Joaquim de Almeida (eng)

Joaquim António Portugal Baptista de Almeida - Portuguese origin actor, who conquered the international film industry. For Americans, he is an elegant bad guy with a low, a little bit throaty voice ("24", "Desperado," "Behind Enemy Lines", "CSI Miami"). For Europeans – a man of many parts, perfectly suited for both sensual man ("Earth Heart", "53 Winter Days", "Family Portrait", "Temptation") and the bohemian artist roles ("Oscar. Surrealist passion"). The most important thing, however, is that it does not matter, what kind of role he acts, Joaquim can receive a wide circle of viewers sympathy.

Joaquim de Almeida was born in Lisbon in the spring of 1957. When he was 18 years old, he was unable to study art, because after the so-called Carnation Revolution the Lisbon Conservatory was closed temporarily, so Joaquim decided to leave his country and go to Vienna. He spent there two years working various jobs (for ezample he worked as a gardener in Zairean embassy), and met his first wife, the Austrian pianist Maria Cecilia de Almeida. This friendship was the first thing, which made him turn to a way of becoming an actor finally - as Maria Cecilia received a scholarship to study music in America, in 1977 the pair moved to New York. So Joaquim began studying in Actors Sturio there, and soon he started playing in the New York Shakespeare Festival. That was a career beginning of one of the most successful actors coming from Portugal. Joaquims ability to speak in five foreign languages fluenty (English, French, Italian, Spanish and German) gave him great opportunity to show his talent not only in the U.S.A. and his homeland Portugal (where he always is happy to work), but also in other European countries, as well as in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.

Joaquim has made more than 70 kinds of roles in movies and TV series. Although in Lithuania he is better known as the villain from American crime dramas or thrillers, the actor prefer more emotional and miscellaneous roles in European directors movies. Maybe because of that, when Joaquim is casting as villain, he tries not to make them clichéd, give them more interesting features or sensitivity, because, according to the actor, bad guys have feelings also. However, in the recent interviews the actor was pleased that he plays as such guys more and more rarely, even in American directors movies ("Burning plane," "La cucina").

Despite the fact that Joaquim has played many in both South and North America, however, most recognition and awards, he received in the homeland Portugal. In Avances Film Forum, he was awarded as best actor for the role of the painter Óscar Domínguez in movie „Oscar. Surrealist passion“, also he was awarded with Golden Globe awards even three times, and awarded with the Golden Dolphin for all the achievements of his career in Festroia Festival.

However, neither rewards nor the fact that in Portugal live two of his children (son Lourenço from his first marriage, and daughter Maria from the second) has not made him come back, and Joaquim became a Citizen of U.S.A. in 2005. And while actor often come to Portugal, according to his own, it is fun to come here for holiday, bus this country is too small for business and cinema industry.