“I didn’t speak English, I didn’t have a green card, I didn’t know I had to have an agent, I couldn’t drive, I was dyslexic.” That is Salma Hayek, looking back on her arrival in Los Angeles in 1991. On September 2, 2026 she turned 60, and the list of what she has done since is a long one.
She was born on September 2, 1966, in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico. Her name was made on Mexican television in the telenovela Teresa, and she walked away from an established career there to try Hollywood. Hola describes the years since as nearly four decades of work. The start was rough. bdnews24 notes she has said the industry offered Latina actors a narrow range of roles, and in a 2017 interview with The Guardian she described an industry with limited ideas of what Mexican and Latina women could play.
A break, then control
The 1995 film Desperado, opposite Antonio Banderas, put her in front of a far larger American audience. From Dusk Till Dawn, Fools Rush In and Wild Wild West followed. Hayek, though, wanted more say over the material. She set up a production company, Ventanarosa.
Its best-known result is Frida, the 2002 biopic of painter Frida Kahlo, which she both produced and starred in. The role earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, and bdnews24 and Hola both report she was the first Mexican woman nominated in that category. By bdnews24’s account the film proved she could shape which stories about Mexican culture and powerful women reached the screen.
It also became tied to a darker chapter. In 2017, as allegations against Harvey Weinstein helped spark the #MeToo movement, Hayek wrote an essay for The New York Times about what she said she went through making Frida. She alleged harassment and pressure from Weinstein, including over a nude scene. Weinstein denied her allegations.
Producer, then everywhere
Ventanarosa backed Ugly Betty, Monarca, Santa Evita and Like Water for Chocolate. On screen she has since gone from Marvel’s Eternals to House of Gucci and Magic Mike’s Last Dance, and has voiced Kitty Softpaws in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.
Her husband is French businessman Francois-Henri Pinault, chairman and chief executive of Kering, which ties her to luxury fashion. She has worked with UNICEF and the Kering Foundation, which fights violence against women.
Sixty, on her own terms
Age has not slowed her down. At 58, Hayek appeared on the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover, something she never imagined in her youth. “If somebody had told me I was gonna be in it at 58, I would have sent them to the madhouse,” she joked. “But the world has changed, and that’s exciting.” Speaking about aging in 2025, she said she was more excited about being 50 and 60 and looking good, “a different kind of beauty.”
Banderas, who starred opposite her in Desperado, marked the birthday with a social media message from Málaga, Spain: “Dear friend @salmahayek I wish you a wonderful birthday and send you a big hug.”
Sources
- Salma Hayek, the Oscar-nominated star who ‘turned down Trump’, turns 60
- Salma Hayek turns 60 and her best chapter may be starting
- Salma Hayek turns 60 and her best chapter may be starting (birthday and aging passages)
