Celebrity Biographies
Oliver Martinez
The attractive and young French actor with Spanish roots, shortly after starting his career in theater and on television, crossed the pond towards the mecca of cinema. His passion for the Seventh Art may come from a childhood that seems like something out of a movie: the son of a mechanic who wanted to be a boxer and a French secretary, raised in the suburbs of Paris after trying different trades. It could be said that it was almost fate that allowed Olivier to discover his star in acting, and the reason why he will reap several titles in the American industry in a short time.
Olivier Martinez was born on January 12, 1966 in the city of Paris. He was raised surrounded by little luxury, within a humble and hard-working family. His father was a mechanic by profession but also tried his luck as a boxer in the Spanish Protectorate of Morocco, his hometown. He soon fell in love with a French secretary whom he married and raised a family in France.
Olivier grew up in the suburbs of Paris and left school at a young age. Without having higher education of any kind, he was stumbling around in various trades, but without finding any that he liked. And it was the world of interpretation that he called it. So he enrolled at the Paris International Conservatory, where he very soon began to stand out.
After finishing his acting studies, he began to appear in French series, which earned him Josée Dayan to give him his first film role in the film Plein Fer .
Later, he will win the César Award for Best New Actor for his performance in the 1993 film Un, deux, trois, soleil . But the film that will launch him to stardom will come a year later, with The Hussar on the Roof, based on Jean Giono’s novel of the same name . In it Olivier will play the leading role along with Juliette Binoche .
Later he filmed with different names in European cinema such as Bertrand Blier ( My man ). And also with the Spanish Bigas Luna ( The Chambermaid of the Titanic ) and Mario Camus ( The City of Wonders ). These movies are the ones that will make their way in Hollywood. And in his promotional tour of America with the aforementioned film The Hussar on the Roof , he will earn the nickname of “the French Brad Pitt”.
In the year 2000 he worked alongside Javier Bardem , who was nominated for an Oscar for Before Night Falls . Two years later he acted in Unfaithful (2002) , a drama about the adultery of the always controversial Adrian Lyne . In it he played the lover of Diane Lane , the wife of Richard Gere . It was a role that critics found hard to believe, as hard as it can be to imagine someone cheating on Richard Gere for Olivier.
It is true that he is a young man with light eyes and a dark complexion. In fact, it’s the role he plays in most of his movies: a seductive Latino who breaks hearts wherever he goes. And it is seen that in real life he does not stray far from this role. For three years he will maintain a relationship with Juliette Binoche , which will be widely covered by the French press. He was later romantically linked to actress Mira Sorvino and in 2007 ended his three-year affair with Australian singer Kylie Minogue . He also dated Spanish actress Elsa Pataky , who was in turn preceded by Goya Toledo , also Spanish . He is currently engaged to actress Halle Berry .with whom she is expecting her first child.
Other titles in his filmography are SWAT: Harrelson’s Men (2003), perhaps his most commercial film. Also Vidas ajenas in 2004, where he shared credits with Angelina Jolie , or The Mark of the Wolf in 2007, an adolescent horror film set in Romania.
His latest film to appear is Deadly Tide , in which he co-stars with his fiancée Halle Berry , and soon we will be able to see him in the adaptation of Noah Gordon ‘s well-known best-seller “The Doctor”.