Joaquim António Portugal Baptista de Almeida, CavIH ( ; born 15 March, 1957) is a Portuguese actor. One of the most appraised Portuguese actors alive, well known in the world of international cinema, he has travelled the world working in Europe, Argentina, Mexico, United States and Brazil in many film and stage productions. He was born in Lisbon, Portugal, and became a naturalized American citizen in October 2005.

Biography

Early life

Joaquim de Almeida left Portugal when he was 18 years old because he wanted to pursue art studies, and the Lisbon Conservatory was temporarily closed after the 1974 Carnation Revolution. He lived in Vienna, Austria, working in various jobs including gardening. He lived there for about two years where he met his first wife, Maria Cecilia de Almeida, a pianist. They moved to New York City in 1977 when she received an American grant for music studies. He again worked in various jobs, such as waiter and bartender, to support his own studies in the Actors Studio.

Career

He has worked in numerous films in Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, Italian and German, all languages he speaks fluently. He has also worked on TV, most notably 24, in which he played Ramon Salazar, Crusoe and he's also had a small appearance in CSI: Miami. Among the popular American films he has appeared in are Clear and Present Danger, Desperado, Behind Enemy Lines, Guerrilla and The Burning Plain. Despite his naturalization, he has continued to work regularly on Portuguese cinema and has appeared in many of his country's most successful productions, which include Maria de Medeiros' April Captains, Leonel Vieira's Um Tiro no Escuro and António-Pedro Vasconcelos' Os Imortais (alongside Emmanuelle Seigner) and Call Girl. He is also a highly requested voice actor due to his distinctive voice, having voiced the villain Bane in the 2004 animated series The Batman and video game characters in Saints Row and The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. He has worked in several Shakespeare productions, such as, Blood Wedding, What Would Jeanne Moreau Do and The Count of Monte Cristo.

He is commonly known as "the Latin Phil Hartman" due to his striking resemblance to the comedian.

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