February 26, 2008	Tuesday	Safar 18, 1429

Javier Bardem became the first Spanish actor to win an Oscar on Sunday by taking the best supporting actor award for his chilling portrait of a psychopathic killer in “No Country For Old Men.”

Bardem, 38, who has won virtually every movie award this season for his performance, claimed the Oscar in his second bid for the film industry’s highest honor.

He previously was a best leading actor candidate for his role as a Cuban poet in the 2000 biopic “Before Night Falls.”

In “No Country,” a violent modern western thriller written and directed by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, Bardem plays a peculiarly coiffed killer who cuts a violent swathe across small-town Texas, often deciding the fate of random victims with the toss of a coin.

“Thank you to the Coens for being crazy enough to think I could do that and put one of the most horrible hair cuts in history on my head,” Bardem said in his acceptance speech.—Reuters