Short Biography

Benicio Del Toro emerged in the mid-`90s as one of the most watchable and charismatic character actors to come along in years. A favorite of film buffs, Del Toro gained mainstream public attention as the conflicted but basically honest Mexican cop in Steven Soderbergh`s Traffic (2000). Born in Puerto Rico on February 19, 1967, Benicio is the son of lawyer parents Gustavo and Fausta Sanchez Del Toro. His mother died when he was young, and his father moved the family to a farm in Pennsylvania. A basketball player with an interest in acting, he decided to follow the family way and study business at the University of California in San Diego. A class in acting resulted in his being bitten by the acting bug, and he subsequently dropped out and began studying with legendary acting teacher Stella Adler in Los Angeles and at the Circle in the Square Acting School in New York City. Telling his parents that he was taking courses in business, Del Toro hid his new studies from his family for a little while. During the late 1980s he made a few TV appearances, most notably in an episode of "Miami Vice" (1984) and in the NBC miniseries "Drug Wars: The Camarena Story" (1990) (mini). Del Toro`s big-screen career got off to a slower start, however--his first role was Duke the Dog-Faced Boy in Big Top Pee-wee (1988). Things looked better, however, when he landed the role of Dario, the vicious henchman in the James Bond film Licence to Kill (1989). Surprising his co-stars, Del Toro was, at 21, the youngest actor ever to portray a Bond villain. The potential break, however, was spoiled as the picture turned out to be one of the most disappointing Bond films ever; it was lost amid bigger summer competition.

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