Javier Bardem, born March 1, 1969, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain, is a charismatic and talented Spanish actor who rose to popularity in the 1990s.
Bardem, who was born into a family of performers and filmmakers, had his professional debut at the age of five. He pursued an acting career after briefly studying painting in Madrid.
In 1992, he received widespread acclaim, particularly from women, for his performance in Jamón, jamón, in which he played an underwear model hired to romance a factory worker.
Three years later, he proved he was more than a sex symbol by receiving a Goya Award for best supporting actor for his role as a drug addict in Das contados (1994; Running Out of Time). As an ambitious actor who falls in love with a customer while working for a telephone-sex firm in Boca a boca (1995; Mouth to Mouth), he earned laughter and another Goya Award.
Later, in Pedro Almodóvar’s Carne trémula, Bardem played a wheelchair-bound cop (1997; Live Flesh).
Javier Bardem parents: Meet Pilar Bardem, Carlos Encinas
Pilar Bardem (1939-2021), Javier’s mother, was an actress, while his father, José Carlos Encinas Doussinague (1931-1995), was a cattle rancher’s son.
