Javier Bardem

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Javier Bardem

Javier Bardem, Festimad 2007
Born Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem
March 1, 1969 (1969-03-01) (age 39)
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem (born March 1, 1969) is a critically acclaimed Spanish actor who has starred in over two dozen films in Spain. He had garnered critical acclaim as an actor for films such as Jamon, Jamon, Carne tremula, Boca a boca, Los Lunes al sol and Mar adentro.

Bardem has been awarded a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award, BAFTA, four Goyas, two European Film Awards and two Coppa Volpis for his work. He is notable as the first Spanish actor to be nominated and win an Oscar, the nomination being for Before Night Falls and the historic Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the 2007 film No Country for Old Men. He is Spain's only Academy Award winning performer.


Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Bardem was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Gran Canaria, the son of Carlos Encinas and the actress Pilar Bardem.[1] Bardem comes from a long line of filmmakers and actors who have been working since the earliest days of Spanish cinema; he is the grandson of actors Rafael Bardem and Matilde Muñoz Sampedro, and the nephew of screenwriter and director Juan Antonio Bardem.[2] Both his older brother and his older sister, Carlos and Mónica Bardem, are actors. His film debut was at the age of six and a half in the film El Pícaro (The Scoundrel) and he appeared in several television series before turning to painting and, eventually, sports. Before acting professionally, Bardem was a member of the underage Spanish national rugby team.[3]

[edit] Career

Bardem starred in his second major motion picture, The Ages of Lulu, when he was 20. In 1992, he made his first international hit with Jamón, Jamón, which also starred Penélope Cruz. After starring in roughly two dozen films in his native country, he would eventually land his international breakthrough performance role in Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls in 2000, as Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the role, the first time for a Spaniard. This also marked Bardem's first English language speaking role. In 2002 he starred in John Malkovich's directorial debut, The Dancer Upstairs.

Bardem won the Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for his role in 2004's Mar Adentro, released in the United States as The Sea Inside, in which he portrayed the quadriplegic turned assisted-suicide activist Ramón Sampedro , who unsuccessfully brought his case to the Spanish courts, yet eventually succeeded in persuading several friends to assist him and committed suicide. That year he also made a brief appearance as a vicious crime lord who summons Tom Cruise's hitman to do the dirty work of dispatching witnesses, in Michael Mann's crime drama Collateral, which also starred Jamie Foxx. In 2007 Bardem acted in two film adaptations; the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men, based upon the novel of the same name and the adaptation of the classic Colombian novel Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez. In No Country for Old Men, he plays chilling sociopath killer Anton Chigurh. For that role, he became the first Spanish actor to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also won a Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for Best Supporting Actor, and also won the Critics' Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor as well as the 2008 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Best Supporting Actor. Bardem's rendition of Chigurh's trademark phrase, "Call it, friendo" was named Top HollyWORDIE of 2007 in the annual survey by the Global Language Monitor that tracks the words from Hollywood that most influenced the English Language.[4] Anton Chigurh was placed in EW's 50 Most Vile Villains in Movie History in a recent issue at #26.[5]

He will star in Woody Allen's film Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Bardem is currently in talks to play fictional filmmaker Guido Contini in the film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical Nine. The part of Guido Contini had previously been played by Raul Julia in the original 1982 production and more recently by Antonio Banderas in the Tony Award-winning 2003 revival also starring Mary Stuart Masterson, Jane Krakowski, Chita Rivera, and Laura Benanti. The film is to be directed by Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award-winner Rob Marshall and is scheduled for release in 2008. Javier is rumoured to be in a project with two up and coming Directors Matt Calabro and Oliver Ritchards.

[edit] Personal life

Bardem does not know how to drive and consistently refers to himself as a "worker" and not an actor.[6] Following the legalization of same-sex marriage in Spain in 2005, Bardem incited controversy when he stated that if he were gay, he would "get married tomorrow, just to fuck with the church" (mañana mismo, sólo para joder a la Iglesia).[7] Bardem's life's work was recently honored at the 2007 Gotham Awards, produced by IFP (Independent Feature Project). He is currently dating Penelope Cruz[citation needed].

[edit] Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1990 Las edades de Lulú Jimmy
1991 Tacones Lejanos Regidor T.V.
1992 Jamón, jamón El chorizo
1993 Huevos de oro Benito González
El Amante Bilingüe El limpiabotas
1994 Running Out of Time (Días contados) Lisardo
The Detective and Death (El detective y la muerte) Detective Cornelio
1995 Mouth to Mouth (Boca a boca) Victor Ventura
1996 Éxtasis Rober
1997 Live Flesh David
Perdita Durango Romeo Dolorosa
1999 Second Skin Diego
Washington Wolves (Los Lobos de Washington) Alberto
2000 Before Night Falls Reinaldo Arenas 2000 Academy Award nominee for Best Actor in a Leading Role
2002 The Dancer Upstairs Agustín Rejas
Mondays in the Sun Santa
2004 Collateral Felix
The Sea Inside (Mar adentro) Ramón Sampedro
2006 Goya's Ghosts Brother Lorenzo
2007 Love in the Time of Cholera Florentino Ariza
No Country for Old Men Anton Chigurh 2007 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
2008 Vicky Cristina Barcelona José Antonio awaiting release
2009 Killing Pablo Pablo Escobar pre-production

[edit] Nominations and awards

[edit] Nominated

[edit] Won

Awards
Preceded by
Alan Arkin
for Little Miss Sunshine		 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
2007
for No Country for Old Men		 Succeeded by
TBD
Preceded by
Alan Arkin
for Little Miss Sunshine		 BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor
2008
for No Country for Old Men		 Succeeded by
TBD
Preceded by
Eddie Murphy
for Dreamgirls		 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role - Motion Picture
2007
for No Country for Old Men		 Succeeded by
TBD
Preceded by
Eddie Murphy
for Dreamgirls		 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
for No Country for Old Men
2008		 Succeeded by
TBD

[edit] References

  1. ^ Javier Bardem Biography - Yahoo! Movies
  2. ^ Rodriguez, Rene. "Javier Bardem Comes Across", The New York Times, 2000-12-17. Retrieved on 2007-10-12. 
  3. ^ Pierce, Nev. "Interview with Javier Bardem", BBC. Retrieved on 2007-10-12. 
  4. ^ "Tú decides, amigo" · ELPAÍS.com
  5. ^ 50 Most Vile Movie Villains Part 2, Entertainment Weekly. Accessed May 26, 2008.
  6. ^ "OSCAR FILMS/ACTORS; 'Don't Call Me Actor,' says a Nominee for Best, Um . . .", The New York Times, 2001-03-04. Retrieved on 2007-10-12. 
  7. ^ "Sólo para joder a la Iglesia" : Si fuera gay, Bardem se casaría ¡mañana!

[edit] External links

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Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor

Jim Broadbent (2001) · Chris Cooper (2002) · Tim Robbins (2003) · Morgan Freeman (2004) · George Clooney (2005) · Alan Arkin (2006) · Javier Bardem (2007)

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