Joaquim de Almeida is one of the most appraised Portuguese actors, well known in the world of the international cinema. He traveled the world working in Europe, Argentina, Mexico, United States and in Brazil in many movies and stage productions.Won best actor award in the Cairo film festival for his performance in Retrato de Família (1992) ("Family Portrait"). Became known to the world with performance in movies such as, Good Morning, Babylon (1987), The Honorary Consul (1983) (aka "Beyond the Limit") and The Soldier (1982). He also worked in several New York City Shakespeare productions, such as, "Blood Wedding", "What Would Jeanne Moreau Do", in the "WPA Theatre" and "The Count of Mount Cristo".In 1998 he won the Portuguese Golden Globe for the movie Tentação (1997). However Joaquim does not place the money above a good script, "In the past year, I had a proposal to make a film with Sylvester Stallone and gave up when I had the contract practically signed".
Joaquim de Almeida left Portugal when he was 18 years old because he wanted to pursue art studies, and the Lisbon Conservatory was temporarily closed after the 1974 democratic revolution. He lived in Vienna, Austria, working in various jobs including gardening.He married a pianist, Maria Cecilia de Almeida, and they moved to New York City in 1977 when she received an American grant for music studies. He again worked in various jobs, such as waiter and bartender, to support his own studies in the Actors Studio.Divorced from Maria, he has lived with Brazilian singer Carmo Risques since the early 1990s. In the late 1990s he started a rodízio grill restaurant named O Porcão in the docks district of Lisbon, and renamed it Xurrascão do Tejo in 2004. He lived in New York for several years, and in 2004 moved to his own house in Santa Monica, California. In 2005 he applied for American citizenship.
