stars world: Penélope Cruz Sánchez (born April

Penélope Cruz Sánchez (born April 28, 1974), better known as Penélope Cruz, is a Spanish actress. Signed by an agent at age 15, she made her acting debut at 16 on television, and her feature film debut the following year in Jamón, jamón (1992), to critical acclaim. Her subsequent roles in the 1990s and 2000s included Open Your Eyes (1997), The Hi-Lo Country (1999), The Girl of Your Dreams (2000) and Woman on Top (2000). Cruz achieved recognition for her lead roles in Vanilla Sky and Blow. Both films were released in 2001 and were commercially successful worldwide.

In the 2000s she has appeared in films from a wide range of genres, including the comedy Waking Up in Reno (2002), the thriller Gothika (2003), the Christmas movie Noel (2004), the action adventure Sahara (2005), the animated G-Force and the musical drama Nine. Her most notable films to date are Volver (2006), for which she earned Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), for which she received an Academy Award. She was the first Spanish actress in history to receive an Academy Award.

Cruz has modeled for companies such as Mango, Ralph Lauren and L'Oréal. Cruz and her younger sister Mónica Cruz have designed items for Mango. She has donated both her time and money to charities. Cruz has volunteered in Uganda and India, where she spent one week working for Mother Teresa; she donated her salary from The Hi-Lo Country to help fund the late nun's mission.
2 Acting career
2.1 Early work, 1989–1996
2.2 Early critical success, 1997–2000
2.3 Breakthrough, 2001–2005
2.4 Worldwide recognition, 2006–present
3 Public image
4 Philanthropy
5 Personal life
6 Filmography
7 References
8 External links

Penélope Cruz Sánchez was born in Alcobendas, Community of Madrid, Spain, the daughter of Encarna Sánchez, a hairdresser and personal manager, and Eduardo Cruz, a retailer and auto mechanic. She was raised Roman Catholic Throughout her childhood, Cruz lived in Alcobendas, a working-class city, although she spent "a lot" of time at her grandmother's apartment.Cruz is the oldest of three siblings; she has a younger brother, Eduardo, who is a singer, and a younger sister, Mónica, who is an actress. She has said that she had a happy childhood, and Charlie Rose of 60 Minutes described Cruz's childhood as a "simple life In 2000, Cruz stated that as a child she would throw herself on the floor and "start kicking and breaking things" when she did not get her way Initially, Cruz had no ambition to be an actress and focused on dance, having studied classical ballet for nine years at Spain's National Conservatory She received three years of Spanish ballet training and four years of theater at Cristina Rota's New York school She commented that "I used to take my toenails -- they would die from dancing -- so I would just take the whole toenail and throw it away, and not feel anything", however, ballet instilled in her discipline that would be important in her future acting career

When Cruz was a teenager, she began having an interest in acting after seeing the film Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar She began doing casting calls for an agent, but was rejected multiple times because the agent felt that she was too young. commented on the experience that "I was very extroverted as a kid was studying when I was in high school at night, I was in ballet and I was doing castings. I looked for an agent and she sent me away three times because I was a little girl but I kept coming back. I'm still with her after all these years.In 1989, at the age of 15, Cruz won an audition at a talent agency over more than 300 other girls In 1999, Katrina Bayonas, Cruz's agent, commented, "She was absolutely magic [at the audition]. It was obvious there was something very impressive about this kid. She was very green, but there was a presence. There was just something coming from within

Penelope Cruz

Monday, March 28, 2011

Penélope Cruz Sánchez (born April