andy garcia

Andrés Arturo García Menéndez (real name of the actor) was born in Regla, a municipality in the province of Havana, Cuba, on April 12, 1956. He had a twin brother who died during childbirth. As happened to so many other families, his parents – the lawyer René García and the English teacher Amelie Menéndez – were forced into exile because of the Fidel Castro regime, when the boy was five years old. They moved to Miami, where the first few years were hard, but his father, who worked for a long time in any available occupation, eventually created a perfume company that thrived.

While he was a student at the Miami Beach Institute, where Mickey Rourke also studied , García stood out on the basketball team, so they predicted a great future for him in the sports field. But he suffered mononucleosis and hepatitis, which put an end to his aspirations. During his convalescence, he thought that as an alternative he would try his luck in the cinema.

He studied acting at the University of Florida. When he finished he went to Hollywood, ready to succeed. But he did not have it easy at all, because after some television appearance and his film debut with an episodic role in Guaguasi , by Jorge Ulla, he only got insignificant roles. He highlights his work as a gang member in the first episode of Sad Song of Hill Street . Since he spent a lot of time unemployed due to lack of opportunities, he began to write scripts.

In 1981, Andy García married his compatriot María Victoria Gracia. The marriage has had four children, one of whom, Dominik, the eldest, would also later dedicate himself to acting. For the rest, the actor has been an example of discretion and elegance, who does not divulge information about his private life.

After his intervention in Call a reporter , Andy García showed his potential as a drug lord in 8 million ways to die . But it was veteran Brian De Palma who changed his career when he cast him in the role of George Stone, the shooting cop, in Eliot Ness’s The Untouchables . The director opted for the Cuban because he saw in his Latino features the ideal man to play an Italian-American. In fact, one of the great moments of the film is the sequence in which veteran Sean Connery mocks his provenance. And although most of the glory went to Connery, Kevin Costner , who catapulted to stardom, andRobert De Niro , amazing after gaining kilos to embody Al Capone, the truth is that García also remained in the memory of movie lovers.

He was so convincing in a character of Italian origin, that the great Francis Ford Coppola decided to hire him to play another, in The Godfather III , where he took up the story of the Corleone family 16 years later. Although many aspects of the film were criticized, especially the presence of Sofia Coppola as an actress , Andy García left a good taste in the mouth as Vincent Mancini, Sonny’s illegitimate son, and therefore Michael’s nephew, the character of Al Pacino , who ends up choosing him. like new Godfather. He earned a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination.

Although he had become a star, with the beginning of the 90’s, Andy García did not just have much luck. After Kenneth Branagh ‘s thriller Die Yet , which went largely unnoticed, he deserved greater success with Accidental Hero , an excellent recovery of the spirit of Frank Capra ‘s cinema , directed by Stephen Frears , and where he was well supported by Dustin Hoffman and Geena Davis . He was also the lead in two not-too-remarkable show-off vehicles, Jennifer 8 (sort of an unspoken review of Alone in the Dark ) and When a Man Loves a Woman .(drama about alcoholism clearly inspired by Días sin trace and Días de vino y rosas ).

The interesting crime drama Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead and Night Falls on Manhattan , a correct thriller by Sidney Lumet , did not have much of an impact , while it was a notable mistake to choose him to play the poet Federico García Lorca , in Death in Granada .

After the failed Desperate Measures , García has been relegated to by-products, such as Modigliani , Like Fallen From Heaven , Company Service or Four Lives , which despite their low budget, he seems to have chosen because they have some point of interest. Almost forgotten – although he has never lost the sympathy of the public and the respect of the industry – he was rescued by Steven Soderbergh , who gave him the role of Terry Benedict, the owner of the casino that the protagonists in Ocean’s Eleven plan to rob . He reprized the role in Ocean’s Twelve and Ocean’s Thirteen ., The consequences. In addition, he was a policeman – once again Italian – in the disastrous The Pink Panther 2 and participated in a segment of the collective film New York, I Love You .

Bored by the lack of opportunities, Andy García managed to start up in 2005 after a long process of seeking financing The Lost City , his directorial debut in the feature film, a well-intentioned tribute to Cuba, from where his family had to leave for reasons policies, with a script by another illustrious exiled compatriot, Guillermo Cabrera Infante. With a lot of effort, he tries to carry out his second film, Hemingway & Fuentes , about the relationship between Ernest Hemingway and the fisherman Gregorio Fuentes, which inspired him to write “The Old Man and the Sea”. At the moment, he has signed Anthony Hopkins to play the writer and Annette Beningas Mary Welsh Hemingway, while reserving the role of Fuentes for himself. After turning 56, the actor does not stop getting involved in projects that can surprise. He stars in the romance Admissions , with Vera Farmiga , and in the drama What About Love , with Sharon Stone .