Antonio Banderas Biography

Actor

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Name at birth: José Antonio Dominguez Banderas

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas is a stylish leading man of stage and screen, best known for his role in The Mask of Zorro and, as the voice of Puss in Boots, the Shrek movies. Before making his Hollywood debut in in 1992's The Mambo Kings, Banderas appeared in dozens of Spanish movies, including director Pedro Almodovar's Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990). He received critical praise in the U.S. for Philadelphia (1993, starring Tom Hanks), then proved himself an able action hero in the Robert Rodriguez film Desperado (1995). The Mask of Zorro (1998, with Catherine Zeta-Jones) made him a box office star. One of the busiest actors in filmdom, his movies include Spy Kids and its sequels (2001-03), Shrek 2 (2004) and Shrek the Third (2007), The Legend of Zorro (2005) ,Take the Lead (2006), The Other Man (2008) and The Code (2009, with Morgan Freeman).

Extra credit: In 1999 he directed his wife, actress Melanie Griffith, in the movie Crazy in Alabama, and in 2006 he took another turn behind the camera for Summer Rain.