Olivier Martinez | |
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Martinez at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival with Mira Sorvino
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Born |
Olivier Martinez 12 January 1966 Paris, France |
Residence | Malibu, California, U.S. |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1990–present |
Spouse(s) | Halle Berry (m. 2013; div. 2016) |
Partner(s) | Kylie Minogue (2002–07) |
Children | 1 |
Olivier Martinez (born 12 January 1966) is a French film actor. He became known after roles in several French films such as Un, deux, trois, soleil (1993), which garnered him the César Award for "Most Promising Actor", The Horseman on the Roof (1995), and The Chambermaid on the Titanic (1997). He has also appeared in Hollywood-produced features, including the drama Before Night Falls (2000), the erotic thriller Unfaithful (2002) and playing the role of a French drug lord in the action-crime-thriller S.W.A.T. (2003).
Martinez was born in Paris, France, to a working-class family. His father was a Spanish professional boxer born in Spanish Morocco and his mother was a French secretary. He studied at the CNSAD and began his acting career in his native France in 1990. Martinez was raised Roman Catholic.
In 1994, Martinez won a César Award as "Most Promising Actor" for his role in Un, deux, trois, soleil (1993). This was followed by a leading role in the Jean-Paul Rappeneau period film The Horseman on the Roof (Le Hussard sur le Toit) in 1995 in which he starred alongside Juliette Binoche as an Italian nobleman. The film was hailed as the most expensive French film at that time in history but failed to reach its $35 million budget. In 1996/7 he appeared in Bertrand Blier's romantic comedy My Man (Mon Homme) alongside Anouk Grinberg, Gérard Lanvin, and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. Later in 1997 he played a leading role in Bigas Luna's drama The Chambermaid on the Titanic (La Femme de chambre du Titanic) alongside Romane Bohringer, set during the time of the Titanic's sinking voyage in 1912. Martinez portrays a French foundry worker who wins a strongman contest and the prize of a trip to view the departing maiden voyage of the ill-fated Titanic. The film was well-received; Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle praised what he felt was a rare honest portrayal of male sexuality by Martinez.