Salma Hayek

Salma Hayek was born in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico on September 2, 1966. She is the daughter of opera singer and talent scout Diana Jimenez and oil company executive Sami Hayek. She dropped out of the Universidad in Mexico City to pursue an acting career. At the age of 23, she made a success in Mexico as she landed the title role in Teresa. Hayek's charitable work includes increasing awareness on violence against women and discrimination against immigrants. Hayek is the first Mexican national to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. She is one of the most prominent Mexican figures in Hollywood, since the legendary Dolores del Rio. She is also, after Fernanda Montenegro, the second of four Hispanics to achieve a Best Actress Oscar nomination.

Unfortunately for Salma Hayek, the film, which also starred George Clooney, failed to do as well as expected, and Hayek's next few projects were similarly lackluster. The Faculty (1998), a teen thriller that cast Hayek as a teacher who turns into an alien, was an exception, and Kevin Smith's Dogma (1999), which featured her as a celestial muse, was fairly successful with critics and audiences. Also in 1999, Hayek had a starring role in what was to be her biggest film to date, Barry Sonnenfeld's Wild Wild West, which also starred Will Smith and Kevin Kline.