Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (born February 19, 1967) is a Puerto Rican actor. His accolades include an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, a Goya Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, and a Silver Bear. He made his film debut in Randal Kleiser’s Big Top Pee-wee (1988), with Paul Reubens, Susan Tyrrell, Kris Kristofferson, Penelope Ann Miller, and Valeria Golino; followed by John Glen’s License to Kill (1989), with Timothy Dalton, Carey Lowell, Robert Davi, Talisa Soto, and Anthony Zerbe.
Films in the early to mid 1990s include Sean Penn’s The Indian Runner (1991), with David Morse, Viggo Mortensen, Golino, Patricia Arquette, Jordan Rhodes, Dennis Hopper, Charles Bronson, and Sandy Dennis; Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992), with Marlon Brando, Tom Selleck, Georges Corraface, Rachel Ward, Davi, and Catherine Zeta-Jones; Peter Weir’s Fearless (1993), with Jeff Bridges, Isabella Rossellini, Rosie Perez, Tom Hulce, and John Turturro; Bigas Luna’s Golden Balls (1993), with Javier Bardem, Maribel Verdú, and Maria de Medeiros; Money for Nothing (1993), with John Cusack, Michael Madsen, Debi Mazar, Maury Chaykin, Michael Rapaport, James Gandolfini, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Fionnula Flanagan; Swimming with the Sharks (1994), with Kevin Spacey, Frank Whaley, and Michelle Forbes; and China Moon (1994), with Ed Harris, Madeline Stowe, Charles Dance, Patricia Healy, and Pruitt Taylor Vince.
Films in the mid to late 1990s include The Usual Suspects (1995), with Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Giancarlo Esposito, Dan Hedaya, Kevin Pollak, Chazz Palminteri, Pete Postlethwaite, and Spacey; Abel Ferrera’s The Funeral (1996), with Christopher Walken, Chris Penn, Annabella Sciorra, Rossellini, Vincent Gallo, and Gretchen Mol; Tony Scott’s The Fan (1996), with Robert De Niro, Wesley Snipes, John Leguizamo, and Ellen Barkin; Julian Schnabel’s Basquiat (1996), with Jeffrey Wright, David Bowie, Hopper, Gary Oldman, Michael Wincott, Claire Forlani, Courtney Love, and Parker Posey; Joyride (1997), with Tobey Maguire, Amy Hathaway, Wilson Cruz, Christina Naify, and Adam West; Excess Baggage (1997), with Alicia Silverstone, Walken, Jack Thompson, Nicholas Turturro, Harry Connick Jr., and Sally Kirkland; and Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), with Johnny Depp, Maguire, Barkin, Gary Busey, Christina Ricci, Mark Harmon, and Cameron Diaz.
He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic (2000), with Don Cheadle Michael Douglas, Erika Christensen, Luis Guzmán, Dennis Quaid, Zeta-Jones, Jacob Vargas, Tomas Milian, Topher Grace, James Brolin, Steven Bauer, and Benjamin Bratt. He received a second Academy Award nomination for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s 21 Grams (2003), with Penn, Naomi Watts, Melissa Leo, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Danny Huston, Clea DuVall, and Eddie Marson.
Other films in the 2000s include Christopher McQuarrie’s The Way of the Gun (2000), with Ryan Phillipp, Juliette Lewis, Taye Diggs, Nicky Katt, Scott Wilson, and James Caan; Guy Ritchie’s Snatch (2000), with Dennis Farina,
Jason Flemyng, Alan Ford, Stephen Graham, Vinnie Jones, Brad Pitt, Rade Šerbedžija, and Jason Statham; The Pledge (2001), with Jack Nicholson, Patricia Clarkson, Aaron Eckhart, Helen Mirren, Robin Wright, Vanessa Redgrave, Sam Shepard, Mickey Rourke, Tom Noonan, and Lois Smith; William Friedkin’s The Hunted (2003), with Tommy Lee Jones and Connie Nielsen; Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City (2005), With Jessica Alba,, Brittany Murphy, Clive Owen, Rourke, Bruce Willis, Elijah Wood, Alexis Bledel, Powers Boothe, Michael Clarke Duncan, Rosario Dawson, Devon Aoki, Carla Gugino, Rutger Hauer, Jaime King, Madsen, Nick Stahl, and Makenzie Vega; Susanne Bier’s Things We Lost in the Fire (2007), with Halle Berry, David Duchovny, Omar Benson Miller, Alison Lohman, and John Carroll Lynch; and Che (2008), with Demián Bichir, Rodrigo Santoro, Santiago Cabrera, Franka Potente, Julia Ormond, Vladimir Cruz, Marc-André Grondin, Lou Diamond Phillips, Joaquim de Almeida, Édgar Ramírez, Yul Vazquez, Unax Ugalde, Alfredo De Quesada, Jordi Mollá, Matt Damon, and Oscar Isaac.
Films in the early to mid 2010s include Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman (2010), with Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt Hugo Weaving, and Geraldine Chaplin; Oliver Stone’s Savages (2012), with Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bichir, Salma Hayek, and John Travolta; Arnaud Desplechin’s Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (2013), with Mathieu Amalric; Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice (2014), with Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Eric Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, Jena Malone, Maya Rudolph, Martin Short, and Joanna Newsom; and Andrea Di Stefano’s Escobar: Paradise Lost (2014), with Josh Hutcherson, Claudia Traisacc Brady Corbet, Carlos Bardem, and Ana Girardot.
He appeared as Taneleer Tivan (The Collector) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), with Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, and Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Sean Gun Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, and Glenn Close; and Anthony & Joe Russo’s Avengers: Infinity War (2018), with including Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Bautista, Saldaña, Brolin, and Pratt.
Films in the mid to late 2010s include Fernando León de Aranoa’s A Perfect Day (2015), with Olga Kurylenko, Tim Robbins, and Mélanie Thierry; Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario (2015), with Blunt, Brolin, Daniel Kaluuya, Victor Garber, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Donovan, and Raoul Trujillo; a voice role in The Little Prince (2015), with Bridges, Rachel McAdams, Paul Rudd, Bud Cort, Marion Cotillard, James Franco, Ricky Gervais, Paul Giamatti, Riley Osborne, Albert Brooks, and Mackenzie Foy; Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), with Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Isaac, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, and Laura Dern; Stefano Sollima’s Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018), with Brolin, Donovan, Trujillo, Isabela Merced, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, and Catherine Keener; and a voice role in Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019), with Merced, Eugenio Derbez, Michael Peña and Eva Longoria, and the voice of Danny Trejo.
Films in the 2020s include No Sudden Move (2021), with Cheadle, David Harbour, Jon Hamm, Amy Seimetz, Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Kieran Culkin, Noah Jupe, Craig Grant, Julia Fox, Frankie Shaw, Ray Liotta, and Bill Duke; Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch (2021), with Frances McDormand, Jeffrey Wright, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Timothée Chalamet, Léa Seydoux, Owen Wilson, Amalric, Lyna Khoudri, Stephen Park, & Bill Murray; Reptile (2023), with Justin Timberlake, Silverstone, Eric Bogosian, Ato Essandoh, Domenick Lombardozzi, and Michael Pitt; The Phoenician Scheme (2025), with Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Wright, Johansson, Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, F. Murray Abraham, Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe, and Murray; One Battle After Another (2925), with Leonardo DiCaprio, Penn, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and Chase Infiniti; and All-Star Weekend (2025), with Jamie Foxx (who also directed), Jeremy Piven, Jessica Szohr, Longoria, Downey Jr., Ken Jeong, and Gerard Butler.
He also appeared in the miniseries Drug Wars: The Camarena Story (1990), with Steven Bauer, Elizabeth Peña, Miguel Ferrer, Treat Williams, and Craig T. Nelson; and Escape at Dannemora (2018), with Patricia Arquette, Paul Dano, Bonnie Hunt, Eric Lange, and Morse.
Each review will be linked to the title below.
(*seen originally in theaters)
(**seen rereleased in theaters)
- Big Top Pee-wee (1988) – directed by Randal Kleiser
- License to Kill (1989) – directed by John Glen
- Drug Wars: The Camarena Story (1990) – directed by Brian Gibson – miniseries
- The Indian Runner (1991) – directed by Sean Penn
- Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992) – directed by John Glen
- Fearless (1993) – directed by Peter Weir
- Golden Balls (1993) – directed by Bigas Luna
- Money for Nothing (1993) – directed by Ramón Menéndez
- Swimming with Sharks (1994) – directed by George Huang
- China Moon (1994) – directed by John Bailey
- The Usual Suspects (1995) – directed by Bryan Singer
- Submission (1995) – director, writer only – short
- The Funeral (1996) – directed by Abel Ferrara
- The Fan (1996) – directed by Tony Scott
- Cannes Man (1996) – directed by Richard Martini & Susan Hillary Shapiro – cameo as himself
- Basquiat (1996) – directed by Julian Schnabel
- Joyride (1997) – directed by Quinton Peeples
- Excess Baggage (1997) – directed by Marco Brambilla
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) – directed by Terry Gilliam
- Traffic (2000) – directed by Steven Soderbergh
- The Way of the Gun (2000) – directed by Christopher McQuarrie
- Snatch (2000) – directed by Guy Ritchie
- Bread and Roses (2000) – directed by Ken Loach – uncredited cameo as himself
- The Pledge (2001) – directed by Sean Penn
- 21 Grams (2003) – directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu
- The Hunted (2003) – directed by William Friedkin
- Sin City (2005)* – directed by Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller, with guest directing by Quentin Tarantino
- Things We Lost in the Fire (2007) – directed by Susanne Bier
- Che (2008) – directed by Steven Soderbergh – also produced
- The Wolfman (2010)* – directed by Joe Johnston – also producer
- Somewhere (2010) – directed by Sofia Coppola – uncredited cameo as himself
- The Upsetter: The Life and Music of Lee Scratch Perry (2011) – directed by Ethan Higbee & Adam Bhala Lough – narrator – documentary
- Savages (2012) – directed by Oliver Stone
- 7 Days in Havana (2012) – director, writer only – co-directed with Julio Medem, Laurent Cantet, Juan Carlos Tabío, Gaspar Noé, Pablo Trapero, & Elia Suleiman – anthology
- Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (2013) – directed by Arnaud Desplechin
- Thor: The Dark World (2013)* – uncredited cameo – mid-credits
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)* – directed by James Gunn
- Inherent Vice (2014) – directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
- Escobar: Paradise Lost (2014) – directed by Andrea Di Stefano
- A Perfect Day (2015) – directed by Fernando León de Aranoa
- Sicario (2015) – directed by Denis Villeneuve
- The Little Prince (2015) – directed by Mark Osborne
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)* – directed by Rian Johnson
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018)* – directed by Anthony & Joe Russo
- Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018) – directed by Stefano Sollima
- Escape at Dannemora (2018) – directed by Ben Stiller – miniseries
- Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019) – directed by James Bobin
- No Sudden Move (2021) – directed by Steven Soderbergh
- The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021)* – directed by Wes Anderson
- Reptile (2023) – directed by Grant Singer – also co-writer, executive producer
- The Phoenician Scheme (2025)* – directed by Wes Anderson
- One Battle After Another (2025) – directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
- All-Star Weekend (2025) – directed by Jamie Foxx
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