Despite his huge success on the silver screen, Benicio del Toro is not about to forget how he got there. The Traffic actor recently paid a heartfelt tribute to his late acting coach Stella Adler as she was awarded a posthumous star on Hollywood's Walk Of Fame.
The Oscar winner joined friends and family to honour Stella - whose student roster included Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro and Warren Beaty. "I owe way too much to Stella Adler," said Benicio at the weekend ceremony. "One of the things I owe her for is the seriousness and intensity to how she approached acting."
Another former student, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind actor Mark Ruffalo, was equally as emphatic in his praise of the New York actress-turned-teacher, revealing he "could barely put two sentences together" when he started at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting.
Benicio, who was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in Pennsylvania, dropped out of business studies at the University of California to pursue an acting career. He enrolled with the legendary acting coach, initially without the knowledge of his parents. In his nect project he's set to star alongside Halle Berry in the drama Things We lost In Fire.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
