Benicio Del Toro

Producer, Writer, Director

Birthdate: February 19, 1967 (59 Years Old)

Birthplace: San Germán, Puerto Rico

A leading member of the contemporary generation of Method actors carrying on the tradition of psychological realism innovated on stage and screen by Marlon Brando, Benicio del Toro (birthname: Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sanchez) is also one of the most successful and awarded Latino actors in Hollywood and American indie cinema. At the same time, Del Toro can’t be pegged as simply “Method”: His borderline mumbling verbal and antsy physical style is unique, as individual and signature as young Dustin Hoffman’s behavioral quirks or Christopher Walken’s eccentric verbal flourishes. After small roles in some notable films such as Sean Penn’s The Indian Runner (1991) and Peter Weir’s Fearless (1993), with Jeff Bridges, Del Toro’s eye (and ear)-catching breakthrough was in Bryan Singer/Christopher McQuarrie’s The Usual Suspects (1995), with a colorful cast including Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, and Stephen Baldwin, and earning him his first major prize as Best Supporting Male in the Independent Spirit Awards, which Del Toro duplicated the following year in Julian Schnabel’s stylish biopic, Basquiat (1996). Benicio del Toro began an impressive run of memorable performances in films by major filmmakers, including Abel Ferrara (The Funeral, with Christopher Walken in 1996); Tony Scott (The Fan, with Robert De Niro in 1996); Terry Gilliam (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, with Johnny Depp in 1998); McQuarrie (The Way of the Gun, with Ryan Phillippe in 2000); Penn, once again (The Pledge, in 2001), and William Friedkin (The Hunted, with Tommy Lee Jones and Connie Nielsen, in 2003). Del Toro won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his acclaimed performance in Steven Soderbergh’s sprawling ensemble epic, Traffic (2000), with Michael Douglas, Don Cheadle, Dennis Quaid, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Del Toro’s second Oscar nomination came just three years later, in 2003, for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s drama, 21 Grams, with Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Melissa Leo, and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Known as a selective actor with an acute script sense, Del Toro has tended to perform in only one to two features per year, and even less frequently than that. By 2008, Del Toro was participating as a producer: First, in his most ambitious starring role to date, as Che Guevara in Soderbergh’s epic two-part biopic, Che (2008), with Demian Bichir, Rodrigo Santoro, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Joaquim de Almeida; then as the star/title role of Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman (2010), with Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt. After contrasting roles in Oliver Stone’s dark crime thriller, Savages (2012), and with the title role in Arnaud Desplechin’s English-language debut, Jimmy P. (2013), with Mathieu Almaric, Benicio Del Toro was cast in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Taneleer Tivan/The Collector. This placed Del Toro firmly in the worlds of several Marvel Studios blockbusters, including Thor: The Dark World (2013); James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), with Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana; and the mega-blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War (2018), with Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, and Scarlett Johansson. Del Toro has also performed in the Star Wars Universe, by way of Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), and has played the recurring role of ex-prosecutor turned assassin Alejandro Gillick in Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario (2015), with Emily Blunt and Josh Brolin, and Stefano Sollima’s sequel, Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018), again with Brolin. Recently, Del Toro has been working with some of the most prominent American independent filmmakers, including Paul Thomas Anderson’s anticipated adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice (2014); Del Toro’s third project with Soderbergh (No Sudden Move, in 2021); and Wes Anderson (The French Dispatch, also in 2021, with Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson, Tilda Swinton, and Jeffrey Wright). Del Toro led the characteristically sprawling cast of Wed Anderson’s European-set family comedy-adventure, The Phoenician Scheme (2025), co-starring Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend and Hope Davis, and released by Focus Features (U.S.)/Universal Pictures (international) after premiering in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Del Toro joined co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn in One Battle After Another (2025), director/writer/producer Paul Thomas Anderson’s loose adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel, Vineland, with Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, Alana Haim, Wood Harris, Shayna McHayle, and D.W. Moffett, and released by Warner Bros.

Personal Life
Movies
Facts

Personal life

Benicio del Toro was born in the southwest Puerto Rico town of San Germán and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico by his mother Fausta and father Gustavo, both lawyers. His brother is also named Gustavo, who is the Chief Medical Officer of the Brooklyn-based Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. Del Toro has Spanish roots—from Catalan on his father’s side, from Basque-speaking northwest Spain on his mother’s side. After his mother Fausta died of hepatitis, Del Toro moved with his family to the southern Pennsylvania town of Mercersburg, where he attended school and the college prep school Mercersburg Academy. He dropped out of UC San Diego when he discovered acting at the university, leading to acting studies using the Stanislavsky Method at the Stella Adler Studio and at actor and acting teacher Arthur Mendoza’s Actors Circle Theatre, as well as Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York.

Known For

One Battle After Another

(2025)

The Phoenician Scheme

Zsa-zsa Korda (2025)

Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

DJ (2017)

Awards

Winner, Best Supporting Actor, Academy Awards (2001); Nominee, Best Actor in Limited Series or Movie, Emmy Awards (2019); Winner, Best Supporting Actor, BAFTA Awards (2001); Winner, Best Actor Silver Bear, Berlin Film Festival (2001); Winner, Best Actor, Cannes Film Festival (2008); Winner, Male Star of the Year, CinemaCon (2018); Winner, Best Supporting Actor, Golden Globe Awards (2001); Winner, Best Actor, Goya Awards (2009); Four-time Winner, Best Supporting Male/Robert Altman Award/Special Distinction Award, Independent Spirit Awards (1996-1997, 2004, 2015); Two-time Nominee, Best Supporting Actor, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards (2000, 2004); Winner, Best Supporting Actor, National Society of Film Critics Awards (2001); Winner, Best Actor, New York Film Critics Circle Awards (2000); Recipient, Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award, San Sebastian Film Festival (2014); Recipient, Heart of Sarajevo Honorary Award, Sarajevo Film Festival (2015); Winner, Best Actor/Best Motion Picture Cast, Screen Actors Guild Awards (2001); Recipient, Tribute to Independent Vision Award, Sundance Film Festival (2002).

Independent Spirit Award

Independent Spirit Award

Film Independent Spirit Awards

Independent Spirit Award

Independent Spirit Award

Film Independent Spirit Awards

Oscar

Oscar

Academy Awards, USA

Benicio Del Toro Movies

Actor

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Previous (18)

2025 |
The Phoenician Scheme
The Phoenician Scheme
2025
Action, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Thriller
The story of a family and a family business.
More Info
asZsa-zsa Korda
2024 |
The Hunted
The Hunted
2024
Horror, Thriller
After their boat engine fails in the Mediterranean Sea, a group of refugees are rescued by rich Europeans who offer them shelter on an idyllic island. But the miracle becomes a nightmare when the saviours turn into ruthless manhunters.
asAaron Hallam
2021 |
The French Dispatch
The French Dispatch
2021
Comedy, Drama, Romance
A love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional twentieth century French city, that brings to life a collection of stories published in "The French Dispatch Magazine".
More Info
asMoses Rosenthaler
2019 |
Dora and the Lost City of Gold
Dora and the Lost City of Gold
2019
Action, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Mystery
Teenage explorer Dora leads her friends on an adventure to save her parents and solve the mystery behind a lost city of gold.
More Info
asSwiper
2018 |
Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Sicario: Day of the Soldado
2018
Action, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
The drug war on the U.S.-Mexico border has escalated as the cartels have begun trafficking terrorists across the US border. To fight the war, federal agent Matt Graver re-teams with the mercurial Alejandro.
More Info
asAlejandro
2017 |
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi
2017
Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Rey develops her abilities with the help of Luke Skywalker as the Resistance prepares for battle against the First Order.
More Info
asDJ
2016 |
A Perfect Day
A Perfect Day
2016
Comedy, Drama, War
A group of aid workers work to resolve a crisis in an armed conflict zone.
asMambrú
2016 |
The Little Prince
The Little Prince
2016
Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Drama, Family, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
A little girl lives in a very grown-up world with her mother, who tries to prepare her for it. Her neighbor, the Aviator, introduces the girl to an extraordinary world where anything is possible, the world of the Little Prince.
asThe Snake
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No Sudden Moveas Ronald Russo
-- |
Sicarioas Alejandro
-- |
Savagesas Lado
-- |
Trafficas Javier Rodríguez
-- |
Basquiatas Benny Dalmau
-- |
The Usual Suspectsas Fenster
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as The Collector
-- |
as Sensei Sergio St. Carlos
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Guardians of the Galaxyas The Collector
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Licence to Killas Dario

Facts About Benicio Del Toro

International Citizen: Benicio del Toro is a joint citizen of the United States and Spain. Environmental Activist: Del Toro has organized major environmental efforts in his native Puerto Rico, including a project to save the island’s endangered coral reef.

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