Biography Of Penelope Cruz – Spanish Beauty

Penélope Cruz Sánchez

(born 28 April 1974) is a Spanish actress. Prolific in Spanish and English-language films, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, a David di Donatello and three Goya Awards.

Cruz made her acting debut on television at age 16, and her feature film debut the following year in Jamón Jamón (1992). Her subsequent roles included Belle Époque (1992), Open Your Eyes (1997), Don Juan (1998), The Hi-Lo Country (1999), The Girl of Your Dreams (2000) and Woman on Top (2000). She is known for her frequent collaborations with Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar in Live Flesh (1997), All About My Mother (1999), Volver (2006), Broken Embraces (2009), I'm So Excited! (2013), Pain and Glory (2019), and Parallel Mothers (2021).

For her role in Woody Allen's romantic drama Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), Cruz won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her other Oscar-nominated roles are in Volver (2006), Nine (2009), and Parallel Mothers (2021). Other notable films include Vanilla Sky (2001), Blow (2001), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), The Counselor (2013), Murder on the Orient Express (2017), Everybody Knows (2018), Official Competition (2022), L'immensità (2022), and Ferrari (2023). For her role as Donatella Versace in the miniseries The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (2018), she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. She is the only Spanish actress to have won an Academy Award and to have received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2007 she won the David di Donatello for the leading role in Don't Move.

Cruz has also modelled for Mango, Ralph Lauren and L'Oréal, and designed clothing for Mango with her younger sister Mónica Cruz. She has been a house ambassador for Chanel since 2018. She volunteered in Uganda and India, where she spent one week working with Mother Teresa, and donated her salary from The Hi-Lo Country to help fund the late nun's mission.

Cruz was born on 28 April 1974 in the town of Alcobendas, province of Madrid, Spain, to Encarna Sánchez, an Andalusian hairdresser and personal manager, and Eduardo Cruz, an Extremaduran retailer and car mechanic. She has two siblings, Mónica, also an actress, and Eduardo, a singer. She also has a paternal half-sister, Salma She was raised Roman Catholic.^[6] Cruz grew up in Alcobendas, and spent long hours at her grandmother's apartment  She said she had a happy childhood Cruz remembers "playing with some friends and being aware that I was acting as I was playing with them. I would think of a character and pretend to be someone else

In 1989, 15-year-old Cruz made her acting debut in a music video for the Spanish pop group Mecano's song "La Fuerza del Destino". Between 1990 and 1991, she hosted the Spanish TV channel Telecinco's talk show La Quinta Marcha, a programme that was hosted by teenagers, aimed at a teenage audience.  She also played in the "Elle et lui" episode of an erotic French TV series called Série rose in 1991, where she appeared nude. In 1991 Cruz made her feature film debut as the lead female role in the comedy drama art house film Jamón, jamón. In the film, she portrayed Silvia, a young woman who is expecting her first child with a man whose mother does not approve of the relationship and attempts to sabotage it by paying Javier Bardem's character to seduce her. People magazine noted that after Cruz appeared topless in the film, she became "a major sex symbol".  In an interview with the Los Angeles Daily News in 1999, Cruz commented that "it was a great part, but...I wasn't really ready for the nudity. [...] But I have no regrets because I wanted to start working and it changed my life.  Charlie Rose of 60 Minutes noted that Cruz "became an overnight sensation as much for her nude scenes as for her talent". When Rose asked Cruz if she was concerned about how she would be perceived after her role in the film, Cruz replied, "I just knew I had to do the complete opposite. Jamón, jamón received favorable reviews,  with Chris Hicks of the Deseret News describing Cruz's portrayal of Silvia as "enchanting" Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, film critic Roger Ebert wrote "it stars actors of considerable physical appeal, most particularly Penélope Cruz as Silvia"  For her performance, Cruz was nominated for a Spanish Actors Union Newcomer Award and a Goya Award for Best Actress. The same year she appeared in the Academy Award-winning Belle Époque as the virginal Luz.  People magazine noted that Cruz's role as Luz showed that she was versatile.

Cruz is married to Spanish actor Javier Bardem. They met at the set of Jamón jamón (1992), and started dating in 2007 after reuniting for Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008).  They were also both in the 2013 film The Counselor, as well as in Everybody Knows in 2018. They married in early July 2010 in a private ceremony at a friend's home in the Bahamas.  They have a son named Leo Encinas Cruz who was born in January 2011 in Los Angeles,  and a daughter named Luna Encinas Cruz who was born in July 2013 in Madrid.  She became an advocate of breastfeeding in public following the birth of her children. 

Cruz had a three-year relationship with Tom Cruise after they appeared together in Vanilla Sky (2001). The relationship ended in January 2004 In June 2003, Cruz settled a defamation lawsuit against Australian magazine New Idea over an article it published about her relationship with Cruise; the publication had to apologize, pay her legal costs, and donate AU$5,000 (US$3,200) to her nominated charity.