Antonio Banderas turns 65: a heart attack saved his life

“It completely changed my life, completely for the better”: Antonio Banderas speaks in several interviews about the heart attack that he had suffered in 2017. After suddenly felt chest pain during sport, his girlfriend Nicole Kimpel may save him his life by reacting quickly and giving him aspirin. The actor was then hospitalized, three stents had to be used in his arteries.

“It caused me to appreciate life in a completely different way, in a much more powerful way,” I reflected “I realized that it was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me because the things that were not important and that I was worried about every day were meaningless.”

José Antonio Domínguez Bandera was born on August 10, 1960 in Málaga as the older of two sons of a police officer and a teacher. His home had a strong influence on his philosophy of life. “For Andalusians, the fact that death is the only certainty in life is very present. Everything else is relative,” he said in and further explained that curiosity was the engine that lets him go through life fearlessly.

Banderas originally dreamed of a football career, but an injury at the age of 14 ended these plans abruptly. His former coach remembered that Banderas was talented, but was also too polite for the football business. After acting on the “School of Dramatic Art”, he played in small theaters in Madrid. Already with his first theater roles he attracted the attention of Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar (75). At her first meeting, the director attested the theater actor a “romantic face” – shortly afterwards he gave him his first role. With films such as “women on the edge of the nervous breakdown” or “Matador”, the two should help the Spanish cinema and each other with great popularity.

In 1992 Banderas dared to jump to Hollywood – although he hardly spoke English. Nevertheless, he landed his first leading role in the music film “Mambo Kings”. Successes such as “Philadelphia” (1993), “Interview with a Vampire” (1994), “Desperado” (1995) and “The Mask of Zorro” (1998) established him as an action hero and lover. In 1995 he met his later wife Melanie Griffith on the set of “Two Much”. Her marriage lasted for 18 years and needed the daughter Stella del Carmen Banderas. Shortly after the divorce, Banderas came together with the entrepreneur Nicole Kimpel, born in Germany – to this day the two live together in a wild marriage.

While Hollywood Banderas liked to market as a “Hispanic Sex symbol”, his view of the dream factory became more and more critical. He often described Hollywood as a “factory”, which was well organized and could produce a certain product in the chord. He compared Hollywood films with a can of Coca-Cola that you drink quickly and throws away. Meanwhile, he compares European cinema to good wine.

In 2011 Banderas remembered his roots and turned Pedro Almodóvar again after 21 years. The two had at least professionally overturned Banderas Hollywood ambitions and came back together with “the skin in which I live”.

The 2017 heart attack increased this development and gave Banderas a new emotional depth. In the hospital, an older nurse would have warned him that grief would accompany him in the next few months, he reminded “and it was right. In the following months I became very sad. I watched a film and started crying. I read poems and cried.”

Pedro Almodóvar also realized this change: “He said to me: You have changed! And you must not hide that, but have to bring it into your figure.” The result was “suffering and glory” – the film for which Banderas received its biggest awards, including the actor prize in Cannes and an Oscar nomination. And he can also be seen in Hollywood productions in 2023 in “Indiana Jones and the Rad of Fate”, most recently as a husband of Nicole Kidman (58) in “Babygirl” and from next year as the voice of the booted hangover in the “Shrek” series.

In the meantime, Banderas has also rediscovered a new, old passion for himself: he invests in his own theater in Málaga to promote the offspring of his homeland. Or, as he puts it: “I found the most romantic way to ruin myself.”