Javier Bardem's biography
Javier Bardem is a Spanish actor who's built a captivating Hollywood career, where he's best known for playing complex villains. These include Anton Chigurh from the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men, the menacing Silva from Skyfall, Lorenzo from the Goya's Ghosts and, of course, the evil Captain Salazar from the fifth film of Pirates of the Caribbean. But he's avoided being typecast as the stereotypical Latino villains that Hollywood loves. Each of his antiheroes is completely different from the last. He's equally comfortable playing machos, gigolos, and tragic heroes.
Childhood and family
Javier Angel Encinas Bardem was born on the first day of spring 1969 in the Spanish city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Canary Islands).

The young Bardem was remarkably well-rounded: he spent tons of time on sports, especially boxing and weightlifting, and even was in Spain rugby team. In addition, he toured with an independent theater troupe and studied painting at an art school.

Career in homeland
Audiences first witnessed Javier Bardem's breakthrough performance in 1990 when he starred in Bigas Luna's erotic drama The Ages of Lulu, exploring the full spectrum of sexual experimentation through young Lulu's perspective.

A string of provocatively titled films followed, including Huevos de oro, Boca a boca, Entre las piernas, Éxtasis, La teta y la luna, The Bilingual Lover with Ornella Muti, and Amo tu cama rica.



Career in Hollywood
This film served as a warm-up before a breakout role that would catapult Javier to international stardom far beyond his native Spain. In 2000, Julian Schnabel's biographical film Before Night Falls was released, with Javier taking on the role of Cuban dissident Reinaldo Arenas, a gay poet who was meant to become a leader in Fidel Castro's revolution but fell from grace due to his sexual orientation, was exiled from the island, and died of AIDS at age 47.




He spent most of the filming in bed. Every day he was made up lying down for five hours, followed by a ten-hour working day that ended with sleeping in his own bed at home. Even on the weekend, Javier did not allow himself to leave the house. And all this in order to get used to the role ‒ Bardem's character was bedridden for 30 years.I realized that death can be natural. It is not necessarily full of injury and drama.



A little later, he completed work on the drama Eat Pray Love directed by Ryan Murphy, in which Javier played together with Julia Roberts.I hate violence. I like to talk about love, about important things that unite us, not separate.




Javier Bardem's personal life
Javier Bardem is happily married to fellow Spanish actress Penelope Cruz. The couple had known each other for years and worked together on several films, but their relationship never went beyond friendship. Romance finally sparked in 2008 on the set of Vicky Cristina Barcelona, after both had gone through several failed relationships: Penelope's romantic history included Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage, Matt Damon, and Matthew McConaughey, while Javier had his own string of high-profile romances.



Javier Bardem now
2020 saw Bardem appear in the mini-series "Home Movie: The Princess Bride" alongside the film "The Roads Not Taken", where he starred with Elle Fanning and Salma Hayek.Meanwhile, Bardem was also filming "Dune" – Denis Villeneuve's highly anticipated epic starring Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson and Jason Momoa. His character is the brave and cunning Stilgar, the leader of the Fremen tribe from Arrakis.
