BEST EUROPEAN ACTORS
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Eduardo Noriega Gómez was born in Santander, Cantabria, Spain. The youngest of 7 siblings, he had shown a very big talent for artistic activities since he was a child. He began taking piano lessons and got into the Santander Music Conservatory, where he studied for five years. His music professors discovered that he had many conditions for playing piano, so they would keep him practicing for hours until he got tired of it and quit. After finishing high school, he decided to become a lawyer and majored at University of Santander, one of the most prestigious universities in Europe.That wouldn't last long either, because he got the acting bug by chance when attended an acting class alongside a friend that wanted to be an actress, he was invited to participate and enjoyed it enough to do that for living. At 19, he relocated to Madrid to start his drama classes at the R.E.S.A.D. (Madrid Acting Conservatory) and tried to continue with Law School attending the U.N.E.D. (a college where people can study even if they live far away), but due to the time the acting classes demanded him, couldn't focus on his other career and quit after passing the first signature. Once at the Conservatory he met Mateo Gil and Alejandro Amenábar, who was searching for good average students to make his first short films. Noriega shot a few shorts with both of them until he landed one of the starring roles in Amenábar's opera prima Thesis (1996). This movie became the most successful movie of the year in Spain and Eduardo Noriega and Fele Martínez became huge stars. In 1996, Eduardo had a tiny part in Pedro Olea's Más allá del jardín (1996) and the main role in Question of Luck (1997), shot in San Sebastián. During the making of this movie, his mother passed away and he channeled his grief into work by making Open Your Eyes (1997), another Amenábar's movie that became one of the suspense classics worldwide. This part gave Noriega his first Goya Award nomination, but he lost to Fernando Fernán Gómez, although he was consecrated as a very promising actor. Soon after, he tried himself in comedy by taking part in the movie Cha Cha Cha (1998) where he showed his skills as a comedian and met who would be his girlfriend for two years: Ana Alvarez. The relationship ended in good terms and afterward, he arrived to Argentina to make another movie that would become a cult one: Burnt Money (2000). This flick won the Goya Award in 2001 and Eduardo met his now friend Leonardo Sbaraglia. Between 2001 and 2004, he made movies in France, Madagascar and Spain. 2004 was the year that gave him the chance to play a real life character for first time in the movie El Lobo (2004). He played Txema, an insider infiltrated in ETA who gave information to the government to dismantle the terrorist group. Critics and people loved his interpretation and earned him a second Goya nomination. Next year, he had the chance to play another controversial character: Che Guevara, becoming the first Spanish actor to play it. In 2006 Master Kowalski (2006) was released at the same time that the theater play and became a blockbuster in Spain and Argentina, Marcelo Piñeyro was the director and also had directed Burnt Money (2000). His most challenging role was yet to come, nevertheless: Vicente Aranda was preparing to direct Canciones de amor en Lolita's Club (2007)and also looking for an actor who dared play twins who where identical in the outside but totally different inside, because one was a violent smart cop and the other one a mentally retarded sweet man. On December 3, 2007 he won the GQ award as the "Actor of the Year". In 2008 he participated in two American movies: Vantage Point (2008) and Transsiberian (2008). In 2009 he re-teamed with Amenábar (this time as a producer, not director) in El mal ajeno (2010), where he had to look older to play an apparently cold-blooded doctor that used to deal with terminal patients, but his life is stricken when his teenage daughter becomes his patient. With this movie, Eduardo showed his maturity as an actor and next year he could fulfill a dream: making a western. Blackthorn (2011) told the story of Butch Cassidy in exile while staying in Bolivia. Sam Shepard and Stephen Rea were part of this superb cast as well. During the half of 2011 a new suspense TV series called Homicidios (2011) began to be promoted on channel Tele5. This thriller meant the return of Eduardo Noriega to television (he had only had a small part in the 1994-1996 show "Colegio Mayor"). "Homicidios" premiered on 20 September 2011 in prime-time with a very high rating. Although it was switched to different times until even midnight, it had the highest audience of his all time branches. In 2013 he will release the movie The Last Stand, alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger.- Actor
- Producer
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Antonio Resines was born on 7 August 1954 in Torrelavega, Cantabria, Spain. He is an actor and producer, known for Los Serrano (2003), Cell 211 (2009) and Lucky Star (1997). He was previously married to Marisol de Mateo.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Gérard Depardieu was born in Châteauroux, Indre, France, to Anne Jeanne Josèphe (Marillier) and René Maxime Lionel Depardieu, who was a metal worker and fireman. Young delinquent and wanderer in the past, Depardieu started his acting career at the small traveling theatre "Café de la Gare", along with Patrick Dewaere and Miou-Miou. After minor roles in cinema, at last, he got his chance in Bertrand Blier's Going Places (1974). That film established a new type of hero in the French cinema and the actor's popularity grew enormously. Later, he diversified his screen image and became the leading French actor of the 80s and 90s. He was twice awarded a César as Best Actor for The Last Metro (1980) and Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), also received an Oscar nomination for "Cyrano" and a number of awards at international film festivals. In 1996, he was distinguished by the highest French title of "Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur". He married Elisabeth Depardieu in 1971, and they divorced in 1996; she appeared with him in Jean de Florette (1986) and Manon of the Spring (1986); their children Guillaume Depardieu and Julie Depardieu are both actors.- Actor
- Producer
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A leading man of prodigious talents, Peter O'Toole was born and raised in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, the son of Constance Jane Eliot (Ferguson), a Scottish nurse, and Patrick Joseph O'Toole, an Irish metal plater, football player and racecourse bookmaker. Upon leaving school, he decided to become a journalist, beginning as a newspaper copy boy. Although he succeeded in becoming a reporter, he discovered the theater and made his stage debut at age 17. He served as a radioman in the Royal Navy for two years, then attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, where his classmates included Albert Finney, Alan Bates and Richard Harris.
O'Toole spent several years on-stage at the Bristol Old Vic, then made an inconspicuous film debut in the Disney classic Kidnapped (1960). In 1962, he was chosen by David Lean to play T.E. Lawrence in Lean's epic drama Lawrence of Arabia (1962). The role made O'Toole an international superstar and received him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. In 1963, he played Hamlet under Laurence Olivier's direction in the premiere production of the Royal National Theater. He continued successfully in artistically rich films as well as less artistic but commercially rewarding projects. He received Academy Award nominations (but no Oscar) for seven different films.
However, medical problems (originally thought to have been brought on by his drinking but which turned out to be stomach cancer) threatened to destroy his career and life in the 1970s. He survived by giving up alcohol and, after serious medical treatment, returned to films with triumphant performances in The Stunt Man (1980) and My Favorite Year (1982). His youthful beauty lost to time and drink, O'Toole has found meaningful roles increasingly difficult to come by, though he remained one of the greatest actors of his generation. He had two daughters, Pat and Kate O'Toole, from his marriage to actress Siân Phillips. He also had a son, Lorcan O'Toole, by model Karen Brown.
On December 14, 2013, Peter O'Toole died at age 81 in London, England.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Liam Neeson was born on June 7, 1952 in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, to Katherine (Brown), a cook, and Bernard Neeson, a school caretaker. He was raised in a Catholic household. During his early years, Liam worked as a forklift operator for Guinness, a truck driver, an assistant architect and an amateur boxer. He had originally sought a career as a teacher by attending St. Mary's Teaching College, Newcastle. However, in 1976, Neeson joined the Belfast Lyric Players' Theater and made his professional acting debut in the play "The Risen People". After two years, Neeson moved to Dublin's Abbey Theater where he performed the classics. It was here that he was spotted by director John Boorman and was cast in the film Excalibur (1981) as Sir Gawain, his first high-profile film role.
Through the 1980s Neeson appeared in a handful of films and British TV series - including The Bounty (1984), A Woman of Substance (1984), The Mission (1986), and Duet for One (1986) - but it was not until he moved to Hollywood to pursue larger roles that he began to get noticed. His turn as a mute homeless man in Suspect (1987) garnered good reviews, as did supporting roles in The Good Mother (1988) and High Spirits (1988) - though he also starred in the best-to-be-forgotten Satisfaction (1988), which also featured a then-unknown Julia Roberts - but leading man status eluded him until the cult favorite Darkman (1990), directed by Sam Raimi. From there, Neeson starred in Under Suspicion (1991) and Ethan Frome (1992), was hailed for his performance in Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives (1992), and ultimately was picked by Steven Spielberg to play Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List (1993). The starring role in the Oscar-winning Holocaust film brought Neeson Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor.
Also in 1993, he made his Broadway debut with a Tony-nominated performance in "Anna Christie", in which he co-starred with his future wife Natasha Richardson. The next year, the two also starred opposite Jodie Foster in the movie Nell (1994), and were married in July of that year. Leading roles as the 18th century Scottish Highlander Rob Roy (1995) and the Irish revolutionary leader Michael Collins (1996) followed, and soon Neeson was solidified as one of Hollywood's top leading men. He starred in the highly-anticipated Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) as Qui-Gon Jinn, received a Golden Globe nomination for Kinsey (2004), played the mysterious Ducard in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), and provided the voice for Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005).
Neeson found a second surprise career as an action leading man with the release of Taken (2008) in early 2009, an unexpected box office hit about a retired CIA agent attempting to rescue his daughter from being sold into prostitution. However, less than two months after the release of the film, tragedy struck when his wife Natasha Richardson suffered a fatal head injury while skiing and passed away days afterward. Neeson returned to high-profile roles in 2010 with two back-to-back big-budget films, Clash of the Titans (2010) and The A-Team (2010), and returned to the action genre with Unknown (2011), The Grey (2011), Battleship (2012) and Taken 2 (2012), as well as the sequel Wrath of the Titans (2012).
Neeson was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1999 Queen's New Year's Honours List for his services to drama. He has two sons from his marriage to Richardson: Micheal Richard Antonio Neeson (born June 22, 1995) and Daniel Jack Neeson (born August 27, 1996).- Actor
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Daniel Auteuil was born on 24 January 1950 in Algiers, Alger, France [now Algeria]. He is an actor and director, known for Caché (2005), Jean de Florette (1986) and The Well-Digger's Daughter (2011). He has been married to Aude Ambroggi since 22 July 2006. They have one child. He was previously married to Emmanuelle Béart and Anne Jousset.- Actor
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Gary Oldman is a talented English movie star and character actor, renowned for his expressive acting style. One of the most celebrated thespians of his generation, with a diverse career encompassing theatre, film and television, he is known for his roles as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), Drexl in True Romance (1993), George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour (2017), among many others. For much of his career, he was best-known for playing over-the-top antagonists, such as terrorist Egor Korshunov in the 1997 blockbuster Air Force One (1997), though he has reached a new audience with heroic roles in the Harry Potter and Dark Knight franchises. He is also a filmmaker, musician, and author.
Gary Leonard Oldman was born on March 21, 1958 in New Cross, London, England, to Kathleen (Cheriton), a homemaker, and Leonard Bertram Oldman, a welder. He won a scholarship to Britain's Rose Bruford Drama College, in Sidcup, Kent, where he received a B.A. in theatre arts in 1979. He subsequently studied with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and went on to appear in a number of plays throughout the early '80s, including "The Pope's Wedding," for which he received Time Out's Fringe Award for Best Newcomer of 1985-1986 and the British Theatre Association's Drama Magazine Award as Best Actor for 1985. Before fame, he was employed as a worker in assembly lines and as a porter in an operating theater. He also had jobs selling shoes and beheading pigs while supporting his early acting career.
His film debut was Remembrance (1982), though his most-memorable early role came when he played Sex Pistol Sid Vicious in the biopic Sid and Nancy (1986) picking up the Evening Standard Film Award as Best Newcomer. He then received a Best Actor nomination from BAFTA for his portrayal of '60s playwright Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears (1987).
In the 1990s, Oldman brought to life a series of iconic real-world and fictional villains including Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991), the title character in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Drexl Spivey in True Romance (1993), Stansfield in Léon: The Professional (1994), Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element (1997) and Ivan Korshunov in Air Force One (1997). That decade also saw Oldman portraying Ludwig van Beethoven in biopic Immortal Beloved (1994).
Oldman played the coveted role of Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), giving him a key part in one of the highest-grossing franchises ever. He reprised that role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007). Oldman also took on the iconic role of Detective James Gordon in writer-director Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), a role he played again in The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Prominent film critic Mark Kermode, in reviewing The Dark Knight, wrote, "the best performance in the film, by a mile, is Gary Oldman's ... it would be lovely to see him get a[n Academy Award] nomination because actually, he's the guy who gets kind of overlooked in all of this."
Oldman co-starred with Jim Carrey in the 2009 version of A Christmas Carol in which Oldman played three roles. He had a starring role in David Goyer's supernatural thriller The Unborn, released in 2009. In 2010, Oldman co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli. He also played a lead role in Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood. Oldman voiced the role of villain Lord Shen and was nominated for an Annie Award for his performance in Kung Fu Panda 2.
In 2011, Oldman portrayed master spy George Smiley in the adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and the role scored Oldman his first Academy Award nomination. In 2014, he played one of the lead humans in the science fiction action film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) alongside Jason Clarke and Keri Russell. Also in 2014, Oldman starred alongside Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson in the remake of RoboCop (2014), as Norton, the scientist who creates RoboCop.
Aside from acting, Oldman tried his hand at writing and directing for Nil by Mouth (1997). The movie opened the Cannes Film Festival in 1997, and won Kathy Burke a Best Actress prize at the festival.
Oldman has three children, Alfie, with first wife, actress Lesley Manville, and Gulliver and Charlie with his third wife, Donya Fiorentino. In 2017, he married writer and art curator Gisele Schmidt.
In 2018 he won an Oscar for best actor for his work on Darkest Hour (2017).- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Juanjo Puigcorbé was born on 22 July 1955 in Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Juanjo is an actor and writer, known for El amor perjudica seriamente la salud (1996), Mi hermano del alma (1994) and Pepe Carvalho (1999).- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Fele Martínez was born on 22 February 1975 in Alicante, Spain. He is an actor and director, known for Open Your Eyes (1997), Bad Education (2004) and Thesis (1996).- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Imanol Arias began his career with a traveling theatre group in Spain performing in Euskadi (Basque Country). After minor roles on stage, he travels to Cuba to shoot Cecilia (1982) directed by Humberto Solás. In 1987 he won the Concha de Plata of the San Sebastian Film Festival for the biography of Eleuterio Sánchez, El Lute: Run for Your Life (1987) directed by Vicente Aranda.- Actor
- Producer
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Blue-eyed Vincent Cassel was born in Paris to a leading actor father, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and a journalist mother, Sabine Litique. Often labeled as a tough guy because of his roles, eclectic choices and talent have made of him a star of European cinema. First in La haine (1995), the young actor, actually coming from upper classes, succeeded to express the despair of a social class living in the suburbs of towns. This veracity in his play comes from the fact that he was in fact since years in connection with many hip-hop artists from the rising generation, (his own brother was leader of a legendary french rap group). Then the success of The Crimson Rivers (2000), where he plays a young French cop alongside Jean Reno, made of him "the man to count on." He never hid his taste for rap music, break dance, Capoeira, Brasil and his endless energy, but Vincent is also a family man, married to Monica Bellucci, his Italian co-star from The Apartment (1996) (aka The Apartment); and recently a father.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Fernando Tejero was born on 24 February 1967 in Córdoba, Córdoba, Andalucía, Spain. He is an actor, known for Aquí no hay quien viva (2003), Chef's Special (2008) and Cinco metros cuadrados (2011).- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Colin Andrew Firth was born into an academic family in Grayshott, Hampshire, England. His mother, Shirley Jean (Rolles), was a comparative religion lecturer at the Open University, and his father, David Norman Lewis Firth, lectured on history at Winchester University College (formerly King Alfred's College) in Winchester, and worked on education for the Nigerian government. His grandparents were missionaries. His siblings Katie Firth and Jonathan Firth are also actors.
Firth's first acting experience came in infant's school when he played "Jack Frost" in a Christmas pantomime. Three of his four grandparents were Methodist missionaries and he spent his early childhood in Nigeria, returning to England at age five where he entered a comprehensive school in Winchester. He spent two years at the Drama Centre, then in Chalk Farm, where he was "discovered" whist playing "Hamlet" during his final term. His first professional role was as "Bennet" in the West End production of "Another Country". From this performance, he was chosen to play the character of "Judd" in the movie of the play. He went on to play a variety of character parts in both film and television. For his portrayal of "Robert Lawrence" in the 1989 TV production Tumbledown (1988), he received the Royal Television Society Best Actor award and also a BAFTA nomination. He also received a BAFTA nomination for "Mr. Darcy" in the 1995 TV version of Pride and Prejudice (1995). In 2011, he won the Oscar for Best Actor for his commanding leading role, playing British King George VI in The King's Speech (2010).- Actor
- Producer
Eduard Fernández was born on 25 August 1964 in Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. He is an actor and producer, known for El nino (2014), Everybody Knows (2018) and Biutiful (2010).- Actor
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- Director
José Luis Gil was born on 9 December 1957 in Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain. He is an actor and director, known for Aquí no hay quien viva (2003), Little Nicky (2000) and Con el culo al aire (1980).- Actor
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Giancarlo Giannini is an Oscar-nominated Italian actor, director and multilingual dubber who made an international reputation for his leading roles in Italian films as well as for his mastery of a variety of languages and dialects.
He was born August 1, 1942, in La Spezia, Italy. For 10 years he lived and studied in Naples, earning a degree in electronics. At 18 he enrolled in the Academy of Dramatic Art D'Amico in Rome and made his stage acting debut there. His credits included performances in contemporary Italian plays as well, as in Italian productions of William Shakespeare's plays "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Midsummer's Night Dream". In 1965 he made his television debut starring as David Copperfield in the TV miniseries made by RAI ,the Italian national TV company. He made his big-screen debut in Libido (1965), a Freudian psychological thriller. Since 1966 he has been in a successful collaboration with legendary Italian director Lina Wertmüller, who made several award-winning films with Giannini as a male lead. He appears as peasant Tonino who prepares to assassinate dictator Benito Mussolini in Love & Anarchy (1973), as a sailor in the irony-laden comedy Swept Away (1974), and as a concentration-camp survivor in the Oscar-nominated Seven Beauties (1975). He also starred as a Jewish musician arrested by the Nazis in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's masterpiece Lili Marleen (1981).
Giannini also made a reputation for dubbing international stars in films released on the Italian market, such as Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Michael Douglas, Dustin Hoffman, Gérard Depardieu, and Ian McKellen, among others. He received a compliment from Stanley Kubrick for his dubbing of Nicholson in The Shining (1980). Giannini's fluency in English and his mastery of dialects has brought him a number of supporting roles in Hollywood productions, such as A Walk in the Clouds (1995), Hannibal (2001), Darkness (2002), and Man on Fire (2004), among many others. He appears as Rene Mathis in the 21st James Bond film Casino Royale (2006), and reprises the role in the sequel, Quantum of Solace (2008).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Sergi López is a Spanish actor, whose specialty is villains of all types but whose range also includes dramatizing romantic and comedic roles with equal mastery. He was born outside of Barcelona in the seaside town of Villanova i la Geltrú on December 22nd, 1965. As a youth he was inclined towards the performance arts and headed to France for further studies in the field. In 1991 he auditioned for French director Manuel Poirier who was so impressed with Sergi that he gave him the lead role in "Western." Poirier and López continued to collaborate on "La Petite-Amie d'Antonio," "La Campagne," "Attention Fragile," and "Marion" in subsequent years. Sergi often played the charming Spanish immigrant lost in France in Poirier's films.
Sergi's career was actually cemented in France that catapulted him to public recognition, while Spain was still relatively oblivious to her talented son until 1997. In 1997 Sergi appeared in Catalan auteur Ventura Pons' "Caricies" that also showcased Spain's finest actors. He spoke Catalan in the role. After "Caricies" Sergi appeared in Spanish cinema more frequently such as in "Entre las piernas" with Spanish mega-stars Javier Bardem and Victoria Abril and in "Lisboa" with Spanish legend Carmen Maura. Sergi was then offered plum roles both in France and Spain and split time traveling back and forth between his adopted nation and native motherland.
In 2001 he won the César for his role in Dominick Moll's "Harry, Un Ami Qui Vous Veut du Bien." This role came to define his mastery on villainous roles which continued in "Solo Mia" with Paz Vega as his battered wife, Stephen Frears' "Dirty Pretty Things" with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Audrey Tautou as his scared pawns, and Guillermo del Toro's "El Laberinto del Fauno" with post-Civil Spain as playground for his Vidal's sadism.
However, not all is dark villainy in Sergi's most recognized and praised thespian filmography. Sergi also displayed his comedic talents in "Hombre Felices" and "Janis et John."
With such range, talent, and skill, it is no wonder horror master and aficionado Guillermo del Toro said he is "in love" with Sergi's work and insisted on casting him as the stone-cold killer Captain Vidal despite Spanish producers' misgivings. Let us hope that, despite wider international exposure, Sergi continues to retain his unique avant-gardeness and participate only in projects that do his talent justice.- Eduardo Gómez was born on 27 July 1951 in Madrid, Spain. He was an actor, known for Aquí no hay quien viva (2003), Eight Hundred Bullets (2002) and Common Wealth (2000). He died on 28 July 2019 in Madrid, Spain.
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Luis Tosar was born on 13 October 1971 in Lugo, Galicia, Spain. He is an actor and producer, known for Cell 211 (2009), Sleep Tight (2011) and Take My Eyes (2003). He has been married to María Luisa Mayol since 10 August 2015. They have two children.