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Salma Hayek was born on September 2, 1966, in the oil boomtown of Coatzacoalcos, Mexico. Hayek has freely admitted that she and her brother, Sami, were spoiled rotten by her well-to-do Lebanese-Mexican businessman father and her Mexican-born opera-singing mother. After having seen Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) in a local movie theatre, Salma decided she wanted to become an actress. Her education included a stint at a New Orleans convent school, where she pulled pranks on the nuns by setting their clocks back three hours. She was soon expelled. Only after attending Mexico City's Universidad Iberoamericana did she feel ready to pursue acting seriously.
Salma started to take acting classes from the renowned Stella Adler and worked on her accent. By 1993, she still wasn't getting her feet off the ground and was too stubborn to return back to Mexico as she would consider it as "having failed". Instead, she vented her frustrations in a late-night talk show by Paul Rodriguez. Director Robert Rodriguez, who happened to be watching that very show, was smitten with the beautiful, witty, and articulate Hayek, and cast her in his upcoming movie Desperado (1995).
Salma remains one of the most hardworking actresses in Hollywood. New films include a high profile classic-style western comedy, Bandidas (2006), co-starring pal Penélope Cruz, with whom she has been friends for years. They play two bank robbers becoming Mexico's Thelma and Louise. Another of her new films is the highly anticipated Ask the Dust (2006) directed by the brilliant Robert Towne.