Joaquim de Almeida

He can act in his native Portuguese, as well as in Spanish, Italian, French, English, and German, which could be one of the reasons Joaquim De Almeida could be seen in the 1980s and 90s in a wide range of international feature films, often playing lovers, revolutionaries, or killers. The suave, handsome actor first won notice opposite Klaus Kinski and Ken Wahl in the violent actioner "The Soldier" (1982) and in Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's "Good Morning Babylon" (1986), in which he and Vincent Spano were Italian brothers trying to make their way in Hollywood during the early silent films era.

But it was 1994 before American audiences--and Hollywood--began to put De Almeida on their lists. That year, he was the cold-hearted murderer Felix Cortez in "Clear and Present Danger," as well as Giovanni, the Italian gigolo romancing Bonnie Hunt, in "Only You." The following year, he was featured in Robert Rodriguez's "Desperado," as the drug lord antagonist.

De Almeida has made few appearances on American TV, although he played a policeman on location segments of the CBS daytime drama "As the World Turns" and guest-starred in a 1985 episode of "Miami Vice" as a vicious rapist who thinks he is above the law. He co-starred in a miniseries version of Joseph Conrad's "Nostromo" (PBS, 1997).

De Almeida has also made a few American stage appearances, notably in Federico Garcia Lorca's "Blood Wedding," produced off-Broadway in 1992 at NYC's Public Theatre.