Hardly one to have hungered for a Hollywood career, Spanish-born actor Javier Bardem nonetheless achieved great stardom and acclaim while being highly selective of the roles he chose to play. After making his film debut in "The Ages of Lulu," Bardem graduated to leading roles with "Jamón, Jamón" and made his English language debut in "Perdita Durango."

He made an international splash with his Oscar-nominated performance as openly gay Cuban author Reinaldo Arenas in "Before Night Falls," and he continued to win serious praise for "The Dancer Upstairs" in 2003. Bardem went on to deliver a sterling performance as quadriplegic Ramón Sampedro, who spent 29 years fighting for his right to die in the "The Sea Inside."

Following a brief, but pivotal turn as a Mexican drug lord in "Collateral," Bardem was the fictional Brother Lorenzo in the otherwise historical drama "Goya's Ghosts." He then starred in Mike Newell's adaptation of "Love in the Time of Cholera." But it was his Oscar-winning performance as the ruthless, coin-tossing assassin Anton Chigurh in the Coen Brothers' "No Country for Old Men" that catapulted Bardem into superstardom.

From there, he portrayed a Spanish painter in Wood Allen's "Vicky Christina Barcelona," a deteriorating family man in "Biutiful" and James Bond's arch-enemy in "Skyfall. Whether sympathetic hero or psychotic villain, Bardem was certainly worthy of the slew of awards and critical praise he routinely received.

Actors, Entertainment Industry, Spanish, Hispanic, Spanish Speaking, Atheism, Film Industry