Name: Salma Hayek

Birth Name: Salma Hayek-Jimenez

Birthdate: Sept. 2, 1966

Birthplace: Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico

With a career that began in Mexican soap operas, Salma Hayek moved to Hollywood in 1991 and since then has risen through the ranks to become one of its most outspoken leading ladies, and a top-notch producer to boot. Her breakthrough performance was in Robert Rodriguez's Desperado, opposite Antonio Banderas, in 1995. Her resume is amazingly diverse, flip-flopping between big studio movies like Wild Wild West and little indie projects like Hotel. She spent years trying to get her Frida Kahlo biopic made, even competing with a rival Jennifer Lopez project at one point. But it was Hayek who saw her movie premiere in 2002, and it went on to garner a slew of Oscar nominations, including one for her for Best Actress.


1. Director Robert Rodriguez cast her in Desperado after seeing her on a Spanish public-access TV show.
2. She duked it out with Jennifer Lopez to see who could bring Frida Kahlo to big screen first. She won.
3. She moved to Hollywood in 1991 after achieving TV stardom in Mexico.
4. Her first lead role was opposite Friends star Matthew Perry in Fools Rush In.
5. She made her directorial debut with The Maldonado Miracle.


On Frida's nudity: "Americans think that 'sexy' is a lot of waxing and not eating — being skinny and having no hair. But, of course, we have a fat man and a hairy woman. And it's so sexy!"
— The BBC, February 2001

2003: Academy Award nomination: Best Actress, Frida

 

FILMS

Across the Universe - (2007) - Actor
Lonely Hearts - (2007) - Actor
Bandidas - (2006) - Actor
Maid In Manhattan/Fools Rush In - (2005) - Actor
Ask the Dust - (2005) - Actor
After the Sunset - (2004) - Actor
Hotel - (2003) - Actor
Once Upon a Time in Mexico - (2003) - Actor
The Maldonado Miracle - (2003) - Director, Executive Producer
Frida - (2002) - Actor, Producer
El Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escriba - (2002) - Actor
In the Time of the Butterflies - (2001) - Actor
Traffic - (2000) - Actor (uncredited)
Living It Up: La Grand Vida - (2000) - Actor
Timecode - (2000) - Actor
The Faculty - (1999) - Actor
The Velocity of Gary (not His Real Name) - (1999) - Actor
Dogma - (1999) - Actor
Wild Wild West - (1999) - Actor
54 - (1998) - Actor
Roadracers - (1997) - Actor
Breaking Up - (1997) - Actor
The Hunchback - (1997) - Actor
From Dusk Till Dawn - (1996) - Actor
Fools Rush In - (1996) - Actor
Fled - (1996) - Actor
Desperado - (1995) - Actor
Four Rooms - (1995) - Actor
Callejon De Los Milagros - (1994) - Actor