Multi-talented Mexican artist who began as a dancer before turning to acting and eventually writing, directing and producing motion pictures. Arau made his feature directing debut with the Mexican-lensed "The Barefoot Eagle" (1967), before playing what would be the first in a series of somewhat stereotypical characters for Hollywood in Sam Peckinpah's landmark Western "The Wild Bunch" (1969). Subsequently, the thin, handsome and often mustached Arau alternated between acting assignments in the US and producing, directing, writing and starring in his own projects in Mexico. Arau's better known American credits include Kirk Douglas' "Posse" (1975), as a bandit, "Romancing the Stone" (1984), as a friendly drug-dealing bandit, and "Three Amigos!" (1986), as El Guapo the "jefe" of a group of bandits.

Arau's greatest success came as the producer-director of the sensuous art-house hit, "Like Water for Chocolate" (1992). Adapted by his former wife, Laura Esquivel, from her acclaimed novel, "Chocolate" went on to become the most successful film in Mexican history and received ten of 12 possible Ariel Awards (Mexico's Oscar equivalent). This success caught the attention of Hollywood and projects began coming his way.