Olivier Martinez

OLIVIER MARTINEZ

Date of Birth: January 12, 1966

Olivier Martinez was born and raised in Paris. Brought up in a working-class family, he left school at an early age, and began working at odd jobs to survive. His father had been a professional boxer, and Olivier decided to follow in his footsteps. He became a professional boxer in the welterweight division, but when he was 22, injuries sustained in a car accident put an end to his career. Coaxed into the acting profession by friends, Martinez took a chance at age 23 and enrolled in the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique in Paris.

The risk paid off as Olivier leapt from theater to television and then to films. His first role was co-starring in IP5 (1992), for which he was nominated most promising actor by the César Awards. The following year, Olivier won a César for his next film role in the drama Un, deux, trois, soleil (1993). By 1995 he reached the international market with Le Hussard sur le toit (1995), and was billed in his American promotional tour as "the French Brad Pitt."

In 2000, he landed a starring role in the Academy Award-nominated film Before Night Falls, then as a book dealer with whom Diane Lane has an adulterous affair in Unfaithful (2002), also starring Richard Gere. Martinez played a supporting role in S.W.A.T. (2003) starring Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell, followed by Taking Lives (2004), with Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke.

While filming Dark Tide (2012) in 2010, Olivier met American actress Halle Berry. They were engaged on January 11, 2012 and married July 13, 2013, but filed for divorce in October 2015. They have a son, Maceo Robert Martinez, who was born October 5, 2013.

Olivier has quite a colorful past. In addition to several alleged attacks on photographers, in 2012 he famously beat up Gabriel Aubry, the father of Halle's daughter Nahla, when the other man dropped the little girl off at the actors' home following a visit. Olivier allegedly slammed Gabriel's head on concrete, gave him two black eyes and several broken ribs and according to a statement from Gabriel, threatened to kill him. As a consequence, Gabriel filed for a restraining order. At the time, Halle wanted to move Nahla to France with Martinez, but Gabriel refused to give permission for his daughter to live so far away, making visitation difficult.

Filmography:

The Physician (2013)
Dark Tide (2012)
Knight and Day (2010)
Belle du Seigneur (2007)
Blood and Chocolate (2007)
Taking Lives (2004)
S.W.A.T. (2003)
Semana Santa (2002)
Unfaithful (2002)
Bullfighter (2001)
Before Night Falls (2000)
Toreros (2000)
La Taule / The Slammer (2000)
La Ciudad de los prodigios (1999)
La Femme de chambre du Titanic (1997)
Mon homme / My Man (1996)
Le Hussard sur le toit / The Horseman on the Roof (1995)
Un, deux, trois, soleil (1993)
IP5: L'île aux pachydermes (1992)
Plein fer (1990)