Benicio Del Toro Was 9 When His Mother Died: 'Hasn't Been One Day in My Life That I Haven't Thought About Her'
Benicio Del Toro Was 9 When His Mother Died: 'Hasn't Been One Day in My Life That I Haven't Thought About Her'
Rachel RaposasMon, February 23, 2026 at 4:01 PM UTC
0
Benicio Del Toro.
Gareth Cattermole/BAFTA/Getty
Benicio Del Toro was just 9 years old when his mother died
The actor told The Hollywood Reporter he's "still dealing with" her loss decades later
"There hasn’t been one day in my life that I haven’t thought about her," he said
Benicio Del Toro is reflecting on the difficult death of his mother during his childhood.
The One Battle After Another actor, 59, opened up about the early loss of his mother in an interview for The Hollywood Reporter's Feb. 23 cover story, shedding light on how her death continues to affect his everyday life five decades later.
When Del Toro was 9 years old, his mother, Fausta Genoveva Sánchez Rivera, died of hepatitis. Del Toro remembers his mother as strict but loving, and dedicated to furthering his education, he said. "I remember everything," he added. "I think some of my best acting was with her."
The immense loss coupled with his young but formative age made Del Toro's grief particularly challenging and enduring, he said.
Benicio Del Toro.
Samir Hussein/WireImage
“I’m still dealing with it,” Del Toro told the outlet. “I had my mother for nine years. What is crazy about losing a parent at that age is that there hasn’t been one day in my life that I haven’t thought about her.”
Years later, Del Toro got the chance to meet Kaneto Shindo, the Japanese director behind The Naked Island and Onibaba that Del Toro looked up to. With a little research, the actor discovered that Shindo, too, had lost his mother at age 9, and he coped with the grief by creating a film about her.
Advertisement
Feeling a sort of kinship with the director, because the pair "understood each other regarding that particular scar," Del Toro asked Shindo if honoring his mother creatively like that helped him heal.
"I asked, ‘Did that help deal with that pain? To make the film. Did it cure something? Did it repair something?’ " Del Toro recalled. After a short stretch of silence, Shindo offered a reply that resonated with the actor: "Absolutely nothing."
— sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Benicio Del Toro.
Monica Schipper/Getty
Del Toro is now a parent himself, sharing daughter Delilah Genoveva Stewart Del Toro with actress Kimberly Stewart.
Del Toro was recently nominated at the 2026 BAFTA Awards for Best Supporting Actor for One Battle After Another, the 2025 action-thriller film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
