Penelope Cruz Husband, Children, Age, Height and Other Interesting Facts

Quick Facts

When beauty combines with talent, what a fabulous mix it would be. She is unpredictable, she is unique and brings her characters alive by her excellent portrayals. Be it action, thriller, comedy, whatever genre you have, she does it well and blends so smoothly. For this reason, Penelope Cruz is regarded as the finest Spanish actress and model in several quarters.

She was signed by an agent at 15 and made her acting debut in a music video for a Spanish pop group and on TV in 1990 as a host of a teens talk show, La Quinta Marcha. Her feature film debut was in 1992 in Jamon Jamon, where she played a lead female role as Silva.

Penelope Cruz received favourable reviews for her role and also got a nomination for a Spanish Actors Union Newcomer Award as well as a Goya Award for Best Actress. Penelope Cruz appeared in the Academy-Award-winning Belle Epoque as the virginal Luz.

Her first American film is the Stephen Frears’ western film, The Hi-Lo Country. She has gone ahead to star in various films many of which are either nominated for awards or even clinching them. Her roles have got her among others a Golden Globe nomination and award, SAG nomination and BAFTA Award. For her portrayal of María Elena, a mentally unstable woman in Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, she received her first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Since Cruz first hit the silver screen, she has skillfully divided her time between blockbuster movies. Open Your Eyes, The Girl of Your Dreams, Vanilla Sky, Blow, Waking Up in Reno, Gothika, Noel, Sahara, Volver, Nine, Loving Pablo, Murder on the Orient Express, Zoo Lander 2, MaMa, The Counselor, On Stranger Tides are among her acting credits.

Penelope Cruz Age

The working class town of Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain was where the feisty and larger than life actress, Penelope Cruz was born. Her arrival was on 28 April 1974 in the family of Encarna Sánchez, a hairdresser and personal manager, and Eduardo Cruz, a retailer and car mechanic. She has two younger siblings, Monica, a dancer and actress and Eduardo, a singer. Penelope also has a half-sister, Salma (born 24 February 2012) from her father’s second marriage to Carmen Moreno in 2003.

Penelope Cruz has an affection for the beauty industry which goes back to her childhood. Being the daughter of a hairdresser, she would go to her mum’s salon after school and pretend to do her homework but would be watching the women and the way they related to her mother. She enjoys getting others ready and even cuts some of her family and friends’ hair.

Furthermore, she has modelled for Ralph Lauren, L’Oreal, Mango and has even designed a clothing for Mango with her sister.

Penelope Cruz Husband and Children

Penelope Cruz is a married woman and the mother of two lovely children. She fell in love with and married a Spanish actor and her co-star in the Woody Allen-directed 2008 Vicky Cristina Barcelona. The duo who starred together in Jamon Jamon which was Penelope’s feature film debut in 1992 fell in love while starring in the 2008 film. After two years of dating, they decided to tie the knot and did so in July 2010 in the Bahamas at a friend’s home.

Her husband described her as having a loving blood and passion for everything in addition to being feisty and fiery. But that was actually what he finds attractive in her and he also said she is beautiful and sexy. They are both notable and widely acclaimed actors and have appeared together in other movies such as The Counselor, Loving Pablo (their first movie together as a couple).

The award-winning actors are the proud parents of a son, Leonardo born 22 January 2011 and daughter, Luna born 22 July 2013. Penelope has described motherhood as the biggest transformation of her life. For her, the family is the most important thing and she wants to raise her children herself. When she is not working, she takes her time to be a mother.

Javier Bardem

Yes, that is the name of her statuesque husband. He was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands on 1st March 1969. was born into a family with a history of actors who have been making films since the early days of Spanish cinema. Nonetheless, he didn’t consider acting as a career at first even after he made his first on-screen appearance at 6.

As painting was his thing then, he went ahead to study it for four years at Madrid’s Escuela de Artes y Oficios. He, however, gave it up for acting having initially taken acting jobs to support his paintings. He now thinks he’s a bad painter.

His mother, Pilar Bardem is an actress while his father, José Carlos Encinas Doussinague, who died in 1995 was a businessman involved in environmental work. Javier is the third and youngest child and his parents separated shortly after his birth. His older siblings, Carlos and Monica, are actors.

He has grown to be a versatile actor with depth. Some of his movies include Carne tremula, Boca a boca, Los lunes al sol, Skyfall, Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise, Dead Men Tell No Tales, No Country for Old Men, Biutiful, Before Night Falls. 

The Biutiful actor was the first Spanish actor to be nominated for an Oscar (for Best Actor in 2000) and was the first to win one. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a sociopathic assassin, Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men. The seasoned actor like his wife also received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star on November 8, 2012.

Height and Other Interesting Facts

1. Her height is 5′ 6″ (1.68 m) and she weighs 62 kg (137 lbs).

2. Her body build is slim and she has a buxom figure with body measurements 35-27-35 inches (89-69-89 cm).

3. Penelope has a thing for acting right from her childhood days when she would think of a character and pretend to be that person while she played with her friends.

4. The actress was named after Joan Manuel Serrat’s song Penélope.

5. While she is called Pe by her friends, she was also nicknamed Madonna.

6. Her best friend is the actress .

7. Her best actor is while her best actress is Meryl Streep.

8. Penelope likes to sleep and wouldn’t mind staying in bed for up to 18 hours.

9. She became a vegetarian after shooting All The Pretty Horses in 2000 and she loves cats.

10. Before she married her husband, Javier, she dated , and Matthew McConaughey and has remained good friends with .

11. Although she did not learn English until she was 23, you can now confidently call her a polyglot and would not be mistaken. She is fluent in Spanish, Engish, Italian and French.

12. Beyond being the first Spanish actress to receive an Academy Award, she is equally the first to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

13. Among the many things she does, philanthropy makes the list. She donated her salary from The Hi-Lo Country to help fund the Mother Teresa mission.

14. She founded a charity organization called Sabera Foundation that supports homeless Indian girls and also built a school for girls and a clinic in Calcutta.

15. Talking about music, she studied classical ballet for nine years at Spain’s National Conservatory.

16. She had Spanish ballet training for three years and perfected the art of dance for four years at Christina Rota’s school in New York.

17. She says that ballet instilled in her discipline that has proved important in her acting career.

18. Penelope Cruz won an audition at a talent agency over more than 300 other girls in 1989 at 15 and made a transition from dancing.

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