José Antonio Domínguez Bandera (born 10 August 1960), known professionally as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish actor. Known for his work in films of several genres, he has received numerous accolades, including a Cannes Film Festival Award and a Goya Award, as well as nominations for an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award.
Banderas made his acting debut at a small theater in Málaga, where he caught the attention of director Pedro Almodóvar, who gave the actor his film debut in the screwball comedy Labyrinth of Passion (1982). They have since collaborated on eight films, including Matador (1986), Law of Desire (1987), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989), The Skin I Live In (2011), and Pain and Glory (2019), the last of which earned him the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Banderas made his American film debut with the musical drama The Mambo Kings (1992), followed by roles in Philadelphia (1993), Interview with the Vampire (1994), Assassins (1995), Evita (1996), Official Competition (2021), Babygirl (2024), and Tony (2026). He took roles in franchises playing El Mariachi in Desperado (1995) and Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003), Zorro in The Mask of Zorro (1998) and The Legend of Zorro (2005), the patriarch in the Spy Kids series (2001–2003) and voiced Puss in Boots in the Shrek films (2004–present). He has also acted in the adventure films The Expendables 3 (2014), Uncharted (2022), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), and Paddington in Peru (2024).
On stage, Banderas made his Broadway theatre debut playing an Italian film director in the musical revival Nine (2003), for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. For his work on television, he received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his roles as Pancho Villa in the HBO television film And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2004) and Pablo Picasso in the National Geographic anthology series Genius (2018). He made his directorial debut with the comedy film Crazy in Alabama (1999), followed by Summer Rain (2006).
José Antonio Domínguez Bandera was born on 10 August 1960, in Málaga, Andalusia, to Civil Guard officer José Domínguez Prieto (1920–2008) and schoolteacher Ana Bandera Gallego (1933–2017). He has a younger brother named Francisco. As a young boy, Banderas wanted to become a professional football player until a broken foot sidelined his dreams at the age of 15. He showed a strong interest in the performing arts and formed part of the ARA Theatre School run by Ángeles Rubio-Argüelles y Alessandri (wife of diplomat and filmmaker Edgar Neville) and the College of Dramatic Art, both in Málaga. His work in the theater and his performances on the streets eventually landed him a spot with the Spanish National Theatre.
1982–1989: Early collaborations with Pedro Almodóvar
Banderas began his acting studies at the School of Dramatic Art in Málaga and made his acting debut at a small theater in Málaga. He began working in small shops during Spain's post-dictatorial cultural movement known as La Movida Madrileña.
While performing with the theater, Banderas caught the attention of Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, who gave the young actor his film debut in the screwball sex comedy Labyrinth of Passion (1982). Five years later, he went on to appear in the director's comedic thriller Law of Desire (1987), making headlines with his performance as a gay man, which required him to engage in his first male-to-male onscreen kiss. Banderas appeared in Almodóvar's surrealist sex comedy Matador, with Vincent Canby of The New York Times writing, "The movie looks terrific and is acted with absolute, straight-faced conviction by the excellent cast headed by Miss Serna, Mr. Martinez and Mr. Banderas."
The director cast him in his internationally acclaimed 1988 film, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Rita Kemply of The Washington Post described Banderas's performance as "warm" and described the film as a "glossy delight." The recognition Banderas gained for his role increased one year later, when he starred in Almodóvar's controversial Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989) as a mental patient who kidnaps a porn star (Victoria Abril) and keeps her tied up until she returns his love. The breakthrough role helped spur him on to Hollywood. Almodóvar is credited with helping launch Banderas's international career, as he became a regular feature in his films throughout the 1980s.
In 1991, Madonna introduced Banderas to Hollywood. (He was an object of her desires in her pseudodocumentary film of one of her concert tours, Madonna: Truth or Dare.) The following year, still speaking minimal English, he began acting in American films. Despite having to learn all his lines phonetically, Banderas still managed to turn in a critically praised performance as a struggling musician in his first American drama film, The Mambo Kings (1992). Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times described Banderas as giving a "quietly effective job". David Nansen of Newsweek declared, "Banderas had to learn English to play this role, but you wouldn't know it: he plumbs all the nuances of charm and self-pity in Nestor's melancholic soul". Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly also praised Banderas's performance writing, "he gives a surprisingly confident and subtle performance as the implosive Nestor".
Banderas then broke through to mainstream American audiences in the 1993 Jonathan Demme film Philadelphia as the life partner of lawyer Tom Hanks. Also in 1993, he acted in the Bille August-directed The House of the Spirits, an adaptation of the Isabel Allende novel of the same name. Banderas acted alongside Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, and Winona Ryder.
The film's success earned Banderas wide recognition, and the following year, he was given a role in Neil Jordan's high-profile adaptation of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire (1994), sharing the screen with Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, and Kirsten Dunst. He starred in several major Hollywood films, including the Robert Rodriguez-directed neo-Western action film Desperado (1995), alongside Salma Hayek, Steve Buscemi, and Quentin Tarantino. The film was a financial success. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "The movie's greatest visual coup ... is Banderas himself. The camera loves this velvet stud as much as it did the young Clint Eastwood."
That same year, Banderas portrayed the antagonist in the Richard Donner-directed action film Assassins, co-starring opposite Sylvester Stallone and Julianne Moore. In 1996, he starred alongside Madonna in the musical film Evita, an adaptation of the stage musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice in which he played the narrator, Che, a role played by David Essex in the original 1978 West End production. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that "Banderas ... does an unexpectedly splendid job as the film's conspiratorial singing narrator." For his performance, he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. He also had success with his role as the masked swordsman Zorro in the 1998 film The Mask of Zorro, starring Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Roger Ebert praised the onscreen chemistry between the two leads, writing, "The best scenes in the movie are between Banderas and Zeta-Jones, who share chemistry and, it turns out, a sense of justice." His performance earned him another Golden Globe Award nomination. In 1999, he starred in the historical action film The 13th Warrior, a movie about a Muslim caught up in a war between the Northman and human-eating beasts.
2000–2009: Broadway debut and franchise films
In 2001, Banderas collaborated with Robert Rodriguez, who cast him in the first three movies of the Spy Kids franchise (2001–2003). He portrayed Gregorio Cortez, a retired OSS agent, alongside Carla Gugino, who played his wife, Ingrid Cortez. Roger Ebert praised the first film, describing it as "giddy with the joy of its invention. It's an exuberant, colorful extravaganza, wall-to-wall with wildly original sets and visual gimmicks, and smart enough to escape the kids film category and play in the mainstream." He also starred in Michael Cristofer's Original Sin alongside Angelina Jolie the same year.