Rise to Fame
Antonio Banderas built his name in Pedro Almodóvar's provocative Spanish films of the 1980s, playing transgressive roles in Matador, Law of Desire, and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! that no American studio would have touched. Hollywood came calling in 1992. The Mambo Kings wanted him even though he didn't speak English, so he learned his lines phonetically. Philadelphia the next year put him beside Tom Hanks as a devoted gay partner, and the industry registered him as a serious actor. Desperado (1995) and The Mask of Zorro (1998) did the rest, and the actor who'd learned his lines phonetically was carrying blockbusters.
In the Spotlight
A 2017 heart attack requiring three stents rerouted his career more than any role ever had. He took fewer projects, and the choices got better. Pain and Glory (2019), one of Almodóvar's most personal films, cast him as a version of the director himself. Banderas won Best Actor at Cannes and earned his only Oscar nomination. Going home was the other big move: he founded Teatro del Soho in Málaga, the city he left at 19, and its productions of A Chorus Line and Godspell have kept him busier than Hollywood.
Side Notes
That mismatch between surface and substance runs through his career: before Hollywood found him, he was already doing Almodóvar's queer, violent Spanish cinema, playing roles no American studio would have greenlit. After Hollywood made him a leading man, he kept going back to Spain. He was born in Málaga, moved to Madrid at 19 to study acting, and spent decades becoming famous before deciding Málaga was the better bet after all.