50 facts about Antonio Banderas: veteran of the perfume industry

Learn 50 interesting things you missed Spanish about actor and producer Antonio Banderas.

1. His full name is José Antonio Domínguez Banderas.

2. He is a Spanish actor, director, and producer.

3. Banderas began his acting career with a series of films by director Pedro Almodóvar and then appeared in high-profile Hollywood movies, especially in the 1990s, including Assassins, Evita, Interview with the Vampire, Philadelphia, Desperado, The Mask of Zorro and Spy Kids.

4. Banderas also portrayed the voice of "Puss in Boots" in the Shrek sequels and Puss in Boots.

5. He also portrayed the bee in the US Nasonex commercials.

6. Banderas was born in Benalmádena, Málaga, Andalucía, Spain.

7. His mother Ana Banderas Gallego was a school teacher.

8. His father José Domínguez was a police officer in the Guardia Civil.

9. He has a younger brother, Javier.

10. Banderas took his mother's last name as his stage name.

11. As a child, he wanted to become a professional soccer player until a broken foot sidelined his dreams at the age of fourteen.

12. He showed a strong interest in the performing arts and formed part of the ARA Theatre-School ran by ángeles Rubio-Argüelles y Alessandri and the College of Dramatic Art, both in Málaga.

13. His work in the theater, and his performances on the streets, eventually landed him a spot with the Spanish National Theatre.

14. He was still speaking minimal English when he began acting in U.S. films.

15. 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.

16. Banderas then broke through to mainstream American audiences in the film, Philadelphia (1993), as the lover of AIDS-afflicted lawyer Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks). 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, sharing the screen with Brad Pitt.

17. He appeared in several major Hollywood releases in 1995, including a starring role in the Robert Rodriguez-directed film Desperado and the antagonist on the action film Assassins, co-starred with Sylvester Stallone.

18. In 1996, he starred alongside Madonna in Evita.

19. He also made success with his role as the legendary masked swordsman Zorro in the 1998 film The Mask of Zorro.

20. In 2001, he collaborated with Robert Rodriguez who cast him in the Spy Kids film trilogy.

21. Banderas starred in Michael Cristofer's Original Sin alongside Angelina Jolie.

22. In 2002, he starred in Brian De Palma's Femme Fatale opposite Rebecca Romijn-Stamos and in Julie Taymor's Frida with Salma Hayek.

23. In 2003, he starred in the last installment of the trilogy Once Upon A Time In Mexico.

24. Banderas' debut as a director was the poorly received Crazy in Alabama, starring his wife Melanie Griffith.

25. In 2005, he reprised his role as Zorro in The Legend of Zorro, though this was not as successful as The Mask of Zorro.

26. In 2006, he starred in Take the Lead, a high-set movie in which he played a ballroom dancing teacher.

27. Banderas directed his second film El camino de los ingleses in 2006.

28. In 2006 he also received the L.A. Latino International Film Festival's "Gabi" Lifetime Achievement Award on 14 October.

29. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 6801 Hollywood Blvd. in 2005.

30. In 2011, the horror thriller The Skin I Live In marked the return of Banderas to Pedro Almodóvar, the Spanish director who launched his international career.

31. He has invested some of his film earnings in Andalusian products, which he promotes in Spain and the US.

32. He owns 50% of a winery in Villalba de Duero, Burgos, Spain, called Anta Banderas, which produces red and rosé wines.

33. He performed a voice-over for a computer-animated bee which can be seen in the United States in television commercials for Nasonex, an allergy medication.

34. Banderas was seen in the 2007 Christmas advertising campaign for Marks & Spencer, a British retailer.

35. He is a veteran of the perfume industry.

36. The actor has been working with fragrance and beauty multinational company Puig for over ten years becoming one of the brand's most successful representatives.

37. Banderas and Puig have successfully promoted a number of fragrances so far - Diavolo, Diavolo for Women, Mediterraneo, Spirit, and Spirit for Women.

38. After the success of Antonio for Men and Blue Seduction for Men in 2007, launched his latest Blue Seduction for Women the following year.

39. Banderas married Ana Leza on 27 July 1987.

40. They separated in May 1995 when he began a relationship with actress Melanie Griffith while shooting Two Much.

41. Banderas and Leza divorced in April 1996, and one month later, on 14 May 1996, he married Griffith in a private, low-key ceremony in London.

42. They have a daughter, Stella del Carmen Banderas.

43. His daughter appeared onscreen with Griffith in Banderas' directorial debut, Crazy in Alabama.

44. In 2002, the couple's dedication to philanthropy was recognized when they received the 'Stella Adler Angel Award' for their extensive charity work.

45. Griffith has a tattoo of Banderas' first name encircled in a heart on her right shoulder.

46. In June 2014, Griffith and Banderas released a statement announcing their intention to divorce "in a loving and friendly manner". According to the petition filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court, the couple had "irreconcilable differences" that led to the divorce.

47. In 1996, Banderas appeared among other figures of Spanish culture in a video supporting the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party lists in the general election.

48. In 2013, he called on Europe and the United States to emulate Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and nationalize big corporations as a solution to the global economic crisis.

49. In May 2010, Banderas received his honorary doctorate from the University of Málaga in the city where he was born.

50. Banderas has always struggled with the pronunciation of certain English words, as he mentioned in a 2011 article with GQ Magazine. "The word that really gets me is animals, I just can never say it properly, whenever it is in a film I have to get it changed for a synonym." "In Zorro I had a line changed from 'You look like a bunch of animals' to 'you look like a collection of beasts' it worked much better, so I don't care".

Source: Wikipedia.org