Antonio Banderas was born August 10, 1960 in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain under the name Jose Antonio Banderas. His father, Jose Dominguez was a police officer in the Spanish Guards. His mother worked as school teacher. He was raised under the roman catholic church and was an aspiring soccer player. That was until he turned fourteen when his dreams ended when he broke his foot. After this, he soon found an interest in theatre. Banderas enrolled for classes at the School for Dramatic Art, in Malaga. He later joined a small theatre in Málaga. He got arrested by police for performing a play because of political censorship under the rule of General Francisco Franco. He got arrested for similar charges when he joined a traveling theatre troupe. This was the start to Banderas’ successful acting career.

In 1979, at the age of 19, he …show more content…
Being a struggling young actor, he worked part-time as a waiter and took low-paying modeling jobs. At that time he joined the troupe at the National Theatre of Spain, becoming the youngest member of the company. Banderas's stage performances caught the attention of film director Pedro Almodóvar, who cast the young actor in his film debut Labyrinth of Passion. Banderas and Almodovar joined forces in making innovative movies during the 1980s. In 1984 Banderas made headlines in Spain with his performance as a gay man in Almodovar's Law of Desire. Banderas' successful collaboration with Pedro Almodóvar eventually prepared him for worldwide acknowledgement that came with his work in the Academy Award-nominated film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. In 1992 Banderas made his Hollywood debut with The Mambo Kings. Because he did not speak English at that time, his dialogue for the film was taught to him phonetically. Banderas