Javier Bardem: filmography, biography and family of the Spanish actor

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The hero of our today's story will be Javier Bardem, who can definitely be called one of the most successful actors of Spanish origin who made a dizzying career in Hollywood. He is the winner of many prestigious film awards, including Oscar and Golden Globe. The creative path of the famous Spaniard, as well as his personal life, will be discussed further.

Javier Bardem: biography

The future Hollywood star and the conqueror of thousands of women's hearts was born on March 1, 1969 in the town of Las Palmas, located on one of the Canary Islands in Spain. With a great deal of confidence, we can say that Javier was destined to become an actor. Such a conclusion suggests itself in connection with the fact that almost his entire family was in contact with cinema. So, his grandparents, Rafael Bardem and Matilla Munoz Sampedro, as well as his mother Pilar, were very successful actors in their homeland. Javier's brother and sister, Carlos and Monica, followed in their footsteps. The uncle of the future Hollywood celebrity, whose name was Juan Antonio Bardem, is also associated with the world of cinema: he was very famousdirector and stood out for his communist views and love for Cuba and Russia. Only Javier's father, who had Cuban roots, was a businessman: he worked in the environmental field.

When the boy was two years old, his parents divorced, and he moved to Madrid with his mother, brother and sister. At the age of six, Javier starred in the film for the first time, which was called "The Dodger". After that, while studying at school, the boy took part in several more films, but they did not receive much fame.

Youth

Javier Bardem (the filmography of the actor in the future will be replenished with successful films that will bring him an Oscar and other prestigious awards) grew up as a very versatile boy. He devoted a lot of time to sports: he was a member of the national rugby team and was engaged in weightlifting. He also enrolled in an art-industrial school, where he was seriously engaged in painting. In addition, Javier also realized himself in the acting role, touring throughout the country as a member of an independent theater group.

Javier Bardem: filmography, the beginning of a film career

The young actor got his first really big role in the film "The Ages of Leelu", directed by Bigas Lun in 1990. By the way, Javier's mother also took part in the work on this picture. The director really liked the game of 20-year-old Bardem, and he offered him a role in his next project - a black comedy called Love, Sex andham". The work of Javier in this film was to the taste of both the audience and critics, and brought him popularity and several film awards at once. Roles in subsequent films, such as "Between the Legs", "Golden Eggs", "Mouth to Mouth", "Ecstasy", presented the actor in the image of a kind of brutal and rude Spanish macho. However, Javier Bardem, whose half-naked photo was kept by crowds of fans like the apple of an eye, avoided the temptation to remain a sex symbol forever. He continued to work on improving his skills, looking for an opportunity to realize himself in a new serious role.

Continuing career

In 1994, Bardem starred as a Basque terrorist in a film called "A Few Days" directed by Imanol Uribe. For this work, he was awarded the first Goya Award as the best supporting actor. A couple of years later, he starred in the film "Face to Face", where his hero was an unemployed actor who was embroiled in a cunning conspiracy. This work brought Bardem a second "Goya", but for the lead role.

It can be said that the awards literally rained down on Javier, which cannot but speak of his bright talent. So, in 1997, he again won the Goya Award, this time for his role in the film "Living Flesh" directed by Perdro Almodovar. And just a year later, at the Berlin Film Festival, Bardem was recognized as the best European actor for his work in the film Perdita Durango.

However, Javier has not yet been able to get rid of the image of a charming and sexyseducer who made him a star of the first magnitude in Spain. Bardem became more and more burdened by this role. A truly radical step for the actor on the way to changing his image was the role in the 1998 film called Second Skin. In the film, Javier played a homosexual who stole a respectable heterosexual from his family.

2000s

At the dawn of the new millennium, Bardem played perhaps the pivotal role of his career in Before Night Falls, directed by Julian Schnabel. And Javier's hero was Reinaldo Arenas, a Cuban dissident and poet who had a non-traditional sexual orientation and died of AIDS at the age of 47. For this role, Bardem received the most prestigious awards: the Volpi Cup at the Venice International Film Festival and the Golden Globe. The actor was also nominated for the prestigious Oscar.

Javier Bardem, whose filmography was constantly replenished with new magnificent works, in 2002 brilliantly played in the film "Dancer at the Top of the Stairs", which became the debut directorial work of John Malkovich. This was followed by participation in the film "Mondays in the Sun".

Another really successful role was his work in the film "The Sea Within", in which he played a paralyzed man fighting for his right to euthanasia. Both the film itself and Bardem's performance have earned numerous prizes, awards and nominations.

Recent works

In 2006, Javier played another very significant role - the priest Lorenzo in the film "Ghosts of Goya". Thenfollowed by an excellent work as an actor in the crime drama No Country for Old Men, directed by Ethan Coen, which was released in 2007. For this role, Bardem received two prestigious awards - "Oscar" and "Golden Globe".

In 2010, the actor was busy in two films at once: "Beautyful" and "Eat, Pray, Love" (in the latter he played in a pair with the brilliant Julia Roberts). The first of them brought the actor a prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It should be noted that all films with Javier Bardem left a significant mark on the history of cinema, and therefore almost invariably were accompanied by some prizes and awards.

In the next few years, Javier delighted the audience with great roles in such films as "007: Skyfall", "To the Miracle", "Scorpion in Love", "Advisor". In 2014, a new film with Bardem in the lead role called "The Gunslinger" is expected to hit the big screens.

Private life

In 2010, Javier Bardem married Hollywood star Penelope Cruz, who, by the way, is Spanish, that is, his compatriot. The actors have known each other for a long time, but remain just good friends. Romantic feelings between celebrities arose during the joint work on the film "Vicky Cristina Barcelona". Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz got married in a romantic setting in the Bahamas. The actors are happily married and have two children: son Leonardo Encinas (2011) and daughter Luna Encinas (2013).

Interestingfacts

The success of an actor can be judged by the fact that out of 40 roles he has played to date, there are 69 awards and prizes!

Javier Bardem is the second Spaniard, after famed Antonio Banderas, to have made a dizzying career in Hollywood.

About 20 years ago, an actor was attacked by hooligans and beaten up. Since then, Javier has decided to take up boxing seriously in order to repel ill-wishers if necessary.