| BIOGRAPHY
One of Spain's foremost leading ladies of the 1990s, Penelope
Cruz has managed to make her mark with international audiences
as well. Born in Madrid on April 28, 1974, Cruz was one of three
children of a merchant and a hairdresser. After years of intensive
study in ballet and jazz, she broke into acting in 1992. That
year, she had starring roles in Jamón Jamón and
Belle Epoque, two very disparate films. The former cast her as
the desperately poor daughter of a village prostitute, while the
latter featured her as one of four lusty daughters of a wealthy
man in pre-Franco Spain. Belle Epoque proved to be a huge success,
winning nine Goya Awards (the Spanish equivalent of an Academy
Award) and an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Its success gave Cruz
a dose of international recognition, and after starring in a number
of Spanish films, she enhanced this recognition in 1997 with the
Sundance entry Abre los Ojos. That same year, she had a brief
but memorable role in Pedro Almodóvar's Carne Trémula.
In 1998, Cruz had her first starring role in an English language
film, playing Billy Crudup's Mexican-American love interest in
Stephen Frears' The Hi-Lo Country. She had another go at English
later that year in the Spanish-British romantic comedy Twice Upon
a Yesterday, which cast her as a Spanish barmaid living in London.
In 1999, she returned to Spain to collaborate once again with
Almodóvar on Todo Sobre Mi Madre, a wildly acclaimed film
that premiered at Cannes that year.
The next two years would prove to be a critical turning point
in both Cruz's personal and professional life, with increasingly
visible roles in large-scale Hollywood productions as well as
a developing relationship with one Tinseltown's most popular leading
men. Gaining notice for her roles in All the Pretty Horses in
2000 and Blow the following year, it appeared as if Cruz's career
had suddenly kicked into overdrive. After starring alongside Nicholas
Cage in Captain Corelli's Mandolin in 2001, Cruz dove back into
familiar territory with director Cameron Crowe's re-make of Abre
Los Ojos, Vanilla Sky (2001). Developing a close relationship
with lead Tom Cruise as his much publicized break-up with Nichole
Kidman drew to a close, the pair soon found themselves the center
of considerable speculation as rumors flew and they soon became
Hollywood's hottest new couple.
|
FILMOGRAPHY
• Head in the Clouds (2004)
• Don't Tempt Me (2003)
• Gothika (2003)
• Masked and Anonymous (2003)
• Blow (2001)
• Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001)
• Love Can Seriously Damage Your Health (2001)
• Vanilla Sky (2001)
• All the Pretty Horses (2000)
• Woman on Top (2000)
• All About My Mother (1999)
• Twice Upon a Yesterday (1999)
• The Girl of Your Dreams (1998)
• The Hi-Lo Country (1998)
• Live Flesh (1998)
• Talk of Angels (1998)
• Open Your Eyes (1997)
• Not Love Just Frenzy (1996)
• The Butterfly Effect (1995)
• Belle Epoque (1993)
• Jamon Jamon (1993)
• El Laberinto Griego (1991) |
