Steven Bauer (bornEsteban Ernesto Echevarría Samson; December 2, 1956) is an American actor.

Steven Bauer
Bauer in 2008
Born	Esteban Ernesto Echevarría Samson (1956-12-02)December 2, 1956 (age 68) Havana,Cuba
Nationality	American
Other names	Rocky Echevarría
Education	University of Miami
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1977–present
Spouses	Melanie Griffith ​ ​ (m. 1981;div. 1989)​ Ingrid Anderson ​ ​ (m. 1989;div. 1991)​ Christiana Boney ​ ​ (m. 1992;div. 2002)​ Paulette Miltimore ​ ​ (m. 2003;div. 2012)​
Children	2

Bauer began his career onPBS, portraying Joe Peña, the son of Cuban immigrants on¿Qué Pasa, USA? (1977–1979). He played Manolo "Manny" Ribera, the right-hand man of Cubandrug lordTony Montana, in the 1983 crime dramaScarface. He also played thedrug cartel leaderDon Eladio Vuente inBreaking Bad (2011) and inBetter Call Saul (2017–2022) and the retiredMossad agent Avi Rudin inRay Donovan (2013–2017).^[1]

Bauer was born Esteban Ernesto Echevarría Samson, on December 2, 1956, inHavana, Cuba, the son of Lillian Samson Agostini, a schoolteacher, and Esteban Echevarría, a commercial pilot who worked forCubana Airlines.^[1][2][3][4] Bauer's maternal grandfather, whose family names were Samson and Bauer, wasJewish, and immigrated toCuba fromGermany, a refugee looking to escape the devastating effectsWorld War II andAdolf Hitler had on his safety and home country.^[5][6][7]

Bauer's family emigrated fromCuba to the United States onIndependence Day, 1960, when he was three years old, shortly after the end of theCuban Revolution, settling inMiami, Florida.^[1] Once in the United States, he began using the name Steven, an English form of his given name, Esteban. He graduated fromMiami Coral Park High School in 1974 and went on to study acting atMiami Dade Community College and then at theUniversity of Miami, where he befriendedRay Liotta.^[8][1]

Bauer's first substantial role was in thePBS bilingualsitcom¿Qué Pasa, USA?, playing the teenage son of a Cuban exile family inMiami, from 1977 to 1979.^[1] He also appeared in the 1980 TV miniseriesFrom Here to Eternity. He was credited in these and a few other early projects as Rocky Echevarría. In 1981, Bauer starred in the television movieShe's in the Army Now, where he met his first wife, actressMelanie Griffith. They both moved toNew York City and stayed atRay Liotta's apartment, while Liotta moved toLos Angeles and stayed at theirs. Both Bauer and Griffith studied under acting teacherStella Adler, and he appeared in several off-Broadway productions. During this time he adopted the stage name "Steven Bauer".

Bauer was given the role of Manny Ribera (the part played byGeorge Raft in theoriginal 1932 version) in the 1983 movieScarface,^[1] even though (like Raft) he was a relatively unknown actor at the time. The producers ofScarface were convinced that he was right for the role based on his strong audition, as well as his authentic Cuban background. His performance drew aGolden Globe nomination forBest Supporting Actor. In 1986 he had two other important roles. The first was as Det. Frank Sigliano in theBilly Crystal andGregory Hines cop comedyRunning Scared. The second was as an Israeli soldier named Avner in the Canadian CTVtelevision movieSword of Gideon, which tells the story ofMossad agents hunting down terrorists in the aftermath of the 1972Munich massacre. TheSword of Gideon script was the basis forSteven Spielberg's later filmMunich, which follows the same storyline and borrows heavily from theSword of Gideon story and script. In 1990 Bauer played the role ofDEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena in the television miniseriesDrug Wars: The Camarena Story alongsideBenicio Del Toro andCraig T. Nelson. That same year, Bauer took over the series lead of the television showWiseguy fromKen Wahl for the fourth and final season, playing U.S. Attorney Michael Santana after Wahl's character disappears.

Since then, Bauer has made his career primarily, though not exclusively, inaction films andcrime dramas on both the big and small screens, including the movieThe Lost City where he served in a minor role alongside the film's star and directorAndy Garcia. He also appeared in the motion picturesPrimal Fear andTraffic. In 2007 he appeared on an episode ofBurn Notice. In 2011, Bauer appeared on the seriesBreaking Bad playing Mexican drug lordDon Eladio. He stars withJulianne Michelle in the feature filmAwakened, a supernatural thriller.

More recently, Bauer appeared as ex-Mossad agent turned private investigator Avi in theShowtime seriesRay Donovan. Bauer also reprised hisBreaking Bad role in 2017 inAMC's prequelBetter Call Saul. In addition, he played El Santo in the American version ofQueen of the South.

Bauer has married four times: first toMelanie Griffith, from 1981 until 1989; second to Ingrid Anderson, from 1989 until 1991; third to Christiana Boney, from 1992 until 2002; and fourth to Paulette Miltimore, from 2003 until 2012. He has two sons: Alexander Griffith Bauer (born August 22, 1985) with Griffith, and Dylan Dean Steven Bauer (born May 14, 1990) with Anderson.^{[9][10][11][1][12]}

In 2010, Bauer was falsely named as the driver of a vehicle that struck and killed 24-year-old Brent Rosenberg ofMalibu. Rosenberg was walking onPacific Coast Highway toward his parked car on the east side of the road when he was struck by a sport utility vehicle.^[13][14] Initial reports said Bauer was the driver of the vehicle but police officials later said it was a different person of the same name involved in the fatality.^[15]

• List of Cubans

• Steven Bauer atIMDb
• Steven Bauer's official MySpace profile