Benicio Del Toro emerged in the mid-1990s as one of the most watchable and charismatic character actors to come along in years. A favorite of film buffs, Del Toro gained mainstream public attention as the conflicted but basically honest Mexican policeman in Steven Soderbergh's Traffic (2000).

Benicio was born on February 19, 1967 in San Germán, Puerto Rico, the son of lawyer parents Fausta Genoveva Sanchez Rivera and Gustavo Adolfo Del Toro Bermudez. His mother died when he was young, and his father moved the family to a farm in Pennsylvania. A basketball player with an interest in acting, he decided to follow the family way and study business at the University of California in San Diego. A class in acting resulted in his being bitten by the acting bug, and he subsequently dropped out and began studying with legendary acting teacher Stella Adler in Los Angeles and at the Circle in the Square Acting School in New York City. Telling his parents that he was taking courses in business, Del Toro hid his new studies from his family for a little while.

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Trivia

Son of Gustavo Del Toro and Fausta Sanchez-Del Toro, and Godson of Sarah Torres (all lawyers).
Passionate about oil painting.
He was sent to boarding school in Pennsylvania when he was age 13.
Has one brother, Gustavo, who is two years older and is a physician in the United States.
His mother, Fausta Sanchez-Del Toro, died of hepatitis when he was age nine.
His family urged him to become a lawyer because they felt there was no future in acting.
Studied at the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting on a scholarship.
Attended the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), but did not graduate.
Burned himself with cigarettes repeatedly for the elevator scene in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) because the real Oscar Zeta Acosta did as well. The shots of the burn were cut.

Before I was ever in high school, I had dark circles under my eyes. The rumor was I was a junkie. I have dark circles under my eyes, deal with it.
My career went into the hole after Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). People might have seen what they saw on screen and subconsciously, people in the business might have taken what they saw literally. I think people thought, "He got fat. He got weird. His mumbling increased tenfold." I was trying to do an interpretation of a masterpiece of a book, and that's what the character was - an animal!
I like anything that's three-dimensional, anything I can believe in - even if it's fantastic, surreal or from another planet.
I like to keep growing. I haven't gotten anywhere, as far as I'm concerned.
I'd like to do completely different roles - a romantic lead, for example. I'd like to be dressed up in a suit and get the girl at the end of the movie.