Apr 28, 1974

Madrid, Spain

At the young age of 15, Penelope bested over 300 girls in a casting audition which led to several spanish TV shows. Eventually her career grew and she was making 3 or 4 films a year. She gained a lot of attention for working with renowned Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar (who would later be her ticket to international fame), and the same year she was the lead actress in the thriller/drama/mystery/sci-fi film Abre los ojos (1997), a huge hit in Spain that earned eight Goyas (Spanish Oscars). Her ... ... (read more...) luck finally changed in 1998, when the movie-industry comedy Niña de tus ojos, La (1998) won her a Best Actress Goya. Cruz made a few more forays into English-language film, but her first big international hit was Almodóvar's Todo sobre mi madre (1999) (All About My Mother), in which she played an unchaste but well-meaning nun. As the film was showered with awards and accolades, Cruz suddenly found herself in demand on both sides of the Atlantic. Her next big project was Woman on Top (2000), an American comedy about a chef with bewitching culinary skills and a severe case of motion sickness. While in the US, she also signed up to star opposite Johnny Depp in the drug-trafficking drama Blow (2001) and opposite Matt Damon (her rumored paramour) in Billy Bob Thornton's All the Pretty Horses (2000). Cruz says she's wary of being typecast as a beautiful young damsel, but it's hard to imagine disguising her wide-eyed charms and generous nature (she once donated an entire paycheck to Mother Teresa's children's sanctuary). Fortunately, with Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky (2001) (a remake of Abre los ojos (1997)) and a John Madden collaboration looming in her future, Damsel Penelope isn't likely to disappear just yet.