Javier Bardem: Biography and Life

International Breakthrough His performance as the Cuban author and revolutionary Reinaldo Arenas, who committed self-destruction (he was experiencing AIDS) in 1990, in Julian Schnabel's edgy Before Night Falls (2000) made Bardem the very best evaluations of his life-and a spot on the worldwide radar screen. With numerous significant awards-including the National Board of Review and the National Society of Film Critics' honors for Best Actor-under his belt, Bardem became the first Spanish actor ever before to make an Academy Award nomination. Bardem went on to take on a prominent duty in actor John Malkovich's directorial debut, The Dancer Upstairs (2002). After a supporting part in the Tom Cruise-Jaime Foxx thriller Collateral (2004), he starred as a quadriplegic fighting for his right to perish in The Sea Within (2004), which was based upon a real story.