Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez (born September 2, 1966) is a
Mexican actress,
director, and
television and
film producer. Hayek's charitable work includes increasing awareness on
violence against women and
discrimination against
immigrants.
["Reuters.com."]
Hayek is the first Mexican national to be nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Actress. She is one of the most prominent Mexican figures in Hollywood since silent film actress
Dolores del Río. She is also, after
Fernanda Montenegro, the second of three
Latin American actresses (the other being
Catalina Sandino Moreno) to achieve a Best Actress Oscar nomination.
In July 2007,
The Hollywood Reporter ranked Hayek fourth in their inaugural Latino Power 50, a list of the most powerful members of the Hollywood Latino community.
That same month, a poll found Hayek to be the "sexiest celebrity" out of a field of 3,000 celebrities (male and female); according to the poll, "65 percent of the U.S. population would use the term 'sexy' to describe her".
In December 2008,
Entertainment Weekly ranked Hayek number 17 in their list of the "25 Smartest People in TV."
Early life
Hayek was born in
Coatzacoalcos,
Veracruz,
Mexico, the daughter of Diana Jiménez Medina, an opera singer and talent scout, and Sami Hayek Dominguez, an oil company executive who once ran for mayor of Coatzacoalcos.
[Love, Bret (March 2003). "The Beautiful Mind of Salma Hayek". Razor Magazine, p. 48.][www.nytimes.com/1997/09/17/books/footlights.html] Hayek's father is a
Mexican of
Lebanese descent who emigrated to
Mexico City, while her mother is
Mexican and of
Spanish descent.
Her first given name,
Salma, is
Arabic for "safe". Raised in a wealthy, devoutly
Catholic family, she was sent to the
Academy of the Sacred Heart, Grand Coteau,
Louisiana, at the age of twelve.
While there, she was diagnosed with
dyslexia.
[Drawn From Life] She was also an accomplished
gymnast aspiring to compete in the Olympics, but her father prevented her from being recruited by the Mexican national team.
[{(({citation | url = www.style.com/vogue/feature/052305/page2.html | title = Free Spirit | first = Robert | last = Sullivan | date = June 2005 | publisher = Vogue | format =]
The religious sisters running the Academy ejected Hayek, citing behavioral problems, so she returned to Mexico. She was later sent to live with her aunt in
Houston,
Texas, where she stayed until she was 17 years old. She attended college in Mexico City, where she studied International Relations at the
Universidad Iberoamericana. To the surprise of her family, she dropped out to pursue a career as an actress.
Career
Mexico
At the age of 23, Hayek landed the title role in
Teresa (1989), a successful Mexican
telenovela that made her a star in Mexico. In 1994, Hayek starred in the film
El Callejón de los Milagros (
Miracle Alley), which has won more awards than any other movie in the history of
Mexican cinema. For her performance, Hayek was nominated for an
Ariel Award.
Early Hollywood acting work
[
]-clad Salma Hayek, as
Santanico Pandemonium, performs an
erotic dance with a
snake in this promotional still for
From Dusk Till Dawn]].
Hayek moved to
Los Angeles,
California in 1991 to study acting under
Stella Adler.
She had limited fluency in English, which was attributed to her suffering from
dyslexia.
and his producer wife
Elizabeth Avellan soon gave Hayek the break she needed, a starring role opposite
Antonio Banderas in 1995's
Desperado.
The movie caught Hollywood's attention, as moviegoers proved to be dazzled by Hayek as Rodriguez had been. Due to Hayek's loyalty to the director, she would later decline playing the role
Catherine Zeta-Jones eventually took in
The Mask of Zorro after Rodriguez abandoned the project. She also appeared in the
Spy Kids trilogy.
Hayek had a starring part opposite
Matthew Perry in the romantic comedy
Fools Rush In. She followed her success in
Desperado with a brief but memorable role as a vampire queen in
From Dusk Till Dawn, in which she performed a table-top snake dance. In 1999, she co-starred in
Will Smith's big-budget
Wild Wild West, and played a supporting role in
Kevin Smith's
Dogma.
In 2000, Hayek had an uncredited acting part opposite
Benicio del Toro in
Traffic. In 2003, she reprised her role from
Desperado by appearing in
Once Upon a Time in Mexico, the final film of the
Mariachi Trilogy.
Later Hollywood work: Director, producer and actress
Around 2000, Hayek founded film production company
Ventanarosa, through which she produces film and television projects. Her first feature as a producer was 1999's
El Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escriba, Mexico's official selection for submission for Best Foreign Film at the
Oscars.
, co-produced by Hayek, was released in 2002. Starring Hayek as
Frida Kahlo, and
Alfred Molina as her unfaithful husband,
Diego Rivera, the film was directed by
Julie Taymor and featured an entourage of stars in supporting and minor roles (
Valeria Golino,
Ashley Judd,
Edward Norton,
Geoffrey Rush) and cameos (
Antonio Banderas). The film also marked Hayek's first on screen nude scenes. She earned a Best Actress
Academy Award nomination for her performance.
This made Hayek, along with
Katy Jurado and
Adriana Barraza, one of only three Mexican actresses to have been nominated for an Academy Award. The film earned two Oscars.
"
In the Time of the Butterflies," is a 2001 feature film based on the Julia Álvarez book of the same name, covering the lives of the Mirabal sisters.
In the movie, Salma Hayek plays one of the sisters, Minerva, and Edward James Olmos plays the Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo whom the sisters opposed. Marc Anthony plays a brief role as Minerva's first love, and as the motivation for her later revolutionary activities.
In 2003, Hayek produced and directed the
The Maldonado Miracle, a
Showtime movie which won her a
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing in a Children/Youth/Family Special.
In December 2005, she directed a
music video for
Prince, titled "
Te Amo Corazon" ("I love you, sweetheart") that featured her good friend
Mia Maestro.
Hayek is an executive producer of
Ugly Betty, a television series airing around the world since September 2006. Hayek adapted the series for American television with
Ben Silverman, who acquired the rights and scripts from the
Colombian
telenovela Yo Soy Betty La Fea in 2001. Originally intended as a half hour sitcom for NBC in 2004, the project would later be picked up by
ABC for the 2006–2007 season with
Silvio Horta also producing. Hayek guest-starred on
Ugly Betty as
Sofia Reyes, a magazine editor. She also had a
cameo playing an actress in the telenovela within the show. The show quickly became a ratings hit and won a
Golden Globe Award for Best Comedy Series in 2007. Hayek's performance as Sofia resulted in a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series at the
59th Primetime Emmy Awards.
In April 2007, Hayek finalized negotiations with
MGM to become the
CEO of her own Latin themed film production company,
Ventanarosa.
The following month she signed a two year deal with ABC to develop projects for the network through her production company, Ventanarosa.
Hayek is developing and producing
La Banda, a Spanish-language romantic comedy set in Mexico, written by
Issa Lopez.
Hayek recently had a guest stint on
30 Rock as Elisa, the nurse for
Jack Donaghy's mother, for whom Jack falls.
Hayek will star as the wife of
Adam Sandler in
Grown Ups, which also co-stars
Chris Rock and
Kevin James.
Singing credits
[
]]]
Hayek has been credited as a song performer in three movies. The first was
Desperado for the song
Quedate Aquí. In
Frida she performed with band
Los Vega the Mexican
folk song La Bruja. She also recorded
Siente mi amor, which played during the
end credits of
Once Upon a Time in Mexico. She also contributed to
Happiness is a Warm Gun in "Across the Universe" as the singing nurses.
Promotional work
Hayek has been a spokesperson for
Avon cosmetics since February 2004.
She formerly acted as spokesperson for
Revlon in 1998. In 2001, she modeled for
Chopard[The market report.(women''s perfumes)(Statistical Data Included) - Journal, Magazine, Article, Periodical] and was featured in 2006
Campari adverts as photographed by
Mario Testino.
On April 3, she helped introduce La Doña, a
watch by
Cartier inspired by fellow Mexican actress
María Félix.
Hayek was also featured in a series of
Spanish language commercials for
Lincoln cars. Consequently, sales of the
Lincoln Navigator among Hispanics increased by twelve percentage points.
[[1]]
In Art
In spring 2006,
The Blue Star Contemporary Art Center in
San Antonio,
Texas displayed 16 portrait paintings by
muralist George Yepes and
filmmaker Rodriguez of Hayek as
Aztec goddess Itzapapalotl.
Personal life
Hayek is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
She dated actor
Edward Norton between 1999 and 2003, and then
Josh Lucas in 2003. She is a good friend of Spanish actress
Penélope Cruz and co-starred with her in the 2006 film
Bandidas. Hayek studied at
Ramtha's School of Enlightenment.
Her brother, Sami Hayek,
is a designer with his own line of products at
Target and clients that include
Louis Vuitton,
Brad Pitt, and the Mexican Government.
On March 9, 2007, Hayek confirmed she was expecting her first child with
PPR CEO
François-Henri Pinault. On September 21, 2007, she gave birth to daughter Valentina Paloma Pinault at
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in
Los Angeles,
California. On July 18, 2008, Hayek and Pinault announced the end of their engagement.
[Salma Hayek, Pinault cancel engagement] They later reconciled and were married on
Valentine's Day, 2009 in
Paris.
[fr François-Henri Pinault et Salma Hayek se sont mariés - lepoint.fr, February 16, 2009] On April 25, 2009, they were married a second time in
Venice.
[Star-Ledger article on remarriage in Venice]
Advocacy
On July 19, 2005, Hayek testified before the
U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary supporting reauthorizing the
Violence Against Women Act.
[[2]] In February 2006, she donated $25,000 to a Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, shelter for battered women and another $50,000 to
Monterrey based anti-domestic violence groups.
Since the birth of her daughter, Hayek has worked to help mothers in developing nations worldwide, teaming up with
Pampers and
UNICEF to help stop the spread of life-threatening maternal and
neonatal tetanus. She is a global spokesperson for the Pampers/UNICEF partnership 1 Pack = 1 Vaccine to help raise awareness of the program.
Hayek also advocates
breastfeeding, because of its benefits, including building stronger infant immune systems. During a
UNICEF fact-finding trip to
Sierra Leone,
she breastfed a hungry week-old baby whose mother could not produce milk.
Honors
Filmography
Film
Television
Event appearances
