Spanish actress
Madonna of Madrid: Penélope Cruz is 48 years old
Penelope Cruz at the Oscars. Photo: Jae C. Hong/Invision/AP/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Whether it’s a European auteur film or an action-packed Hollywood blockbuster – Oscar winner Penélope Cruz has an enormous range.
At the Oscars at the end of March it was the fourth time. The Spanish actress Penélope Cruz could hope for a golden boy in the category “Best Actress” for her performance in Pedro Almodóvar’s drama “Parallel Mothers”.
Ultimately, her colleague Jessica Chastain won. She herself received the coveted award in 2009 for her performance in Woody Allen’s comedy “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”. This Thursday (April 28) Penélope Cruz will be 48 years old.
A dance competition becomes a door opener
Born in 1974 in the Madrid suburb of Alcobendas, the actress studied classical ballet at Spain’s National Conservatory for nine years. At the age of 15 she won a talent competition that had a lasting effect on her subsequent career. Thanks to the contract she got as a result, she got various roles in Spanish TV shows and was allowed to act in music videos. She had her first performances for the Spanish pop band Mecano.
In 1991, Cruz made her screen debut in El Laberinto Griego. As a result, there were other Spanish productions for cinema and TV series.
Director Pedro Almodovar helps Cruz break through
The big, international career was mainly set in motion by the director Pedro Almodóvar. The first films with him were “Live Flesh – Mit Haut und Haare” in 1997 and in 1999, when she played the pregnant sister Maria Rosa Sanz, who was suffering from AIDS, in “Everything about my mother”.
In the course of their careers, the paths of the two crossed again and again, such as in 2006 in the tragic comedy “Volver – Returning”, for which she was awarded the Actor’s Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and also the European Film Prize for Best Actress. In 2009 she was once again nominated for the European Film Awards. Broken Embraces was the fourth film that Cruz and Almodóvar worked together on.
With industry giants like Johnny Depp, she has repeatedly stood in front of the camera over the years. 2001 in the drug trafficking film “Blow” for the first time, or 2011 in the 4th part of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series.
Hollywood star and “Madonna of Madrid”
The daughter of a car mechanic and a hairdresser has already been nominated for an Oscar four times. In 2009, she celebrated her biggest career success to date when she received the trophy for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first Spanish actress to receive this honor. Since 2011 she has also had a star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Penélope Cruz uses her versatility and likes to switch between engagements in smaller, European, artistic auteur films and big Hollywood blockbusters. Because she did not indulge in any luxury from the money she earned in Hollywood, but instead donated large parts of it to a children’s home in Calcutta, she was referred to as the “Madonna of Madrid”.
Penélope Cruz has been married to actor Javier Bardem since 2010. The couple have two children together.