Penélope Cruz over a decade

Today Pirate of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides hits theaters but it was only a little more than ten years ago that one of the film's stars was really first burning up the screen with American audiences. Penélope Cruz has been in the industry for twenty years but it wasn't until her breakthrough performance in Pedro Almodóvar All About My Mother (Todo sobre me madre) that she really got noticed by filmmakers in America. After that she was signed on for the comedy Woman on Top a small comedy about a chef that put all her emotions into her cooking. The American market got a better look at her in the film All the Pretty Horses Directed by Billy Bob Thorton. She played a beautiful daughter of a wealthy Mexican business man whose romance with the main character Matt Damon cause the central conflict of the film. From hear she played moved on to the film Blow the story of drug George Chung, the man charged with establishing the American cocaine market. Cruz took on the role of the wife of the Chung who was portrayed by her current leading man in Pirates, Johnny Depp. Later that year she also appeared in the film Vanilla Sky, a remake of the film Open Your Eyes (Abre los ojos) that she did for Almodóvar four years earlier. The film could a lot of intrigue because in July of 2001, before the release of the film she had begun seeing her co-star Tom Cruise.
     Over the last decade she has made quiet a name for herself with appearance in such films as Gothika, Sahara, Volver and Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Broken Embraces. Also she has had high profile relationships from Matt Damon to Tom Cruz and Matthew McConaughey. But no matter what she has maintained a great poise in the media and continues to be a great actress as well as a star.

Penelope Cruz Trivia:
Cruz has worked with Pedro Almodóvar on five films Live Flesh, Open your Eyes, All About My Mother, Volver, and Broken Embraces
She met her husband Javier Bardem over twenty years ago when working on the film Jamon Jamon but they did not become romantically involved until they worked on Vicky Cristina Barcelona
She had been nominated for three Academy Awards Volver, and won for Vicky Christina Barcelona (which she won for Best Support Actress) and Nine
According to imdb she is the second Spanish performer to be nominated for an Acedemy Award, the first was her husband  (if this holds true she was probably also the second to win an award, first would be her husband )
Cruz's full/ birth name is Penélope Cruz Sánchez