10 Things You Don’t Know About Oscar Winner and ‘The Phoenician Scheme’ Star Benicio del Toro

Award-winning actor and producer Benicio del Toro stars as a wealthy businessman who appoints his daughter, a nun, as heir to his fortune, but both soon become targets of schemers in the new comedy spy thriller The Phoenician Scheme.

Here are 10 things you probably don’t know about the 58-year-old Oscar winner.

1. He was born Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez in Puerto Rico to a pair of lawyers, dad Gustavo Adolfo del Toro Bermúdez and mom Fausta Genoveva Sánchez Rivera.

2. Benicio’s mom died of hepatitis when he was 9 years old, and he moved with his dad and brother to Mercersburg, Pa. He graduated from Mercersburg Academy, then pursued a business degree at the University of California, San Diego. After taking a drama course as an elective, he decided to pursue an acting career.

3. Dropping out of college at age 21, he became the youngest actor to portray a Bond villain, starring as Dario in 1989’s Licence to Kill opposite Timothy Dalton as 007.

4. He suffers for his craft: He gained 40 pounds for his role as activist Oscar “Zeta” Acosta in 1998’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas — and repeatedly burned himself with cigarettes for the elevator scene in the film because that’s what the real Acosta did.

5. Benicio badly injured his wrist when Tommy Lee Jones fell on top of him during a fight scene in 2003’s The Hunted. He was out of work for months and required three hours of therapy per day.

6. After winning Best Supporting Actor for 2000’s Traffic, del Toro became one of seven Oscar winners whose characters spoke mainly in a foreign language.

7. Among del Toro’s off-screen passions are basketball, painting, rock music (particularly the Rolling Stones and the Clash), carpentry and Cuban cigars.

8. Benicio and fellow Puerto Rican Ricky Martin became dual citizens of the United States and Spain in 2011.

9. Despite a common Hollywood misconception, Benicio is not a relative of famed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro.

10. Benicio became a first-time father at age 44 when actress Kimberly Stewart, daughter of Rod Stewart, gave birth to daughter Delilah in 2011.