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With her expressive brown eyes, lustrous dark hair and flawless olive skin, Penelope Cruz burst on the scene as a teenager lending an air of sultry innocence and a flair for drollery and nudity as the sexy ingenue in Bigas Lunas’ American art-house hit “Jamon Jamon” (1992). She solidified her status as a rising star playing the virginal Luz in Ferdinand Trueba’s 1994 Oscar-winning “Belle Epoch”. Born in Madrid, Cruz began studying dance as a teenager. At age 15, she auditioned for a talent agent who signed her immediately. Within two years, she had segued to the big screen in “El Laberinto Griego/The Greek Labyrinth” (1992) before her breakthrough in “Jamon Jamon”.

As a rising star in her native Spain, Cruz got to work with top directors and played myriad parts ranging from the Virgin Mary in “Per Amore, Solo per amore/For Love, Only for Love” (1993) to a medieval bride in “Celestina” (1996) to a pregnant prostitute in Pedro Almodovar’s “Live Flesh” (1997) to the supportive girlfriend of a man disfigured in car accident in Alejandro Amenabar’s “Open Your Eyes” (1998). She reteamed with both Trueba and Almodovar for two her best screen performances to date. Purportedly based on a true incident, Trueba’s “The Girl of My Dreams/La Nina de tus ojos” (1998) allowed the actress to pay homage to her grandmother in her portrayal of an Adalusian cabaret singer trapped in Nazi Germany who catches the attention of propaganda minister Josef Goebbels. Almodovar once again had her playing a woman with child in the Cannes favorite “Todo sobre mi madre/All About My Mother” (1999) although this time in a sly bit of irony, the fragile beauty portrayed a nun.

Attempting to broaden her employment opportunities, Cruz began acting in English in the British miniseries “Framed” (1993). She went on to appear as the sweet charge of an Irish governess in the period drama “Talk of Angels” (shot in 1994; released theatrically in 1998) and lent her luminous looks to the thankless role of the Mexican girlfriend of Billy Crudup’s cattle rancher in Stephen Frears’ “The Hi-Lo Country” (1998). Cruz also played a bookish barmaid who catches the eye of Scotsman Douglas Henshall in the fantasy romantic comedy “Twice Upon a Yesterday/If Only/The Man with Rain in His Shoe” (1998). The actress’ status as a rising international star was firmed when she landed the female lead opposite Matt Damon in Billy Bob Thornton’s screen version of “All the Pretty Horses” and the lead as a South American chef coping with her newfound success when she lands a TV show in the USA in the comedy “Woman on Top” (both 2000).

Cruz would soon gain ground in Hollywood with roles as sexy, exotic types in “Blow” (2001) with Johnny Depp and “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” (2001) with Nicolas Cage, but it would be a role opposite superstar Tom Cruise–both on screen and off–that would propel the actress to the forefront of Hollywood. After being naturally cast as Cruise’s love interest Sofia in “Vanilla Sky” (2001), writer-director Cameron Crowe’s intriguing but not-quite-fulfilling Americanized reworking of “Open Your Eyes” (Cruz played the same role she did in the original), Cruz embarked on a highly publicized relationship with her world-famous leading man, shortly after his notoriously acrimonious split with Nicole Kidman. The couple was catapulated to the front of the headlines, and Cruz was became a well-known personality. Her noteriety did not immediately translate into more film roles, however; in 2002 she appeared briefly in the aimable but unremarkable comedy “Waking Up In Reno” opposite Thornton, and in 2003 she delivered a nice turn as Chloe a mental patient who believes she consorts with demons and begins to suck her former therapist (Halle Bery) into her dark world in the otherwise preposterous thriller “Gothika.” She then played support to Charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend in the wartime melodrama “Head in the Clouds” (2004) as a bohemian drawn into a strange menage. The actress then took on the role of Eva Rojas, the paramour of master explorer Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey) in “Sahara” (2005), the Paramount Pictures adaptation of Clive Cussler’s bestselling adventure novel, and interest in the film was fanned by the off-screen romance between Cruz and her leading man.

• Born:
  on 04/28/74 in Madrid, Spain
• Job Titles:
  Actor, TV host, Ballet dancer, Model

Family

• Brother: Eduardo Cruz. born c. 1985
• Father: Eduardo Cruz.
• Mother: Encarna Cruz. runs Cruz’s business affairs
• Sister: Monica Cruz. born c. 1977; professional flemenco dancer

Significant Others

• Companion: Enrique Sarasola. competed in the Olympics; together from c. 1997 to c. 1998
• Companion: Nacho Cano. appeared with group Mecano; together from c. 1991 to c. 1997
• Companion: Tom Cruise. worked together on “Vanilla Sky”; went public with relationship in July 2001
• Companion: Tomas Obermajer. Czech; became involved during filming of “La Nina de tus Ojos/The Girl of Your Dreams”; had two-and-a-half-year relationship c. 1998 to c. 2000

Education

• Conservatorio Nacional, Madrid, Spain, classical ballet

Milestones

• 1992 Feature debut, “El Laberinto Griego/The Greek Labyrinth”
• 1992 First leading film role, “Jamon, Jamon”
• 1992 Had featured role in Fernando Trueba’s Oscar-winning “Belle Epoque”
• 1993 English-language acting debut, the British TV miniseries “Framed” (aired on A&E in USA in 1993)
• 1994 First English-language film role, as the young charge of an Irish governess in “Talk of Angels” (released in USA in 1998)
• 1997 Co-starred as a pregnant prostitute in Pedro Almodovar’s “Live Flesh”
• 1998 Appeared as Billy Crudup’s Mexican girlfriend in Stephen Frears’ “The Hi-Lo Country”
• 1998 Had featured role in “Open Your Eyes/Abre los Ojos”
• 1998 Played a bookish barmaid in the romantic comedy “Twice Upon a Yesterday/If Only/The Man with Rain in His Shoes”
• 1998 Reteamed with Trueba for the comedy “La Nina de tus Ojos/The Girl of Your Dreams”
• 1999 Cast as Matt Damon’s love interest in “All the Pretty Horses” (released in 2000)
• 1999 Portrayed a nun in Almodovar’s award-winning “Todo sobre mi madre/All About My Mother”
• 2000 Starred as a South American chef in the comedy “Woman on Top”, opposite Mark Feuerstein
• 2001 Cast as the drug-addled wife of a cocaine dealer in “Blow”
• 2001 Had female lead in the triangular romance “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin”, starring Nicolas Cage and Christian Bale
• 2001 Selected by Ralph Lauren to appear in an advertising campaign for his products
• 2001 Starred opposite Tom Cruise in “Vanilla Sky”, an American adaptation of “Open Your Eyes” directed by Cameron Crowe; played same role as she did in the original
• 2003 Starred with Halle Berry in the thriller “Gothika”
• 2004 Starred with Charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend in the 1930′s war drama “Head in the Clouds”
• 2005 Cast as a destitute woman, who becomes involved with an upper-crust physician in “Non ti muovere”
• 2005 Co-starred with Matthew McConaughey in “Sahara” based on a Clive Cussler novel
• Co-hosted the Spanish TV talk show “Quinta Marcha”
• Joined the cast of “Chromophobia, a psychological drama starring Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas (lensed 2004)