Benicio del Toro facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Benicio del Toro
del Toro at the Cannes Film Festival 2025
Born	Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (1967-02-19) February 19, 1967 (age 58) San Germán, Puerto Rico
Citizenship	Spain United States
Education	University of California, San Diego
Occupation	Actor producer
Years active	1987–present
Children	1
Awards	Full list

Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (born February 19, 1967) is a famous Puerto Rican actor. He has won many important awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, and a Silver Bear.

Del Toro started acting in movies with Big Top Pee-wee (1988). He became well-known for his role as a clever character in the crime movie The Usual Suspects (1995). He also appeared in films like Basquiat (1996) and Snatch (2000). He won an Academy Award for his role as a good police officer in the movie Traffic (2000). He was also nominated for another Academy Award for his part in 21 Grams (2003).

Benicio del Toro has also played characters in big movie series. He was Lawrence Talbot in The Wolfman (2010). He played the Collector in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, like Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018). He was also DJ, a codebreaker, in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017). On TV, he played Richard Matt in the miniseries Escape at Dannemora (2018).

Early Life and Education

Benicio del Toro was born on February 19, 1967, in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico. His parents, Gustavo Adolfo del Toro Bermúdez and Fausta Genoveva Sánchez Rivera, were both lawyers. He has an older brother named Gustavo. Benicio grew up in Santurce and attended a Catholic school.

When he was 15, del Toro moved to Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, with his father and brother. He went to high school there. After graduating, he started studying business at the University of California, San Diego. However, he found he loved acting after taking a drama class. He decided to leave college to study acting with famous teachers in Los Angeles and New York City.

Acting Career Highlights

Starting Out: 1987–1999

Benicio del Toro began his career with small roles on TV shows in the late 1980s. He often played tough characters. He even appeared in a music video for Madonna's song "La Isla Bonita" in 1987. His first movie role was in Big Top Pee-wee (1988). He also played Dario in the James Bond film Licence to Kill (1989).

His career really took off in 1995 with his role in The Usual Suspects. He played Fred Fenster, a character who spoke in a unique way. This role helped him become known as a talented character actor. He won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for this part. He won the same award again for his role as Benny Dalmau in Basquiat (1996). He also acted alongside Robert De Niro in The Fan (1996). For the 1998 film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, he played Dr. Gonzo, a friend and lawyer. This movie has become a cult favorite over the years.

Major Success: 2000–2012

In 2000, Benicio del Toro starred in four films that made him very popular. One of these was Steven Soderbergh's Traffic. In this movie, he played Javier Rodriguez, a Mexican border police officer trying to be honest in a world of illegal trade. Del Toro's performance was outstanding, and he spoke most of his lines in Spanish.

For his role in Traffic, del Toro won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also won the Golden Globe Award and the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. He was the third Puerto Rican actor to win an Oscar. After Traffic, he had a small role in Snatch as Franky Four Fingers. He also played a man with an intellectual disability in The Pledge, directed by his friend Sean Penn.

In 2003, del Toro was in The Hunted and 21 Grams. He received another Oscar nomination for his role in 21 Grams. He then appeared in Sin City (2005) and Things We Lost in the Fire (2007).

In 2008, del Toro won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival for playing Che Guevara in the movies The Argentine and Guerrilla (known together as Che). He also won a Goya Award for this role. In 2010, del Toro starred in and produced The Wolfman.

Franchise Roles and Beyond: 2013–Present

Since 2013, Benicio del Toro has taken on roles in popular movie series. He played The Collector in Marvel Studios' Thor: The Dark World (2013), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018).

In 2015, del Toro played Alejandro Gillick in Sicario, a critically praised film. He played this character again in the sequel Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018). In 2017, he appeared as DJ in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

More recently, del Toro starred in the Wes Anderson film The French Dispatch (2021) as Moses Rosenthaler, an artist. He is also set to appear in Anderson's upcoming film The Phoenician Scheme (2025). In 2023, he starred in Reptile.

Personal Life

del Toro with Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva during a meeting in 2010.

Benicio del Toro has a daughter named Delilah, born in 2011.

In 2011, he became a Spanish citizen. The Spanish government gave him this honor because of his artistic talent and his Spanish family background. In 2012, he received an honorary degree from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico.

Del Toro is also involved in environmental work. In 2003, he became a spokesperson for "Yo Limpio a Puerto Rico." This group teaches people in Puerto Rico about recycling and protecting the environment. He also helped with a public service announcement about protecting coral reefs.

Images for kids

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  Del Toro at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con

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  Del Toro at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival

See also

In Spanish: Benicio del Toro para niños