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Javier Bardem

Javier Bardem
Javier Bardem was born in 1969 in the Canary Islands.

Bardem is part of one of Spain’s largest cinematic dynasties: his grandparents, their siblings, his mother, his brother and sister are all actors; his uncle was the world-renowned director Juan Antonio Bardem (for example, Death of a Cyclist); and he also has various cousins involved in the film industry, including his cousin Miguel (director of Swindled and The Ugliest Woman in the World).

Javier Bardem first came to public attention in 1992 in the film Jamon Jamon (dir. Bigas Luna), which also marked the debuts of Penelope Cruz and Jordi Molla. He worked with Bigas Luna again the following year in Golden Balls; the combination of these two films initially led to him being typecast as the Spanish macho. He overcame this typecasting via a range of roles (in films such as Perdita Durango (dir. Alex de la Iglesia) and Live Flesh (dir. Pedro Almodóvar)), which showcased the extent of his talent, leading him to be nicknamed ‘the Spanish Brando’.

He moved into English language films with the combination of Before Night Falls (dir. Julian Schnabel), which saw him become the first Spanish actor to be nominated for an Oscar, and Dancer Upstairs (dir. John Malkovich). More recently he has worked with the likes of Milos Forman (Goya’s Ghosts) and the Coen Brothers (No Country for Old Men) but has also continued to work in Spain in films such as Mondays In The Sun (dir. Fernando Leon de Aranoa) and The Sea Inside (dir. Alejandro Amenábar) –both of which saw him win the Goya for Best Actor.

In 2008 he became the first Spanish actor to win an Oscar (for Best Supporting Actor for his role in No Country for Old Men) and he dedicated the award to his mother, his grandparents, and all those Spanish actors who have brought dignity and pride to their profession.




News | What members say | Filmography

Javier Bardem - news / articles


  • Javier Bardem lands Hollywood Walk of Fame star - 8 November 2012
    -Javier Bardem made his Hollywood Walk of Fame induction a celebration of all things James Bond - his Skyfall director Sam Mendes and co-stars Berenice Marlohe and Naomie Harris joined him for the ceremony on Thursday (08Nov12).-The Vicky Cristina Barcelona actor lande


  • Javier Bardem froze on Skyfall set when it hit him he was Bond baddie - 15 October 2012
    -New Bond baddie Javier Bardem froze during one scene on the set of Skyfall when it suddenly hit him he was playing a role he'd dreamed about as a kid.-The Spanish star admits he has always been a fan of 007 villains, especially Richard Kiel's Jaws, and the importance


  • Daniel Craig bonded with Javier Bardem over rugby passion - 11 October 2012
    -Daniel Craig bonded with Javier Bardem on the set of the new 007 movie over their shared love of rugby.-The actor returns as James Bond in Skyfall, the 23rd movie in the superspy franchise, and he does battle with Bardem as villain Raoul Silva, but Craig reveals their

Javier Bardem - what members say


  • Live Flesh
  • Live Flesh review by from Oxford, England
    Rated - 5.0 stars Excellent, and typical Almodovar. 16 June 2004
    ...drugs) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Cast: Liberto Rabal, Francesca Neri, Javier Bardem, Angela Molina, Jose Sancho, Penelope Cruz Director: Pedro Almodovar Producer...   Read customer review
  • Jamon Jamon
  • Jamon Jamon review by TheRandomNomad from Somerset
    Rated - 5.0 stars Hilarious Spanish Farce! 23 March 2008
    ...cinema. For the moonlit naked bullfighting alone, you must see this film. Both Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz are excellent in this. Silvia falls pregnant and her boyfr...   Read customer review
  • Before Night Falls
  • Before Night Falls review by from London
    Rated - 3.0 stars A superb performance anchors this solid drama 26 May 2004
    ...a result. The undeniable strength of this film is the central performance of Javier Bardem as Arenas. Bardem is simply mesmerising in the role and never overplays the hom...   Read customer review

Javier Bardem - filmography


  • Skyfall on DVD (2012)
    Starring: Daniel Craig,  Judi Dench,  Javier Bardem
    Director: Sam Mendes
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
    Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
    4 stars out of 5 77% from 5,727 members
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  • Eat, Pray, Love - Blu-ray (2010)
    Starring: Julia Roberts,  James Franco,  Billy Crudup
    Director: Ryan Murphy
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Watch now: Unavailable
    Liz Gilbert had everything a modern woman is supposed to dream of having - a husband, a house, a successful career - yet like so many others, she found herself lost, confused, and searching for what she really wanted in life. Newly divorced and at a crossroads, Gilbert steps out of her comfort zone,..read more »
    2.5 stars out of 5 54% from 6,493 members
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  • Biutiful - Blu-ray (2010)
    Starring: Lio Jin,  Ruben Ochandiano,  Felix Cubero
    Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
    Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu writes and directs this drama portraying a father's love for his children amidst a life of poverty and crime in Barcelona. Javier Bardem stars as Uxbal, a black market trader, psychic medium and single father of two who learns that he has terminal cancer. Amid the grimy, ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 68% from 2,987 members
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  • Eat, Pray, Love on DVD (2010)
    Starring: Julia Roberts,  James Franco,  Billy Crudup
    Director: Ryan Murphy
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Watch now: Unavailable
    Liz Gilbert had everything a modern woman is supposed to dream of having - a husband, a house, a successful career - yet like so many others, she found herself lost, confused, and searching for what she really wanted in life. Newly divorced and at a crossroads, Gilbert steps out of her comfort zone,..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 58% from 33,234 members
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  • Biutiful on DVD (2010)
    Starring: Diarytou Daff,  Hanaa Bouchaib,  Lio Jin
    Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
    Biutiful is a love story between a father and his children. This is the journey of Uxbal (Javier Bardem - Vicky Christina Barcelona), a conflicted man who struggles to reconcile fatherhood, love, spirituality, crime, guilt and mortality amidst the dangerous underworld of modern Barcelona. His ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 70% from 10,080 members
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  • Vicky Cristina Barcelona on DVD (2008)
    Starring: Javier Bardem,  Penelope Cruz,  Scarlett Johansson
    Director: Woody Allen
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
    Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
    It’s the film that critics are hailing as Woody Allan’s return to form. Vicky Cristina Barcelona has become one of the most talked about movies of the year. A sizzling, erotically charged, relentlessly hilarious and touching romantic comedy that won Penelope Cruz (Volver, Vanilla Sky) a Best ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 66% from 48,504 members
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  • Vicky Cristina Barcelona - Blu-ray (2008)
    Starring: Patricia Clarkson,  Scarlett Johansson,  Chris Messina
    Director: Woody Allen
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
    Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
    Woody Allen writes and directs this romantic comedy drama, his fourth consecutive film to be shot outside the United States. When two young American friends, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), spend a summer in Barcelona, they both become infatuated with flamboyant artist Juan ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 67% from 5,583 members
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  • The Sea Inside on DVD (2004)
    Starring: Lola Duenas,  Belen Rueda,  Javier Bardem
    Director: Alejandro Amenabar
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    Life story of Spaniard Ramón Sampedro, who fought a 30-year campaign to win the right to end his life with dignity. Film explores Ramón's relationships with two women: Julia, a lawyer who supports his cause, and Rosa, a local woman who wants to convince him that life is worth living. Through the ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 73% from 13,000 members
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  • Collateral on DVD (2004)
    Starring: Peter Berg,  Irma P. Hall,  Barry
    Director: Michael Mann
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Max has lived a mundane life as a cab driver for twelve years. The faces have come and gone from his rear-view mirror: people and places he's long since forgotten--until tonight. Vincent is a contract killer. When an offshore narco-trafficking cartel learns that they're about to be indicted by a ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 66% from 105,708 members
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  • Mondays In The Sun (2002)
    Starring: Javier Bardem,  Luis Tosar
    Director: Fernando Leon de Aranoa
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
    This is the story of those who live in a constant Sunday, those who spend mondays under the Sun. The story of people who worked in a dockyard but now are unemployed.
    3.5 stars out of 5 72% from 408 members
    Currently unavailable
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  • The Dancer Upstairs (2002)
    Starring: Elvira Minguez,  Javier Bardem,  Juan Diego Botto
    Director: John Malkovich
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
    Agustin Rejas (Javier Bardem) is a former lawyer turned police detective. He has been assigned to investigate a group of terrorists who are determined to up-end the current government by any means.
    3 stars out of 5 61% from 4,334 members
    Currently unavailable
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  • Before Night Falls on DVD (2000)
    Starring: Najwa Nimri,  Andrea Di Stefano,  Vito Schnabe
    Director: Julian Schnabel
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    This is the story of Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas. Raised in the Oriente Province of Cuba in the 1940s, Arenas began his life-long love of the sea and water. Leaving home as a young adolescent, he moves to Havana where he finds himself swept up in the revolutionary spirit and joins a ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 62% from 5,560 members
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  • Between Your Legs on DVD (1999)
    Starring: Sergi Lopez,  Juan Diego,  Javier Bardem
    Director: Manuel Gamez Pereira
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    Often referred to as a cousin to Pedro Almodovar or Bigas Luna, Manuel Gomez Pereira has been covering up his sharp social satire behind nice exteriors in his previous five films. No more nice guy, says Pereira, in an erotic tale of sex-o-mania. And with who else but ravishing Victoria Abril in the ..read more »
    2.5 stars out of 5 52% from 1,469 member
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  • Dance With The Devil on DVD (1997)
    Starring: Alex Cox,  Rosie Perez,  Javier Bardem
    Director: Alex De La Iglesia,  Alex D
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    A road movie that combines voodoo, black comedy and strong sex and violence. Trashy Perdita Durango (Rosie Perez) hooks up with Romeo Delarosa (Javier Bardem), an odd-ball follower of the Santeria cult, who's used to robbing banks, and graves, to help furnish his cannibalistic rituals. When local ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 56% from 125 members
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  • Live Flesh on DVD (1997)
    Starring: Angela Molina,  Liberto Rabal,  Jose Sancho
    Director: Pedro Almodovar
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    Pedro Almodovar directs this adaptation of the novel by Ruth Rendell. Victor Plaza (Liberto Rabal) goes to meet drug-addicted diplomat's daughter Elena (Francesca Neri) after losing his virginity to her. She barely remembers anything about the past, however, and attempts to shoot him. Two cops, ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 66% from 8,607 members
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  • Perdita Durango (1997)
    Starring: Harley Cross,  Alex Cox,  Screamin' Jay Hawkins
    Director: Alex De La Iglesia
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    Watch now: Unavailable
    The title character of this Alex de la Iglesia film made her first appearance in David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990) and was originally played by Isabella Rossellini. Rosie Perez takes over the role in this blend of black comedy, graphic sex and violence, voodoo, and weirdness. Perdita Durango is ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 55% from 763 members
    Currently unavailable
  • Golden Balls on DVD (1993)
    Starring: Maria De Medeiros,  Benicio Del Toro,  Javier Bardem
    Director: Bigas Luna
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    A parody of ambition and success from Bigas Lunas, the director of 'Jamon Jamon' and 'The Tit and the Moon'. Benito Gonzales (Javier Bardem) is a man who's main aim in life is to erect the tallest building in the town. He has no money but has plenty of charm and self-confidence and manages to get ..read more »
    2.5 stars out of 5 52% from 1,522 member
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  • Jamon Jamon on DVD (1992)
    Starring: Jordi Molla,  Penelope Cruz,  Javier Bardem
    Director: Bigas Luna
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    Watch now: Unavailable
    Class, sex, and food are the obsessions of this Spanish comedy drama, an international hit from writer and director J.J. Bigas Luna that plays like a cross between the lusty Like Water for Chocolate (1992) and the early work of Pedro Almodovar. In a small town in Spain's arid Monegros region, young ..read more »
    3 stars out of 5 62% from 7,085 members
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  • High Heels on DVD (1991)
    Starring: Marisa Parades,  Feodor Atkine,  Javier Bardem
    Director: Pedro Almodovar
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    Written and directed by Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almódovar, Tacones Lejanos is a murder mystery centering on flamboyant actress Becky del Paramo (Marisa Paredes) and her daughter Rebecca (Victoria Abril), a television anchorwoman. After being estranged for 15 years, Becky re-enters Rebecca's life ..read more »
    3.5 stars out of 5 67% from 1,368 member
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Javier Bardem facts

5 most recent films

Skyfall - Blu-ray - 4.0 stars
Skyfall - 4.0 stars
Eat, Pray, Love - Blu-ray - 2.5 stars
Biutiful - Blu-ray - 3.5 stars
Eat, Pray, Love - 3.0 stars

5 highest-rated films

Skyfall - 4.0 stars
Skyfall - Blu-ray - 4.0 stars
The Sea Inside - 3.5 stars
No Country For Old Men - Blu-ray - 3.5 stars
Mondays In The Sun - 3.5 stars

5 lowest-rated films

Mouth to Mouth - 2.5 stars
Golden Balls - 2.5 stars
Between Your Legs - 2.5 stars
Eat, Pray, Love - Blu-ray - 2.5 stars
Perdita Durango - 3.0 stars

Most frequent co-stars

Penelope Cruz - 6 times - show films
Juan Diego Botto - 4 times - show films
Blanca Portillo - 4 times - show films
Cheng Taishen - 3 times - show films
Aimee Graham - 3 times - show films

Most frequent directors

Woody Allen - 3 times - show films
Ethan Coen - 3 times - show films
Ryan Murphy - 3 times - show films
Alex De La Iglesia - 3 times - show films
Bigas Luna - 3 times - show films