in Melilla, with a brash and pushy personality. His dream is to build the tallest building ever in the region. After his girlfriend leaves him, he devotes himself entirely to his ambitions, deciding to let nothing get in his way.
(Gullible Guy (Frank Whaley) lands a job as personal assis...)
Gullible Guy (Frank Whaley) lands a job as personal assistant to Buddy Ackerman (Kevin Spacey), a repulsive, cutthroat studio exec. Guy is eager to climb the ladder of success, but Buddy stops at nothing to grab credit and foil Guy's plans. What Buddy doesn't know is that the tables are about to turn - in a big way.
(In this moody film noir, a small-town Florida detective's...)
In this moody film noir, a small-town Florida detective's romance with a wealthy widow spins a web of deceit, betrayal and murder. His official investigation of the crime backfires as the trial begins to point to him.
(The sins of a 1930s New York crime family come to haunt t...)
The sins of a 1930s New York crime family come to haunt two brothers in different ways after a third brother is gunned down by a rival family. Outstanding acting performances seal this dark and criminally violent tale as a modern gangster classic.
(J.T., the bored slacker son of a motel owner, begins flir...)
J.T., the bored slacker son of a motel owner, begins flirting with a visitor of the motel named Tanya, an aspiring model. James, J.T.'s best friend, gets drunk with J.T. and eventually steal the car of a motel visitor named Ms. Smith (played by Christine Naify). J.T., Tanya, and James drive around their dead-end town laughing and enjoying the night.
(Michael Douglas, Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Qu...)
Michael Douglas, Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Quaid and Catherine Zeta-Jones star in this powerful epic drama about the high-stakes, high-risk world of the drug trade.
(This wickedly off-beat mix of crime, comedy, and gunplay ...)
This wickedly off-beat mix of crime, comedy, and gunplay stars Ryan Phillippe and Academy Award winner Benicio Del Toro. Convinced they'll score big money fast by kidnapping a young surrogate mother carrying the child of a wealthy Southwestern couple, the two small-caliber crooks soon run into major problems. Realizing too late that they're in over their heads.
(A diamond heist gone haywire launches gangsters, bookies,...)
A diamond heist gone haywire launches gangsters, bookies, and a dog on a rollicking ride through the rugged world of bare-knuckle boxing in search of the missing stone. Critically acclaimed comedy from Guy Richie.
(From acclaimed director Ken Loach comes the gripping stor...)
From acclaimed director Ken Loach comes the gripping story of a group of immigrant workers who take a stand against the million-dollar corporations who employ them. Newly arrived illegal immigrant Maya (Pilar Padilla) has just joined her sister on the job as a janitor in a downtown LA office building. Appalled at the work conditions and unfair labor practices, she teams up with Sam.
(The night he retires as a Nevada sheriff, Jerry Black (Ni...)
The night he retires as a Nevada sheriff, Jerry Black (Nicholson) pledges to the mother of a murdered girl that he will find the killer. Jerry doesn't believe the police arrested the right man; he discovers this is the third incident in the area in the recent past with victims young, blond, pretty, and small for their age. So he buys an old gas station in the mountains near the crimes in order.
(The emotionally and physically charged lives of three peo...)
The emotionally and physically charged lives of three people - a professor (Sean Penn), an ex-con (Benicio Del Toro) and a mother with a reckless past (Naomi Watts) - collide in this thriller.
(Audrey Burke (Berry) is reeling from the shock of the new...)
Audrey Burke (Berry) is reeling from the shock of the news that has just been delivered to her door by the local police: her warm and loving husband Brian (David Duchovny), the father of their two young children, has been killed in a random act of violence.
(Benicio Del Toro stars as Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who alon...)
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(Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning star in Academy Award winn...)
Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning star in Academy Award winner Sofia Coppola's (Lost in Translation) witty and moving story about the special bond between a father and his daughter.
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Benicio Del Toro and Tim Robbins lead a band of badass war zone rescue workers who defy death and confront war's absurdities in this hellishly funny comedy.
(Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, and Oscar® winner Benicio Del T...)
Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, and Oscar® winner Benicio Del Toro star in this acclaimed thriller about an idealistic FBI agent on a perilous mission with an anti-drug task force.
(The Star Wars saga continues in The Last Jedi as the hero...)
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Benicio Del Toro is a Puerto Rican-born American actor and film producer. He is known for projects like The Usual Suspects, 21 Grams, and Sicario, as well as his Academy Award-winning part in Traffic.
Background
Ethnicity:
Benicio del Toro had a Catalan paternal great-grandfather and a Basque maternal great-grandmother. He also has Italian and Spanish ancestry.
Del Toro was born on February 19, 1967, in San Germán, Puerto Rico, to Gustavo Adolfo del Toro Bermúdez and Fausta Genoveva Sánchez Rivera, who were both lawyers. Many of del Toro's relatives are involved in Puerto Rico's legal system. Del Toro's brother, Gustavo, is the Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, New York.
Del Toro's mother died of hepatitis when he was 9 years old, and his family moved to a farm in Pennsylvania four years later. After his mother's death, Del Toro's father built a basketball court across the street from the family's home and the boy threw himself into the game. His godmother, Sarah Torres, assumed a very strong and influential role in the boy's life, acting as a mother figure.
On November 4, 2011, he acquired Spanish citizenship, along with fellow Puerto Rican Ricky Martin. The request was granted by the Spanish government due to his artistic talents and his Spanish ancestry (he has family in Barcelona).
Education
Del Toro, nicknamed "Beno," was a popular troublemaker at the Academy of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the Catholic school he attended through eighth grade. Unable to get along with his new stepmother, Del Toro's father sent him to Mercersburg Academy, a boarding school in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. There, he scored average grades and was co-captain of the basketball team in his senior year. The language barrier was a problem for Del Toro at boarding school - there was no real Hispanic community in Pennsylvania. He focused on basketball, which made him feel like he "could communicate perfectly," and he made friends more easily through sports. He discovered oil painting at boarding school and remained an avid painter.
Expected to become a lawyer like his father, Del Toro enrolled as a business major at the University of California at San Diego in 1985. In an attempt to lighten his course load, he took one acting class. He switched his major to acting without telling his family and then left college to pursue acting professionally. Shortly thereafter, he moved to New York City to study acting at the Circle Square Theater. His father was not thrilled about Del Toro's change of plans but accepted his son's decision.
After New York, Del Toro moved to Los Angeles, where he studied intensively on a scholarship at the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting for the next three or four years. He lived with his brother, who was studying at UCLA, and helped the Adler school build a theater to help cover his expenses.
Benicio's first break came when he was cast in the hit TV series Miami Vice. The experience motivated the young actor, but it was the only work he saw for some time. Del Toro was never terribly interested in television work. Because it is produced too quickly, there is no time for him to fully interpret and develop a character. His real passion has always been film.
Benicio's first feature film role was the less than impressive role of Duke the Dog-Faced Boy in the sequel film Big Top Pee-wee (1988). It wasn't exactly his breakthrough performance or his proudest moment. Del Toro subsequently had small roles in the James Bond film License to Kill (1989), starring Timothy Dalton, as well as The Indian Runner (1991), actor Sean Penn's first directorial effort.
Over the next several years, Del Toro turned in memorable performances in such films as Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992), China Moon (1991), starring Ed Harris, and the independent favorite Swimming With Sharks (1994). He first gained serious critical attention in 1995, however, for his scene-stealing turn as Fred Fenster, the mumbling, doomed hoodlum with a flair for fashion in the acclaimed crime drama The Usual Suspects, costarring Kevin Spacey and Gabriel Byrne. Del Toro thinned his eyebrows and shaved his hairline for the role of Fenster, a sketchy, mumbling criminal involved in a mysterious heist. The film found critical and box office success, and launched Del Toro as a major up-and-coming talent in Hollywood.
Del Toro earned an Independent Spirit Award for the performances - the first of two, it turned out, as he picked up another the following year for his supporting turn in Basquiat, as the best friend of the titular artist (played by fellow indie favorite Jeffrey Wright).
In the year after he finished The Usual Suspects, Del Toro completed four films. Del Toro disliked this pace since it did not give him enough time to concentrate as much as he would have liked on each role. On top of all that, he also directed a short film that year, called Submission.
Del Toro's first mainstream leading role was in the critically drubbed Excess Baggage (1997), costarring Alicia Silverstone. The project did little to advance his otherwise promising career. He put on a good deal of weight for his next film, the little-seen Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), in which he played Dr. Gonzo, the lawyer-sidekick of film star Johnny Depp as a Hunter S. Thompson-Esque journalist. Another edgy offering, 2000's The Way of the Gun, also failed to click with audiences.
With the release of Steven Soderbergh's drug saga Traffic in late 2000, Del Toro found himself in the middle of a virtual storm of critical praise and media attention. A standout even among the film's impressive ensemble cast (including Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Don Cheadle), Del Toro's bilingual performance as Javier Rodriguez, a Mexican police officer, earned the actor a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for best-supporting actor. (The role was so central to the film that at the yearly Screen Actors Guild honors, Del Toro took home the award for best actor, beating out such leading men as Russell Crowe, Tom Hanks, and Geoffrey Rush.)
In the first months of 2001, Del Toro was seemingly ubiquitous; in addition to Traffic, he played the gangster Frankie Four Fingers in Snatch (late 2000), a crime caper directed by Guy Ritchie and co-starring Brad Pitt. He also appeared in Sean Penn's The Pledge (2001), starring Jack Nicholson, as a mentally disturbed Native American man wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of a young girl.
Del Toro continued to take on challenging roles over the next few years. He played a born-again ex-con in 21 Grams (2003) with Naomi Watts and Penn, which garnered Del Toro another Academy Award nomination for best-supporting actor. He went on to portray a violent cop in Sin City (2005), which was based on Frank Miller's graphic novels and directed by Roberto Rodriguez. Additional films from around this time include Things We Lost in The Fire (2007) and the two-part Che (2008), in which he portrays revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
Going into a new decade, Del Toro continued to tackle a variety of genres. After the military veterans drama Jimmy P. (2013), the actor was seen playing an extraterrestrial being known as the Collector in the Marvel Comics adventure Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and later reprised his role in Avengers: Infinity War (2018).
Grimmer fare followed, as seen with his portrayal of Pablo Escobar in Escobar: Paradise Lost and his performance as a mysterious drug war operative in the esteemed Sicario, both from 2015. The latter work saw Del Toro reunited with actress Emily Blunt, with whom he co-starred in the 2010 horror flick The Wolfman. In December 2017, the actor returned to the sci-fi genre with a role in the latest installment of the Star Wars franchise, The Last Jedi.
Del Toro has also had a taste of the other side of filmmaking: he wrote, produced and directed a short film, Submission, starring Matthew McConaughey, which screened at the Venice Film Festival in 1995. Del Toro also was a contributing director to 2012's 7 Days in Havana.
(J.T., the bored slacker son of a motel owner, begins flir...)
1997
Religion
Del toro was raised a Roman Catholic. He used to attend a Roman Catholic School in Miramar while growing up in Puerto Rico. He attends church regularly and had his daughter baptized in Puerto Rico.
Politics
Benicio Del Toro usually likes to stay out of politics. But he commented on Trump's extreme “zero-tolerance” policy on illegal immigration, which has resulted in nearly 2,000 children being forcibly removed from their undocumented parents as they sought asylum in the United States: "This is more than politics - this is human rights, and a human condition that children should never be taken away from their parents. I believe in the rule of law, and the laws of every country should be respected, but there’s no reason to separate children from their mom and dad. Why can’t they just hold them together? I am horrified. I don’t understand what’s going on with the United States government. I think this is going to change the world in a bad way. There’s a sense of sadness because of this. It’s cruel. What’s the morality inside this monster for separating children from their parents? I don’t know. The bottom line: this has to stop."
Views
In 2003, Benicio del Toro became the spokesman of the educational campaign "Yo Limpio a Puerto Rico", an environmental organization founded in 1997 by Ignacio Barsottelli, whose mission is to educate and mobilize Puerto Ricans in favor of recycling and the protection of the environment.
Del Toro narrated the public service announcement entitled "Coral Reef", joining the "Artists to the rescue of the environment" campaign.
Quotations:
"I like to take things very slowly. When you start to become a movie star, it's easy to believe that you are Superman. That can fool you. That's why I prefer not to pay much attention to fame. The truth is that I don't give it much thought. I don't suffer. I don't hang my photographs on the wall. Without realizing it, you can enter a vicious circle and think that you really are a superhero. That's the moment when you get yourself in real trouble."
"My goal as an actor has always been to reach a level where I can find a lot of interesting work, and I think I'm at that point now. The Oscar has given me a lot of recognition, but I think Traffic (2000) alone would have done a lot for me. It's the kind of role you die for because a lot of people are going to focus on your work. It gives you a very high profile."
"I like anything that's three-dimensional, anything I can believe in - even if it's fantastic, surreal or from another planet."
Personality
Del Toro once stated that he was 47.6998 percent evil in real life, which however fluctuates from time to time.
Physical Characteristics:
Del Toro has a height of 6 ft 2 in or 188 cm, and a weight of 90 kg or 198.5 lbs. He has an average build, dark brown hair, and hazel eyes. Del Toro has dark circles around the eyes. He once commented: "Before I was ever in high school, I had dark circles under my eyes. The rumor was I was a junkie. I have dark circles under my eyes, deal with it."
Interests
painting
Philosophers & Thinkers
Jean-Paul Sartre
Writers
Truman Capote, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ernest Hemmingway, Denis Gifford,George Bernard Shaw, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Bram Stoker
Artists
Julian Schnabel
Sport & Clubs
basketball, footbal, Fulham Football Club
Music & Bands
Van Morrison, U2, The Waterboys
Connections
On April 11, 2011, del Toro's publicist announced that del Toro and Kimberly Stewart (daughter of Rod Stewart) were expecting their first child, although they were not in a relationship. Stewart gave birth to a daughter, Delilah, on August 21, 2011.