15 Roles That Launched A Career

Javier Bardem, 42

In the last seven years, the Spanish actor has played a quadriplegic fighting for the right to end his life (2004's The Sea Inside), a vicious killer with a pageboy haircut (2007's No Country for Old Men), and a single father dealing with terminal cancer (2010's Biutiful). But the role that convinced Hollywood that Javier Bardem had a knack for playing sickly characters was the actor's heartbreaking performance as the AIDS-stricken gay Cuban poet, Reinaldo Arenas in Julian Schnabel's 2000 biopic, Before Night Falls. 

Javier Bardem Receives First Ever Best Actor Oscar Nom for Spanish-Language Role