Antonio Banderas 'Most Influential Person of the Year' in Vanity Fair

Banderas – arguably Spain's greatest living Hollywood export along with Penélope Cruz – collected his Vanity Fair award in Madrid this week, accompanied by his daughter Stella del Carmen, 23, from his 18-year marriage to US actress Melanie Griffith, and his current partner, Dutch businesswoman Nicole Kimpel, 39.

Since his début in 1982, Antonio, 59, has been a regular in films by cult director Almodóvar, earning his first Goya Award nominations in 1986 and 1990 for his rôles in Matador and ¡Átame! ('Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!).

Although he has won scores of national and international film festival prizes, Banderas has not yet gained an Oscar and his sole Goya Award was for 'lifetime achievement', in 2015 – although many of his fans believe he should have earned both of these several times over.

But Antonio dedicated his speech at the Vanity Fair ceremony to those whose names and faces are never up in lights.

“There are many people who work really hard, even though they aren't recognised for it,” said the Costa del Sol's most famous native.

“Many invisible heroes are also 'men of the year'.”

Banderas has graced the cover of Vanity Fair four times in his career.

He split from Griffith, his second wife, in 2014, although he retains a very close relationship with her daughter, his stepdaughter Dakota Johnson, whose father is Melanie's earlier husband Don Johnson.

The actor appears in excellent health, despite a scare nearly three years ago when he reported chest pains whilst exercising at home in Surrey, where he lives with Nicole.

He was rushed to the nearby St Peter's Hospital and kept in observation, but later considered to be out of danger and returned home.

To date, he does not appear to have suffered any further significant problems of this type.

After winning Best Actor at Cannes Film Festival this year for Almodóvar's Dolor y Gloria ('Pain and Glory'), the production has now been named 'Film of the Year 2019' by Time magazine – beating Martin Scorsese's The Irishman and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, which came second and third respectively.

Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story, starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, and the latest screen adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women by Greta Gerwig and starring Irish actress Saoirse Ronan as Jo, came fourth and fifth, followed by South Korean film Parasites by Bong Joon Ho – one of the favourites for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar at the next awards – in sixth place, Rian Johnson's Knives Out, with Cuban-Spanish actress Ana de Armas seventh, Craig Brewer's Dolemite Is My Name, starring Eddie Murphy, eighth, Marielle Heller's A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood with Matthew Rhys and Tom Hanks, ninth, and rounding off the top 10 was Hustlers – directed by 41-year-old Italian-American Lorene Scafaria and starring US-born Puerto Rican singer Jennifer López, who reveals she was not paid for her starring rôle as one of a pair of striptease artists who deliberate rip off Wall Street tycoons.