LIFE & TIMES: Antonio Banderas

As Genius: Picasso (8pm, National Geographic) reaches its conclusion, we look back over the personal and professional highlights of its 57-year-old star, Antonio Banderas…

After an injury put paid to his dreams of a football career, he attended drama school and, in 1979, joined the National Theatre of Spain. The talented teen caught the eye of director Pedro Almodovar, who gave Antonio his first role in 1982’s Labyrinth Of Passion. The pair have made several films together, with another on the way.

His work with Almodovar brought him to the attention of Madonna; when Antonio met the singer (as seen in her 1991 documentary Truth Or Dare), she made it clear that her interest was personal. He was flattered, but married (to first wife Ana Leza), and romance wasn’t on the cards.

In 1996, the pair co-starred in Evita. When Antonio made his first Hollywood film, 1992’s The Mambo Kings, he couldn’t speak English, and had to learn his lines phonetically. He has since become fluent, starring in hit American franchises including the Spy Kids and Shrek films, but he still has trouble with some words – including ‘animals’, which he changed to ‘beasts’ in The Mask Of Zorro (1998).

Although less of a leading man these days, he has several movies in the pipeline, in both America and Europe. One to look out for is The Laundromat, starring Oscarwinning actors Gary Oldman and Meryl Streep, and helmed by Oscarwinning director Steven Soderbergh.