Javier Bardem

Biography: A Spanish actor. He has garnered critical acclaim for roles in films such as Jamón, jamón, Carne trémula, Boca a boca, Los Lunes al sol and Mar adentro.

Bardem has been awarded an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a BAFTA, five Goya awards, two European Film Awards, a Prize for Best Actor at Cannes and two Coppa Volpis at Venice for his work. He is the first Spaniard to be nominated for an Oscar (Best Actor, 2000, for Before Night Falls, lost to Russell Crowe for Gladiator), as well as the first Spanish actor to win an Oscar (Supporting Actor, 2007, for No Country for Old Men). He received his third Academy Award nomination, and second Best Actor nomination, for the film Biutiful.

Bardem was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands (Spain). His mother, Pilar Bardem, is an actress, and his father, Carlos Encinas, was a businessman who was involved in environmental work; the two separated shortly after his birth. His mother raised him alone. 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. Both his older brother and sister, Carlos and Mónica, are actors. Bardem was raised Roman Catholic by his grandmother. He also comes from a very political background, his uncle Juan Antonio was imprisoned by Franco for his anti-fascist films.

As a child he hung around theatres and film sets. At age six he made his first film appearance in Fernando Fernán Gómez?s El Pícaro (The Scoundrel). He played rugby for the underage Spanish National Team. Though he grew up in a family full of actors, Bardem didn?t see himself going into the family business. In actuality painting was his first love. He went on to study painting for four years at Madrid?s ?Escuela de Artes y Oficios?. In need of money he took acting jobs to support his painting. But, he has expressed to have been a bad painter, "otherwise I would?ve kept on painting. It?s not it was bad or good. It was like, I felt it was not my place to be," Bardem explained on his decision to leave painting. In 1989, for the Spanish comedy show El Dia Por Delante (The Day Ahead) he had to wear a Superman costume for a comedic sketch, the job made him question whether he wanted to be an actor at all. Bardem has confessed to have worked as a stripper (for one day only) during his struggling acting career.

He credits the group AC/DC for his fluency in English as well as learning how to curse and has stated he loves heavy metal music. Bardem has admitted in interviews he cannot drive, only getting behind the wheel for film roles, and he consistently refers to himself as a "worker" and not an actor.

Bardem was divorced before he began dating then co-star Penélope Cruz in 2007, although the couple have maintained a low public profile. The two are famously private and won?t talk about their personal lives. According to the Associated Press, the two were married in July 2010 in the Bahamas. On 14 September 2010, it was announced that Cruz was four and a half months pregnant with their first child. The Hollywood Reporter quoted the Spanish-language ¡Hola! that Cruz gave birth to a boy on 22 January 2011, three days before Bardem received his third Oscar nomination, for his role in Biutiful. The couple?s son is reportedly named Leo Encinas Bardem