ACTOR
Benicio Del Toro
40 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (40)
- #001
At 21, Benicio Del Toro became the youngest person to play a villain in a James Bond film: Dario in Licence to Kill (1989).
- #002
During the elevator scene in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), Benicio Del Toro burned himself with a cigarette repeatedly because the real Oscar Zeta Acosta had done the same. The footage of the burns was deleted.
- #003
Miramax Films executive Meryl Poster once told Benicio Del Toro and his longtime friend Josh Brolin that they were the worst auditions she had ever witnessed.
- #004
Benicio Del Toro is one of five Oscar winners who won Best Supporting Actor (2000) for Traffic by playing a character who speaks mostly a foreign language; most of his dialogue was in Spanish. The others are Sophia Loren, Robert De Niro, Roberto Benigni and Marion Cotillard.
- #005
Benicio Del Toro had a cameo as a background character in Madonna's music video for "La Isla Bonita" (1987).
- #006
While filming William Friedkin's The Hunted (2003), Benicio Del Toro badly injured his wrist during a stunt fight. He fell onto his wrist while lunging toward a knife, and actor Tommy Lee Jones fell on top of him. The injury was so severe that he was out of work for months even though the film was nearly complete. He needed three hours of therapy a day, and it was reportedly uncertain whether he would ever fully regain the use of his wrist.
- #007
Benicio Del Toro's family encouraged him to become a lawyer because they thought there was no future in acting.
- #008
Benicio Del Toro became a father for the first time at 44 when Kimberly Stewart gave birth to their daughter, Delilah Genoveva Stewart Del Toro, on August 21, 2011.
- #009
Benicio Del Toro is the third Puerto Rican actor to win an Oscar. The other two were Rita Moreno (West Side Story (1961)) and José Ferrer (Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)).
- #010
Benicio Del Toro reportedly turned down the role of Frida Kahlo's husband Diego Rivera in Frida (2002) because of the weight gain it would require, even though he had previously gained 40 kilos for his character in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998).
- #011
Benicio Del Toro is good friends with Johnny Depp. They worked together on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998).
- #012
Benicio Del Toro's mother, Fausta Sanchez Del Toro, died of hepatitis when he was nine years old.
- #013
Benicio Del Toro is fond of oil painting.
- #014
Benicio Del Toro's father owned the property across from the house where he spent his childhood and converted it into a full-size basketball court so that he and his brother Gustavo could practice and play with their friends. The property has since been built over with an apartment building.
- #015
Benicio Del Toro is one of five Oscar-winning actors who have played a James Bond villain. The other four are Christopher Walken, Javier Bardem, Christoph Waltz and Rami Malek. Benicio is the only one who did not play the main villain and who played the villain before winning his Oscar.
- #016
At 13, Benicio Del Toro was sent to a boarding school in Pennsylvania.
- #017
Benicio Del Toro studied drama at the Stella Adler Acting Studio and at the Circle in the Square Theatre School.
- #018
Benicio Del Toro attended and graduated from Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania (1985). There he was a basketball star and an artist, but not an actor.
- #019
Benicio Del Toro was paid 5 million dollars for American Gangster (2007) because of a pay-or-play deal. Filming was to begin in October 2004 with Denzel Washington in the lead role, but Universal Pictures postponed the film over budget concerns. The film was finally greenlit in 2006, and Ridley Scott replaced Antoine Fuqua as director.
- #020
Benicio Del Toro was considered for the role of John Harrison in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), but he ultimately turned it down because of monetary issues. The role went to Benedict Cumberbatch.
- #021
Benicio Del Toro has an older brother named Gustavo Del Toro, who is a doctor in the United States.
- #022
Before moving to Pennsylvania, Benicio Del Toro was a student at the Academia del Perpetuo Socorro in Miramar, Puerto Rico.
- #023
Benicio Del Toro appeared in five films with Josh Brolin: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Inherent Vice (2014), Sicario (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018).
- #024
Benicio Del Toro was a frontrunner for the role of Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), but he turned the role down after the script was rewritten and the part was significantly reduced. The role went to Ray Park.
- #025
Benicio Del Toro went to the University of California, San Diego to earn a business degree, but he did not graduate.
- #026
Benicio Del Toro is a big fan of Fulham Football Club (an English Premier League football club). Other fans include Elizabeth Hurley, Lily Allen, Pierce Brosnan, Hugh Grant, Hugh Laurie, Daniel Radcliffe, Andrew Johnston and the late Michael Jackson.
- #027
For his role in 21 Grams (2003), Benicio Del Toro received the Best Actor Audience Award at the 2003 Venice International Film Festival.
- #028
Benicio Del Toro has worked with four directors who won the Best Director Oscar: Steven Soderbergh, William Friedkin, Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Oliver Stone.
- #029
Benicio Del Toro had a long-term relationship with Chiara Mastroianni (1998-2001).
- #030
Benicio Del Toro's maternal great-grandfather, Rafaél Rivera Esbri, was one of the heroes of the 1899 El Polvorin fire in Ponce. He later served as Mayor of Ponce from January 2, 1915 to January 2, 1917.
- #031
Benicio Del Toro appeared in three films with his former girlfriend Valeria Golino: Big Top Pee-wee (1988), The Indian Runner (1991) and Submission (1995). They had a long-term relationship from 1988 to 1992.
- #032
Despite a popular misconception, Benicio Del Toro is not related to filmmaker Guillermo del Toro.
- #033
Benicio Del Toro currently lives in Los Angeles, California.
- #034
Mark Ruffalo was Benicio Del Toro's fellow student at the Stella Adler Conservatory in Los Angeles.
- #035
The surname of Benny Dalmau, Benicio Del Toro's character in Basquiat (1996), came from Raymond Dalmau, a Puerto Rican basketball player in the 1970s and early 1980s. Raymond Dalmau had worn the shirt Benicio wears in the film in the Puerto Rico national team.
- #036
Benicio Del Toro was included in the Time 100 list of the world's 100 most influential people, with filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson paying tribute to him.
- #037
Benicio Del Toro is the son of Gustavo Del Toro and Fausta Sanchez Rivera, both lawyers.
- #038
Benicio Del Toro is neighbors with Rade Šerbedžija.
- #039
Benicio Del Toro is the cousin of Joshue Del Toro and Rebeca.
- #040
Singer Macy Gray is one of his biggest fans. They were born in the same year.
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