2.  Robert Rodriguez was born in San Antonio Texas in June 20, 1968.  After watching John Carpenter’s Escape From New York he decided to be a film-maker and devoted all of his time in to it.  His first “job” consisted of him filming football games at St. Anthony HS, but he was fired for filming the games in a cinematic style.

3.  He used his family’s Super-8 camera to make small films, usually about action, horror, sci-fi, and drama.  He made use of props at home, his town for sets and used his family as the cast.  His first short film was titled Bedhead.

4.  Had 5 kids with ex-wife Elizabeth Avellan Rocket Rodriguez, Racer Rodriguez, Rebel Rodriguez, Rogue Rodriguez and daughter Rhiannon Rodriguez.  Brother of Elizabeth Rodriguez, Tina Rodriguez, David Rodriguez, Rebecca Rodriguez, Patricia Vonne, and Angela Lanza.  Cousins with Danny Trejo

5.  Rodriguez's first successful film was titled El Mariachi (1992), which was a Spanish action film about an unknown mariachi guitarist who gets mistaken for a hit man and is caught in a crime war in a small town in Mexico. Rodriguez raised a mere $7,000 to film this movie and even then it was a success in the movie industry. El Mariachi Trailer

6.  The sequel to El Mariachi is Desperado (1995) which stars Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek (with Danny Trejo and Quentin Tarantino). The story follows the Mariachi and his journey to find the man who killed his love (in the first movie). The budget for this movie, unlike El Mariachi, was around $7,000,000. (compared to Batman Forever and GoldenEye which cost over 100 million to make.) Desperado

7.  The final film in the Mariachi trilogy is Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) starring Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe, Enrique Iglesias, and Eva Mendes. In the final chapter of the trilogy, the Mariachi is recruited by a corrupt CIA agent to kill a Mexican drug leader. The film was criticized because it reduced the Mariachi to almost a secondary character. In any case the movie was a success and ended the Mariachi trilogy. Once Upon a Time in Mexico

8.  Sin City (2005) is a crime/thriller film that stars Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba and Benicio del Toro.  The film is based on Frank Miller's popular comic series.  Focuses around 4 stories:  A brute who is hunting down the man responsible for the death of his lover  A man who is tired of the terrible law enforcement and decides to take the law into his own hands  A cop who risks his life to protect a girl from a deformed pedophile  A hit man doing jobs to make money. Sin City

9. In addition to the Mariachi trilogy, Robert Rodriguez directed the Spy Kids movies and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, both of which are different from Rodriguez’s other films, but still fall under the “action/adventure” genre. He wanted to show the world that he can make movies that are just as good as his action films, but for the family.

10.  Rodriguez prefers to make action movies over anything else. Usually his movies (except the kids movies) have to do with some sort of killing and violence (Machete, Planet Terror, Sin City). Usually the characters in his films are shady characters with violent pasts looking for some kind of vengeance.

11.  The tone of most of his films are suspense  His films are usually “edge-of-your- seat”, you never know what will happen, who will shoot first, or who will end up dying.  He also films the same style as “spaghetti westerns” which are films that  Once Upon a Time in Mexico is a spaghetti western that pays homage to Once Upon a Time in the West, another spaghetti western by Leone.

12.  Robert Rodriguez seems to work well with actors like Jessica Alba, Danny Trejo, Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek and others who repeatedly come up in Rodriguez films. He is also really good friends with Quentin Tarantino who also appears in some of his films and helps him direct some of his movies.  Salma Hayek is the godmother of his children.

13. American Latino Media Arts Award, 2006NominatedALMA Award Outstanding Director of a Motion Picture for: Sin City 2002 WonALMA Award Outstanding Director in a Motion Picture for: Spy Kids NominatedALMA Award Outstanding Screenplay (Original or Adapted) for: Spy Kids 1999NominatedALMA Award Outstanding Latino Director of a Feature Film for: The Faculty American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Award 2006WonASCAP Award Top Box Office Films for: Sin City 2004WonASCAP Award Top Box Office Films for: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over 2003WonASCAP Award Top Box Office Films for: Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams Awards and Nominations

14. He earned most of the $7000 it cost to make El Mariachi by subjecting himself to experimental drug studies as well as donating blood. One of the experimental drugs that was tested on Rodriguez was a "speed healer.“ In 1996 he was at the top of the “25 Most Powerful Hispanics in Hollywood” Set up a symphony orchestra in his garage to record the score for Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams Plays guitar in his band Chingon which is Spanish for “bad- ass”. Filmed all of his movies with a film reel. After Spy Kids he moved on to digital filming thanks to George Lucas who introduced the idea to him.

15. He started his own production company named Los Hooligans where he produced Bedhead, El Mariachi and Desperado. Rodriguez also produced comic strips with this company while he was in college. The company later became Troublemaker Studios which produced all of his other films after Spy Kids. He left the Writers' Guild of America saying that the organization had "too many rules and just take your money."

16. “Video technology puts filmmaking back in the hands of the people. That's how I learned how to make movies - making movies at home.” “What I love about new technology is that it really pushes the art. It really pushes it in a way that you can't imagine until you come up with the idea. It's idea- based. You can do anything.”