The first time I remember really noticing Benicio Del Toro was in Swimming With Sharks. I have only seen that film once, shortly after it was released on video. This would have been 1995? I remember the buzz. It was already a cult hit, yet no one had actually seen it in a theatre. Everyone was becoming Kevin Spacey crazy at that time. Me included. I love Kevin Spacey. My mom, my dad, my sister, me & Pete all think that Kevin Spacey is great. I think that that is the only thing that these five people agree on. My mom and my dad are hardcore republicans. My sister and I love these sour cream/chocolate cupcakes. Pete and I think that Happiness is a great movie. Me and mom love Scrabble. Jo and Dad hate board games. Jo and Pete and my Mom love Shawshank Redemption. But the only thing that all five of us agree on is that Kevin Spacey is great.

But, this is not about Kevin Spacey. This is about Benicio Del Toro. So, where was I? I thought that Frank Whaley was rather dull in the lead role of Swimming with Sharks. And I thought this guy, who's name turned out to be Benicio Del Toro, was absolutely wonderful in a supporting role as a wise survivor of Hollywood. I also feared that I wouldn't see him again. Why? Well, I hadn't heard of him before. It seemed a supporting role that only I noticed. He wasn't particularly attractive. Thank God I was wrong.

I next noticed Benicio in The Usual Suspects. Now, here, Kevin Spacey and the film itself got all the kudos. Only my sister and I couldn't stop talking about Benicio Del Toro's performance as the hilarious and mumbling Fenster.

Little did I remember that I had seen Del Toro in small roles in four films before these two previously mentioned above: as Duke the Dog-Faced Boy in Big Top Pee-wee (1988); in Timothy Dalton's second and last James Bond pic, Licence to Kill (1989); Pete Weir's Fearless; and in the Ed Harris policier China Moon (1994).

Next came a small role in the lame The Fan (1996). Benicio played a Puerto Rican baseball player, who was so immersed in the character, it was like he was in a different movie -- a good one. There was no hamming. He was really like a professional baseball player from a foreign country. Like the ones you see talking about their homeland of Cuba or wherever from the nightly news sports update.

Then he was Basquiat's pal in Basquiat (1996), for which he won an Independent Spirit Award. Abel Ferrara's The Funeral, which I haven't seen yet. A Tobey Maguire B-picture, Joyride, haven't seen. A leading role in Excess Baggage with Alicia Silverstone. Have not yet seen. Very funny as Dr. Gonzo in Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

What sparked me to make him Person of the Week was his recent performance in The Way of the Gun.

Benicio Del Toro is reportedly 6'4".