Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (born February 19, 1967), better known as Benicio del Toro, is a Puerto Rican actor and film producer. His awards include the Academy Award, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award and British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award. He is known for his roles as Fred Fenster in The Usual Suspects, Javier Rodríguez in Traffic, Jack ‘Jackie Boy’ Rafferty in Sin City, Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Franky Four Fingers in Snatch , Che Guevara in Che, and most recently for his role as Lawrence Talbot/The Wolfman in The Wolfman. He is the third Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award.

Early life

Benicio del Toro was born and grew up in Santurce, Puerto Rico, a district of San Juan. He is the son of Gustavo Adolfo del Toro Bermúdez and Fausta Genoveva Sánchez Rivera, who were both lawyers. He is of Spanish and Italian ancestry.He has an older brother, Gustavo, who is a pediatric oncologist.Del Toro’s childhood nicknames were “Skinny Benny” and “Beno”. He was raised a Catholic[4] and attended Academia del Perpetuo Socorro (The Academy of Our Lady of Perpetual Help), a Roman Catholic school in Miramar, Puerto Rico. When he was nine years old, his mother died of hepatitis. At the age of thirteen, del Toro’s father moved his two sons to Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, where del Toro was enrolled at the Mercersburg Academy. He spent his adolescence and high school there.

After graduation, del Toro followed the advice of his father and pursued a degree in business at the University of California, San Diego.[5] Success in an elective drama course encouraged him to drop out of college and study with noted acting teachers Stella Adler and Arthur Mendoza in Los Angeles, as well as at the Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York.

Career

Del Toro began to surface in small television parts during the late 1980s, playing mostly thugs and drug dealers on programs like Miami Vice and the NBC miniseries Drug Wars: The Camarena Story. He had a cameo in Madonna’s 1987 music video clip “La Isla Bonita” as a background character (the kid sitting on the car). Work in films followed, beginning with his debut in Big Top Pee-wee and in the 007 film Licence to Kill,[5] in which 21-year-old del Toro held the distinction of being the youngest actor ever to play a Bond villain. Although both films were considered box office disappointments, del Toro continued to appear in movies like The Indian Runner (1991), China Moon (1994), Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992), Money for Nothing (1993), Fearless (1993) and Swimming with Sharks (1994).

His career gained momentum in 1995 with his breakout performance in The Usual Suspects, where he played the mumbling, wisecracking Fred Fenster.[5] The role won him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor and established him as a character actor. This led to more strong roles in independent and major studio films, including playing Gaspare in Abel Ferrara’s The Funeral (1996) and winning a second consecutive Best Supporting Actor Independent Spirit Award for his work as Benny Dalmau in Basquiat (1996), directed by his friend, artist Julian Schnabel. Del Toro also shared the screen with Robert De Niro in the big budget thriller The Fan, in which he played Juan Primo, a charismatic Puerto Rican baseball star.

For Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the 1998 film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s famous book, he packed on more than 40 lbs. (about 18 kg) to play Dr. Gonzo (a.k.a. Oscar Zeta Acosta), Thompson’s lawyer and drug-fiend cohort.[5] The surrealistic film, directed by Terry Gilliam, has earned a cult following over the years. Returning from a two-year hiatus after Fear and Loathing, del Toro would gain a mainstream audience in 2000 with a string of performances in four high-profile films. First up was The Way of the Gun, a crime yarn that reunited him with The Usual Suspects screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, making his directorial debut. A few months later, he stood out among a first-rate ensemble cast in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, a complex dissection of the North American drug wars. As Javier Rodriguez - a Mexican border cop struggling to remain honest amid the corruption and deception of illegal drug trafficking - del Toro, who spoke most of his lines in Spanish, gave a performance that dominated the film and earned him his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

His praised work swept all of the major critics awards in 2001, as well as the Golden Globe, and the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. In addition to the critical accolades, Traffic was also a success at the box office, bringing to del Toro real Hollywood clout for the first time in his career. While Traffic was still playing in theaters, two other del Toro films were released in late 2000/early 2001. He had a brief role as the diamond thief Franky Four Fingers in Guy Ritchie’s hip caper comedy Snatch, and played a mentally-challenged Native American man in The Pledge, directed by his old friend Sean Penn.[5]
Benicio del Toro depicting revolutionary Che Guevara in the 2008 film Che. Del Toro was awarded the Best Actor Award at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and the 2009 Goya Award as the best Spanish Lead Actor for his role in the two-part biopic.

In 2003, del Toro appeared in two films: The Hunted, co-starring Tommy Lee Jones, and the drama 21 Grams, an acting tour-de-force, co-starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts. He went on to garner another Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his work in the latter.

His most recent roles were in the film adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel Sin City, directed by Robert Rodriguez, and Things We Lost in the Fire, the English language debut of celebrated Danish director Susanne Bier. Things We Lost in the Fire co-starred Halle Berry, Alison Lohman, and John Carroll Lynch.

In 2008 Del Toro was awarded the Prix d’interpretation masculine (or Best Actor Award) for his characterization of Che Guevara in The Argentine and Guerrilla (together known as Che).[6] During his acceptance speech Del Toro dedicated his award “to the man himself, Che Guevara” along with director Steven Soderbergh.[7] Del Toro was also awarded a 2009 Goya Award as the best Spanish Lead Actor for his depiction of Che.[8] Actor Sean Penn, who won an Oscar for his role in Milk, remarked that he was surprised and disappointed that Che and Del Toro were not also up for any Academy Award nominations. During his acceptance speech for the Best Actor’s trophy at the Screen Actors Guild Awards Penn expressed his dismay stating, “The fact that there aren’t crowns on Soderbergh’s and Del Toro’s heads right now, I don’t understand … that is such a sensational movie, Che.”[9] For the final portions of the film (shown here), Del Toro shed 35 pounds to show how ill Guevara had become near the end of his life in the jungles of Bolivia.

Benicio will be in Martin Scorsese’s “Silence” with Daniel-Day Lewis and Gael Garcia Bernal, due to be released in 2010. Filming will begin late 2009 in New Zealand. The movie is about two Jesuit priests, Sebastião Rodrigues (Del Toro) and Fr. Francisco Garpe (Garcia Bernal), who travel to seventeenth century Japan (disguised as civilians) under the Shogunate regime (which has isolated itself from all foreign contact) to see how the evangelical mission is going and to find their mentor Fr. Cristóvão Ferreira (Day Lewis) who is accused of practicing apostasy. There they witness the persecution of Japanese Christians at the hands of their own government, which wishes to purge Japan of all Western influence. Eventually the priests separate and Rodrigues travels the countryside, wondering why God remains silent while His children suffer. Del Toro stars and produced also the remake of The Wolf Man.

Academy Award

In 2001, del Toro won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Traffic, becoming the fourth living Oscar winner whose winning role was a character who speaks predominantly in a foreign language (most of del Toro’s dialogue in Traffic is in Spanish). Del Toro is also the third Puerto Rican actor to win an Oscar, after Jose Ferrer and Rita Moreno.[5] The night he won his Oscar, it was the first time that two actors born in Puerto Rico were nominated in the same category. (The other actor was Joaquin Phoenix, who isn’t of Puerto Rican descent.) In his acceptance speech, del Toro thanked the people of both Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora and dedicated his award to them. In 2004, Benicio del Toro was again nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, for his performance in the film 21 Grams.

LONDON – British fashion designer Alexander McQueen was found dead at his London home on Thursday, his spokeswoman said. He was 40 years old.

Company spokeswoman Samantha Garrett said McQueen’s body was discovered in the morning but that she had no information “in terms of circumstances.” Police did not directly comment when asked about how McQueen died, but said the death was not being treated as suspicious.

Known for his dramatic statement pieces and impeccable tailoring, McQueen received recognition from Queen Elizabeth II in 2003, when she made him a Commander of the British Empire for his fashion leadership.

“McQueen influenced a whole generation of designers. His brilliant imagination knew no bounds as he conjured up collection after collection of extraordinary designs,” said Alexandra Shulman, the editor of British Vogue.

“At one level he was a master of the fantastic, creating astounding fashions shows that mixed design, technology and performance and on another he was a modern day genius whose gothic aesthetic was adopted by women the world over.”

He received his training at the Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design, long recognized for its fashion-forward approach and encouragement of young designers.

McQueen worked for traditional Savile Row tailors Anderson and Sheppard and also Gieves and Hawkes before branching out into his own more theatrical designs.

He became chief designer at the renowned Givenchy house in 1996 and moved to Gucci as creative director in 2001.

His runway shows — more often like performance pieces because they were so dramatic, and sometimes, bizarre — were always a highlight during the Paris ready-to-wear fashion week.

One of his previous collections included a show built around the concept of recycling, with models donning extravagance headwear made out of trash. His last collection, shown in October in Paris, featured extravagant and highly structured cocktail dresses.

His edgy creations have been seen on numerous red carpets, worn by celebrities including Lady Gaga, Sandra Bullock, and Cameron Diaz.

His work was widely praised in New York City on Thursday by fashion writers leaving the BCBG show, the opener at New York Fashion Week at Bryant Park.

Hal Rubenstein, a fashion director for InStyle magazine, said McQueen started out tough and angry — in his work and attitude — but softened over time as he felt more appreciated by the industry. McQueen, he said, was a master of integration of technology into fashion.

“He changed the way so many of us see shows,” said Rubenstein.

Cindy Weber Cleary, another of the magazine’s fashion directors, said of McQueen: “He was a huge talent, a master of tailoring and always willing to push the envelope. He was forward thinking.”

Cindi Leive, editor in chief of Glamour magazine, said: “Everyone in this tent is shocked. … He was obviously incredibly talented and had a creative energy. There was a real sense of energy in everything he did.”

Leive said he was “always extreme” in his collections.

McQueen’s death came days before London Fashion Week, although McQueen was not scheduled to show in the British capital.

Fashion guru Isabella Blow, who helped launch McQueen’s career, committed suicide almost three years ago.