MADRID (AFP) — Spanish government leaders congratulated Javier Bardem on Monday for becoming the first Spanish actor to win an Oscar by taking the best supporting actor award for his portrayal of a psychopathic killer in "No Country For Old Men."
"We can feel very proud and happy," Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa de la Vega told public television TVE, adding the award "was very much deserved and was won with much merit".
"I want to express my congratulations and satisfaction," she said.
Bardem, 38, comes from a family of actors. His mother is a television actress in Spain and his grandparents were also actors.
"As the first Spanish actor to win this important prize, he has become part of world cinema and adds another important triumph to a family, to a name, without which we could not understand Spanish cinema," Culture Minister Cesar Antonio Molina said in a statement.
Conservative opposition leader Mariano Rajoy, seeking to become prime minister in Spain's March 9 elections, also sent Bardem a telegram to tell him his success has made "all of Spanish society proud."
In his early 20s, Bardem landed the role that gained him international attention, playing the love interest to Penelope Cruz in Bigas Luna's 1992 film "Jamon, Jamon."
He was a best leading actor nominee for his role as gay Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenasin the 2000 biopic "Before Night Falls," becoming the first Spaniard to be up for the award.
"No Country For Old Men" won three other awards: best director, best adapted screenplay and the best picture.
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