Banderas was born in Malaga, Andalucia, southern Spain, the son of dona Ana Bandera, a school teacher, and Jose Dominguez, a policeman in the Guardia Civil. He also has a brother, Francisco. Banderas was raised as a Roman Catholic, but no longer follows the religion.
He initially wanted to play football (soccer) professionally, but his dream ended when he broke his foot at age 14. As a young man, he traveled to Madrid, in order to make a career in the Spanish film industry.
His acting career began at the age of 19, when he worked in small theaters during the Movida period. He first gained wide attention through a series of films by director Pedro Almodovar, between 1982 and 1990.
He subsequently moved to the U.S. and began appearing in American films; some of his earlier roles there included the 1992 film, The Mambo Kings, as well as a supporting role in the Oscar-winning 1993 film, Philadelphia.
Banderas divorced his first wife, Ana Leza, and married actress Melanie Griffith, whom he met a year earlier when they shot Two Much. They have a daughter, Stella del Carmen Banderas Griffith, born in 1996, who appeared in the film Crazy in Alabama (1999), in which Griffith starred and which Banderas directed.
He has invested his movie earnings in business marketing Andalusian products, which he promotes in Spain and the USA. He is a long time supporter of the Malaga CF and Real Madrid Football Club. While he speaks in his native Andalusian Spanish with his family and Spanish press, he switches to the Castilian pronunciation when playing non-Andalusian roles or when dubbing his Hollywood performances. |
