Benicio del Toro Net Worth

Benicio del Toro's Quotes

• 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.

Interesting Facts about Benicio del Toro

1. Son of Gustavo Del Toro and Fausta Sanchez Rivera (both lawyers).
2. Passionate about oil painting.
3. He was sent to boarding school in Pennsylvania when he was age 13.
4. Has one older brother, Gustavo Del Toro, who is a physician in the United States.
5. His mother, Fausta Sanchez Del Toro, died of hepatitis when he was age nine.
6. His family urged him to become a lawyer because they felt there was no future in acting.
7. Studied at the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting on a scholarship.
8. Attended the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), but did not graduate.
9. 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 deleted.
10. Reportedly turned down the role of Frida Kahlo's husband Diego Rivera in Frida (2002) because of the weight gain that would be required, despite that earlier, for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), he had gained 40 pounds for his character.
11. He was offered the role of Reinaldo Arenas in Before Night Falls (2000), which eventually went to Javier Bardem. He turned down the role to be in friend Christopher McQuarrie's The Way of the Gun (2000).
12. Attended and graduated from Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania (1985). He was a basketball star and artist there, but not an actor.
13. He badly injured his wrist during a stunt fight during the filming of William Friedkin's The Hunted (2003). He fell on his wrist as he dove for a knife and actor Tommy Lee Jones fell on top of him. He was injured so badly that he was out of work for months, even though the film was virtually completed. He required three hours of therapy daily and reportedly there is a question whether he will regain full use of the wrist.
14. "Del Toro" means "of the bull" in Spanish.
15. Received the 2003 Audience Award for Best Actor at the Venice International Film Festival for his role in 21 Grams (2003).
16. Is the third Puerto Rican actor to receive an Academy Award. The other two were: Rita Moreno (West Side Story (1961)) and José Ferrer (Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)).
17. Benny Dalmau's last name (his character in Basquiat (1996)) came from Raymond Dalmau, a Puerto Rican basketball player in the 1970s and early 1980s. Raymond Dalmau wore the shirt Benicio wears in the film when he was in the Puerto Rican National Selection.
18. Had a long-term relationship with Chiara Mastroianni (1998-2001).
19. Before moving to Pennsylvania, he was a student at Academia del Perpetuo Socorro in Miramar, Puerto Rico.
20. Because of his pay-or-play deal, he was paid $5 million for American Gangster (2007). The film was due to start shooting in October 2004 - with Denzel Washington co-starring - but Universal Pictures postponed it because of budgetary concerns. The film eventually got the green light in 2006, with Ridley Scott replacing Antoine Fuqua as director.