Steven Bauer

Bauer began his career on PBS, portraying Joe Peña, the son of Cuban immigrants on the situation comedy ¿Qué Pasa, USA? (1977–1979). He played Manolo "Manny" Ribera, the best friend and right-hand man of Cuban drug lord Tony Montana, in the 1983 crime drama Scarface, and his performance earned him widespread critical acclaim and drew a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture.

He received further recognition in 2000 as part of the multi-narrative ensemble cast of Steven Soderbergh's crime drama Traffic, sharing in the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. He later played Don Eladio Vuente in the crime dramas Breaking Bad (2011) and Better Call Saul (2017–2022), and the retired Mossad agent Avi Rudin in the crime drama Ray Donovan (2013–2017).

Bauer was born Esteban Ernesto Echevarría Samson, on December 2, 1956, in Havana, Cuba, the son of Lillian Samson Agostini, a schoolteacher, and Esteban Echevarría, a commercial pilot who worked for Cubana Airlines. Bauer's maternal grandfather, whose family names were Samson and Bauer, was Jewish, and immigrated to Cuba from Germany, a refugee looking to United States he married a Cuban of Italian descent.

Bauer's family emigrated from Cuba to the United States on Independence Day, 1960, when he was three years old, shortly after the end of the Cuban Revolution, settling in Miami, Florida. Once in the United States, he began using the name Steven, an English form of his given name, Esteban. He graduated from Miami Coral Park High School in 1974 and went on to study acting at Miami Dade Community College and then at the theatre department of University of Miami, where he befriended Ray Liotta.

Bauer's first substantial role was in the PBS bilingual sitcom ¿Qué Pasa, USA?, playing the teenage son of a Cuban exile family in Miami, from 1977 to 1979. He also appeared in the 1980 TV miniseries From Here to Eternity. He was credited in these and a few other early projects as Rocky Echevarría.

In 1981, Bauer starred in the television movie She's in the Army Now, where he met his first wife, actress Melanie Griffith. They both moved to New York City and stayed at Ray Liotta's apartment, while Liotta moved to Los Angeles and stayed at theirs. Both Bauer and Griffith studied under acting teacher Stella Adler, and he appeared in several off-Broadway productions.

During this time he adopted the stage name Steven Bauer.

Bauer was given the role of Manny Ribera (the part played by George Raft in the original 1932 version) in the 1983 epic crime drama movie Scarface, even though (like Raft) he was a relatively unknown actor at the time. The producers of Scarface were convinced that he was right for the role based on his strong audition, as well as his authentic Cuban background. His performance earned him widespread critical acclaim, and drew a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

In 1986 he had two other important roles. The first was as Det. Frank Sigliano in the Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines buddy cop action comedy Running Scared. The second was as an Israeli soldier named Avner in the 1986 Canadian CTV television movie Sword of Gideon, which tells the story of Mossad agents hunting down terrorists in the aftermath of the 1972 Munich massacre. The Sword of Gideon script was the basis for Steven Spielberg's later 2005 historical drama film Munich, which follows the same storyline and borrows heavily from the Sword of Gideon story and script.

In 1990 Bauer played the role of DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena in the television crime drama miniseries Drug Wars: The Camarena Story alongside Benicio Del Toro and Craig T. Nelson. That same year, Bauer took over the series lead of the crime drama television show Wiseguy from Ken Wahl for the fourth and final season, playing U. S. Attorney Michael Santana after Wahl's character disappears.

Since then, Bauer has made his career primarily, though not exclusively, in action films and crime dramas on both the big and small screens, including the movie The Lost City where he served in a minor role alongside the film's star and director Andy Garcia. He also appeared in the motion pictures Primal Fear and the crime drama Traffic (2000), for which he shared the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

In 2007 he appeared on an episode of Burn Notice. In 2011, Bauer appeared on the crime drama series Breaking Bad playing Mexican drug lord Don Eladio. He garnered significant praise from critics for his portrayals in both Breaking Bad and its prequel Better Call Saul.

He starred with Julianne Michelle in the 2013 feature film Awakened, a supernatural horror film in which Bauer's performance was met with mixed-to-negative critical reactions from mainstream publications.

More recently, Bauer appeared as ex-Mossad agent turned private investigator Avi in the Showtime crime drama series Ray Donovan. Bauer also reprised his Breaking Bad role in 2017 in AMC's prequel series Better Call Saul. In addition, he played El Santo in the crime drama American version of Queen of the South.

Bauer has married four times: first to Melanie Griffith, from 1981 until 1989; second to Ingrid Anderson, from 1989 until 1991; third to Christiana Boney, from 1992 until 2002; and fourth to Paulette Miltimore, from 2003 until 2012. He has two sons: Alexander Griffith Bauer (born August 22, 1985) with Griffith, and Dylan Dean Steven Bauer (born May 14, 1990) with Anderson.

In 2010, Bauer was mistakenly named as the driver of a vehicle that struck and killed 24-year-old Brent Rosenberg of Malibu. Rosenberg was walking on Pacific Coast Highway toward his parked car on the east side of the road when he was struck by a sport utility vehicle. Initial reports said Bauer was the driver of the vehicle but police officials later said it was a different person of the same name.